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With the Bitfenix now out for a few weeks and the massive response that has come from it i thought it prudent to start a thread about the lesser known mini ITX boards.
I would like this thread to help those with all manor of ITX boards not just one type.
I thought we could post our BIOS / UEFI settings and discuss problems or successes we are having, review the kit, post lots of pics
If you dont know you can take screen grabs with most UEFI BIOS, just hit F12, BUT you must have a FAT32 formatted usb drive attached to your PC in order to save the image.
Please if you have any questions or just want to add your two cents list your specs
My specs
Bitfenix Prodigy Black
Asrock Z77e-ITX mobo.
Intel i7 3770K @ 4.7GHz
Samsung Green 8GB CAS9 2133MHz 9-10-10-21-1T
AX650 Modular PSU
ATI Radeon HD 6850 1GB
Samsung 830 128GB SSD
Western digital 2TB HDD
Corsair H100
2x Corsair SP 120mm Fans
2x Corsair AF 120mm Fans
1x Corsair AF 140mm Fan
2x BenQ 22" monitors
The Mobo in question, hansom looking piece of kit
TBVH i do like my board but it does have two major flaws!
Problem 1) the socket placement.
The socket is so close to the PCI-e that it basically makes high end air coolers unusable,
As above the stock cooler only just fits with only a few mill clearance
. So with that in mind i went down the sealed H2o route due to them being more compact.
Problem 2) mSATA placement!
i first bought an H80 but due to pump noise i settled for an H100. That aside I had the same problem with the H100 as i had with the H80 (not pump noise), the back bracket of the cooler.
This mobo has an mSATA port on the rear, used for SSD's, the big problem is that the mSATA suffers the same problem as the CPU socket....... poor placement!!!
The mSATA port is placed way too close to the CPU socket, i had to cut the back plate down to get it to fit
See how the corner of the cooler hits the port!
You might be thinking its just the Corsair H series but it also effects the Antec KÜHLER series as well, this is from my build log -
Don't get me wrong modding can be the best part of building a rig but not modding due to poor design!
Well with the problems over with lets talk positives..............
Positive 1) UEFI BIOS
This thing is so easy to use and is compatible with a mouse everything is laid out in an easy manor (NOOB proof 
), here is my config
As you will see below i still have all my C states enabled, achieving a very high OC (4.7GHz) and still keeping stability and energy saving which to me is a massive PLUS as many will say you have to deactivate C states to get OC's stable over 4.6GHz.
Positive 2) Good OC'er
As i pointed out above this board is a good OC'er, i wouldn't say its the best but it is good. I did find with this board i hit a brick wall trying to OC my RAM above 2133MHz without using the BCLK, this was due to not being able to change my third timings which is crucial to getting any RAM OC above 2133 stable (if anyone knows any better please let me know, i have been trying so hard to get 2400MHz using my RAM!)
I can OC my RAM to 2200MHz on very tight timings 9-10-10-21-1T with little more voltage than what im on at the the mo, the only problem is that i have to increase the BCLK to 103.2, which isn't a problem with IVY, but that means i cannot OC my cpu as i just seam to hit a brick wall with stability using anything above 101.
With that in mind i settled for 2133MHz and great timings and cracked on with OC'ing my CPU.
OC'ing the CPU is kind of easy, i have been used to OC'ing first gen quad cores and SB 2600K/2700K. Settings are a little different but not very, a little research on Google will usually help
I have managed to OC my 3770K to 4.7GHz @ 1.34v, i managed this by de lidding my cpu to keep temps down but before that i had 4.5GHz and 4.6GHz stable with ok temps.
If like me you want your CPU to dynamically change depending on what your doing then stability is maintained with the turbo volts and power limits.
And leaving the C states enabled
If you want to get higher than 4.5 - 4.7 then you will have to leave the power saving options off, i got 4.9GHz stabilized @ 1.44v FIXED, but as mentioned in other forums you should stick under 1.4v for 24/7
(but unless you de lid you will be governed more by temps on IVY than volts)
Positive 3) Great Software inc with board
This board comes with some fantastic software -
Full details here.
Xfast Ram
Xfast LAN
xFast USB
Virtu Universal MVP
THX TruStudio
Positive 3) Great BIOS features
Internet Flash
No-K OC Technology <----- THIS
Over all this is a nice board feature packed but it has some iffy flaws
I would like this thread to help those with all manor of ITX boards not just one type.
I thought we could post our BIOS / UEFI settings and discuss problems or successes we are having, review the kit, post lots of pics
If you dont know you can take screen grabs with most UEFI BIOS, just hit F12, BUT you must have a FAT32 formatted usb drive attached to your PC in order to save the image.
Please if you have any questions or just want to add your two cents list your specs
My specs
Bitfenix Prodigy Black
Asrock Z77e-ITX mobo.
Intel i7 3770K @ 4.7GHz
Samsung Green 8GB CAS9 2133MHz 9-10-10-21-1T
AX650 Modular PSU
ATI Radeon HD 6850 1GB
Samsung 830 128GB SSD
Western digital 2TB HDD
Corsair H100
2x Corsair SP 120mm Fans
2x Corsair AF 120mm Fans
1x Corsair AF 140mm Fan
2x BenQ 22" monitors
The Mobo in question, hansom looking piece of kit
TBVH i do like my board but it does have two major flaws!
Problem 1) the socket placement.
The socket is so close to the PCI-e that it basically makes high end air coolers unusable,
As above the stock cooler only just fits with only a few mill clearance
. So with that in mind i went down the sealed H2o route due to them being more compact.Problem 2) mSATA placement!
i first bought an H80 but due to pump noise i settled for an H100. That aside I had the same problem with the H100 as i had with the H80 (not pump noise), the back bracket of the cooler.
This mobo has an mSATA port on the rear, used for SSD's, the big problem is that the mSATA suffers the same problem as the CPU socket....... poor placement!!!
The mSATA port is placed way too close to the CPU socket, i had to cut the back plate down to get it to fit
See how the corner of the cooler hits the port!
You might be thinking its just the Corsair H series but it also effects the Antec KÜHLER series as well, this is from my build log -
Don't get me wrong modding can be the best part of building a rig but not modding due to poor design!
Well with the problems over with lets talk positives..............
Positive 1) UEFI BIOS
This thing is so easy to use and is compatible with a mouse
everything is laid out in an easy manor (NOOB proof ), here is my config
As you will see below i still have all my C states enabled, achieving a very high OC (4.7GHz) and still keeping stability and energy saving
which to me is a massive PLUS as many will say you have to deactivate C states to get OC's stable over 4.6GHz.
Positive 2) Good OC'er
As i pointed out above this board is a good OC'er, i wouldn't say its the best but it is good. I did find with this board i hit a brick wall trying to OC my RAM above 2133MHz without using the BCLK, this was due to not being able to change my third timings which is crucial to getting any RAM OC above 2133 stable (if anyone knows any better please let me know, i have been trying so hard to get 2400MHz using my RAM!)
I can OC my RAM to 2200MHz on very tight timings 9-10-10-21-1T with little more voltage than what im on at the the mo, the only problem is that i have to increase the BCLK to 103.2, which isn't a problem with IVY, but that means i cannot OC my cpu as i just seam to hit a brick wall with stability using anything above 101.
With that in mind i settled for 2133MHz and great timings and cracked on with OC'ing my CPU.
OC'ing the CPU is kind of easy, i have been used to OC'ing first gen quad cores and SB 2600K/2700K. Settings are a little different but not very, a little research on Google will usually help
I have managed to OC my 3770K to 4.7GHz @ 1.34v, i managed this by de lidding my cpu to keep temps down but before that i had 4.5GHz and 4.6GHz stable with ok temps.
If like me you want your CPU to dynamically change depending on what your doing then stability is maintained with the turbo volts and power limits.
And leaving the C states enabled
If you want to get higher than 4.5 - 4.7 then you will have to leave the power saving options off, i got 4.9GHz stabilized @ 1.44v FIXED, but as mentioned in other forums you should stick under 1.4v for 24/7
(but unless you de lid you will be governed more by temps on IVY than volts)Positive 3) Great Software inc with board
This board comes with some fantastic software -
Full details here.
Xfast Ram
Xfast LAN
xFast USB
Virtu Universal MVP
THX TruStudio
Positive 3) Great BIOS features
Internet Flash
No-K OC Technology <----- THIS
Over all this is a nice board feature packed but it has some iffy flaws
