I'm undecided with if i should stay with the siz i haveor go smaller. The reason i wanna go smaller and use something like a Mini-ITX baord for my new build with a smaller case is to free up more room on my desk, and beable to put it else where that my current Mid town can't fit. Plus it makes things look neater, and it's more portalble.
Your opinons? Pros and cons to downsizing to Mini-ITX? Will I be able to achive the power and preformace with a smaller board (I don't see why not)?
Do you really get portable? Most ITX cases i have seen a still fairly big by which I mean to big to simply throw in a bag like you would with a laptop and carry on the bus. In my opinion you will probably want to trasport it by car at which point the size diffrence between itx and atx isn't really a big deal.
You are going to be restricted in options as far as adding hdds or network/sound cards in side will not look neat.
If freeing up desk space is the main goal there must be other options what about putting it on a shelf?
I have no idea what kind of computer your going for, but you can look at this older build of mine:
http://teksyndicate.com/comment/1276132
Its ultra small but uses a microATX board. Cannot fit any kind of graphics card in a case like this though, you'll have to go for an APU if you want to game on a system this small.
Im not worried about a case to much, I was more intertested in if there's some sort of profroamce loss I wont get with reguler ATX. I only need one slot for my card beacuse i just use intergrated sound and network.
Here's my board now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188017
One im looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131840
If you go with a case like the Fractal Design Node 304 you won't sacrifice anything but your optical drive if you have one. If it's a slim case you want though this is obviously not what you're looking for.