13th gen ITX motherboards - What do i pick?
13th gen ITX motherboards - What do i pick?
I'm evaluating a platform upgrade from Z170 with a 6600K. The ITX motherboard market appears to be shrinking. For Intel 13th gen, I'm considering the Z790 lineup: ASRock Z790M-ITX WiFi, ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-I, MSI MPG Z790I EDGE WIFI, and ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4. Many features seem excessive for my needs—light editing, 1440p gaming on a 165hz monitor, and a mix of AAA and esports titles. I'm unsure if I'm making the right choice or if there are better alternatives like AMD or 12th gen options. Should I explore other possibilities?
You're looking for the Z790, but there are alternatives like the B760 and H770 available.
Z690 boards work as well, and there are a few bit more of those, but yeah those are the only Z790 ITX boards. To be fair, 13th gen, while running relatively cool, pulls an insane amount of power so realistically most ITX builds will struggle to be able to power and fit a large enough cooler in them to keep the chips from overheating. I'd fight you on the prices not being that different, the Z690I Aorus Ultra is roughly half the price of the cheapest of those boards and is still a very solid board. To be clear, there are still reasons to go for the Z790 boards, mainly if you want super high speed DDR5 as most of the manufacturers haven't really put the effort into tuning the memory topologies for 13th gen and Hynix A die on their Z690 boards, but if all of what I just said sounds like gibberish a Z690 board is more than fine for what you're doing. Depends on what CPU you're planning on going with. If you're going for a 13600K, the Z790M ITX WiFi from ASRock is good enough and most certainly the cheapest option there. If you're going to be going for an i7/i9 though the Z790 Edge is a lot better built and has an insanely good memory topology, and since it's the next cheapest of those options it would be my pick. That said, unless you're planning on doing memory overclocking my vote is still for the Z690I Aorus Ultra, it's really cheap and really solid, a better board than the Z790M ITX. Honestly, going AMD is probably gonna be your best option, they are a lot more power efficient meaning you can get away with less cooling (though the chips will still run at 95C no matter what) and smaller PSUs which given that this is likely gonna be for an SFF rig is pretty important. You've got two options with these, Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 7000, each with their pros and cons. Ryzen 5000 series CPUs are really cheap and there is a much larger set of ITX boards available while still being a pretty massive improvement from the 6600K you're coming from. Ryzen 7000 series CPUs don't really have that many ITX board options, there's a whopping total of 5 on the market right now, but then again these CPUs are actually the same speed as the 13th gen CPUs you're currently looking at, plus board prices of the ITX boards do seem to look better on the AM5 socket (though that's only if you're convinced to only go Z790 and not consider Z690 boards). I couldn't fault you from going either way, both are really solid options, though I'd probably be leaning towards a Ryzen 7700 and B650I Edge if it were my system. As for H- and B- series boards, they didn't ever really get that much attention in the ITX space and are generally beaten by price by the better Z690I Aorus Ultra so I wouldn't really consider them outside of a few very specific scenarios.
Thank you for your detailed feedback! I'll review all your ideas and adjust my plans accordingly. A few notes on the comments: It seems your current setup won't drastically alter my recommendations. My ITX build is in an NR200, and I just switched to a Noctua U12A—cooling should be sufficient. I should have mentioned my location in Denmark, as prices could vary there. The latest prices are: GIGABYTE Z690I AORUS ULTRA at 340 USD, ASRock Z790M-ITX WiFi at 290 USD, ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 at 460 USD, MSI MPG Z790I EDGE WIFI at 490 USD, and ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-I at 650 USD. Depending on deals I find, I’ll likely opt for an i5 or i7 (or an AMD equivalent) and explore more budget-friendly options.
Sure thing. Here’s a revised take on the discussion:
The pricing in the US varies quite a bit—ranging from around $150 to $470. For an ITX setup, the Z690I Ultra seems like the only sensible choice, though it’s not the absolute best value. The Ultra still stands out compared to similar boards, offering a good balance of price and performance, especially if you’re targeting over $100 savings.
However, when considering Danish pricing (as seen on PCPartPicker), the B660-I Gaming comes out as the most affordable option with a reliable VRM for an i7. It also provides solid features without breaking the bank. Unless you’re aiming for CPU overclocking, this board is a strong pick.
For AMD users, the B650I Edge and R7 7700 are good alternatives. With a U12A chipset, stick with an i5 if you’re on the 13th generation; the i7 13700K can handle high loads but may struggle with cooling. Any AMD board will hit thermal limits, so choose wisely based on your cooling setup.