EVGA Mini-ITX Z77 Motherboard

The Z77 chipset isn't something meant for small form factor PCs, but that isn't stopping EVGA from preparing a miniature motherboard based on it.

In true preview fashion, the company decided not to actually say or write anything about the specifications when it released the photos, besides the form factor and chipset. That means that all we have to go on are what the purposely blurry pictures can show us. It's not a lot, but it should be sufficient until the company gets around to selling it. The mini-ITX motherboard, as a Z77 platform, will allow even the fastest LGA 1155 central processing units to work. That includes the best Ivy Bridge CPUs (Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7).  Two SATA 6 Gbps ports are visible through the haze, along with six USB 3.0 ports, mini PCI Express and a Clear CMOS onboard button. What's more, EVGA has added Bluetooth, HDMI and a mini-DisplayPort output.

All in all, this is a very small mainboard which, somehow, packs all of the most relevant overclocking features people could wish for. Enthusiasts probably won't look in its direction much, since they normally have enough money for one of those oversized beasts, like the EVGA Z77 FTW and ASRock's Z77 OC Formula. Still, if there are people who want to just play around with CPUs, memory or video cards, this new critter will do just fine.

Furthermore, due to its size, the EVGA mini-ITX Z77 model will be a good fit for gaming gatherings. Laptops may be the “mobile” computers of today, but there are many gamers who attend so-called LAN parties where they bring their desktops along. A mini-ITX motherboard with no actual limitations is just right for such a job, since it makes desktops much smaller and easy to move around.

EVGA mini-ITX Z77 motherboard
Images credits to EVGA

Posted in: Hardware, Preview