Sweet little Mini ITX MB combo

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Fritz

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2015
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Gonna use one for an HTPC. No business so I'm OK with Realtek.

64 bucks for MB, CPU and memory, I ain't complaining. And it even includes the I/O shield.

I already have a mini Industrial PC running PfSense, the second board will serve as a backup. With summer approching you never know2 when mother nature is going to zap you.
 
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Markess

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May 19, 2018
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Northern California
My only concern would be that IvyBridge is getting a little long in the tooth. On the other hand, the Aaeon gear is I’ve owned was pretty indestructible.
 

tozmo

Active Member
Feb 1, 2017
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HTPC may be a better use. No AES, which isn't the end of the world if you're not VPN'ing. Would benefit from another 4gb RAM if you IDS or use extreme PFBlockerng feeds.

Not a bad deal for $65 You won't find anything with enough components at this price without luck
 

wifiholic

Member
Mar 27, 2018
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HTPC is exactly my plan for the one I just ordered. It looks like the perfect board to throw in a short depth 1U case, where it can drive the living room TV from the server rack in the basement. Thanks for sharing the find!
 
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hmartin

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Sep 20, 2017
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Includes everything you need to get up and running. Ordered one, just ordered another. :)
I found a good deal ($48.99; bare board) on one of these in 2015 for a friend. They've been using an i5-2500 in it since then. Rock solid board, I really recommend it.

Word to the wise though, the USB2 front-panel headers are using a smaller pitch than normal. I used 2.0mm female to 2.54mm male jumper cables to adapt them.

IIRC the PWM fan curves in the BIOS are brain dead: either silent and overheating, or screaming and ice cold. I ended up installing a separate PWM fan controller.

Think these will take a Xeon?
No, it's a B75 chipset.
 

cdru

Member
Oct 27, 2018
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Then why aren't they on the list I linked to above?
I don't know. 3rd party websites aren't always reliable and consistent. They show multiple B75 motherboards supported for the E3-1230 V2 for instance: link

I'd trust manufacturers websites more for what CPUs are supported. But the absence from the support list doesn't mean it can't or won't work. The manufacturer may just not have tested it, or hassle with providing official support for a niche market segment.