Recommendations for a mini-ITX mobo

[Finback]

I am building a new desktop machine, and decided to go small (I'll keep my current PC as a gaming rig, methinks). But I'm baffled as to what model/make/specs to aim for with the mobo and CPU. For instance, the site I'm using lists:

Intel Socket 1151
Intel Socket 2011-3
Intel Socket 1150
AMD Socket AM3/AM3+
AMD Socket FM2+

as my mobo options. I have no idea what the functional difference even is there, or if it even really means much of anything. The machine I'm planning to build will be just for internet browsing, email, storing photos, etc. If I game on it, it will be very lowkey stuff. I don't even know if I need to consider a separate graphics card at this point, since most mobos have at least one video port, and I've got two monitors at the moment on my machine - and I can keep one for my gaming-rig-to-be (once the new one is built for my daily stuff).

So, yeah, any feedback/suggestions is greatly appreciated. The irony is, I work in IT, but I work in the part that handles projectors/speakers/user interfaces in university teaching spaces, not the actual console component.

[Silfir]

The sockets determine which CPUs can be used. To use the most current Intel CPUs, you'd look at LGA 1151 socket motherboards. AM3+ and FM2+ are the most current AMD sockets, but AMD CPUs currently out are quite a ways behind what Intel offers, and they are a fair bit worse in the power efficiency department, and so run hotter. Not a good fit for a tiny case.

LGA 1151 comes in four different chipsets: H110, B150, H170, and Z170.

H110 is the cheapest, and simplest one; you'll get something like four SATA slots, one PCI-e 3.0 x16 for a GPU, four USB 3.0 slots somewhere, maybe one USB 3.1 or two, maybe one NVMe m.2 slot (which will usually deactivate two SATA slots if used), and two RAM slots. As you go up the ladder, the number of SATA, PCIe, USB, RAM etc. slots potentially increases. (What changes for the chipset itself, mostly, is the number of PCI-e lanes. RAID controllers aren't found on the H110 chipset either.) The Z170 slot, finally, has the ability to overclock the CPU and RAM.

For your purposes, a H110 chipset motherboard should be plenty. I'd put in an i3-6100 myself, but it sounds like even a Pentium G4400 (a non-hyperthreaded dual core that's another $40 cheaper) would suffice. I agree that a dedicated video card is unnecessary; the integrated graphics (HD 530) can run basic indie games just fine. Just make sure you get a motherboard that has the right video slot for your monitor, or you might have to shell out extra for a cable.

[Finback]

*snip*

Thankyou, that's really useful info, and helps me a lot for making some choices.. as to cables, heh, well, since A/V interfaces is my line of work, getting alternate cables and adaptors is one of the perks of the job ;)