Ten years ago, the mini-ITX form factor was limited to low-end CPUs, and there were only a handful of socketed motherboards, as most of them had low-power CPUs embedded onto the PCB. They were useful as home servers or general-purpose PCs, thanks to their small size and low power consumption, but even then, there was considerable interest in using more powerful CPUs, especially from modders. Eventually, the first socketed boards that supported mainstream, powerful CPUs appeared, and eventually PCI-E 2 slots were offered too, allowing for fully fledged mini-ITX gaming PCs.
Zotac and DFI were the early pioneers, while Asus joined the party relatively recently, with the P8Z77-I Deluxe. Since then, however, every other major manufacturer has dabbled with mini-ITX and offered at least one model for Intel’s overclocking-capable chipsets…
