ATX Vs ITX

ATX Vs ITX Motherboards – Complete Information In 2023

A motherboard plays a base role as a spine of a computer system because it has all the components of your hardware working on it. everything that resides on a CPU is connected to a motherboard and different motherboards have different capabilities for connecting these components in order to make them work efficiently and properly.

The ATX and ITX are two types of motherboards that come in a computer system. Both have different sizes for RAM and different support for power and other components. These motherboards come with a standard form factor but different configurations for sockets on the board for the processor. Both ATX and ITX provide the basic functions that can run and support a computer system and they are designed specifically to support low-cost computers.

Most of the time, these motherboards are used in small spaces like cars, set-up boxes, and network devices. Today we are going to review ATX vs ITX in detail along with all their features for performance for a better understanding of which motherboard is better and which has good performance.

ATX vs ITX

You won’t find much of a difference between ATX and ITX but there are a few small differences in both of these standard size motherboards. These are intended for use with a standard PC with more PCI slots having good RAM capacity. ATX has more capacity than ITX which is also smaller.

ATX – Advanced Technology Extended

ATX was launched in 1995 by Intel as the company intended to work on the pre-existing AT designs. Advanced Technology eXtended works as a motherboard and power supply configuration that is mostly used for standardized PCs. This brought a great revolution for computer systems with motherboards and power supplies and became a standard form factor motherboard.

The ATX motherboard normally has 4 RAM slots for a computer system that can be extended according to a user’s choice to 8 slots. This is a good motherboard that can support 64 GB of RAM and 128 GB when extended. Coming with 3 PCIe slots, users can also get the chance to extend them to 5 slots. It is an upgradable motherboard that is also budget-friendly having a standard form factor with a standard size of 305*244 mm.

It is the most common type of motherboard that is used in computer systems nowadays coming under different names such as MicroATX and FlexATX. These types of ATX motherboards have a small size than a normal standard size ATX motherboard. You can fix ATX motherboards in any standard computer due to standard size as they are mostly used for gaming and workstations.

ITX – Information Technology eXtended

Information Technology eXtended was launched in 2001 by VIA Technologies. This ITX series is a family of small form factor motherboards that provide support for small computers and some other purposes. Their basic form factor size is very small at 170*170 mm. These motherboards are best to use in systems with little configurations

These types of motherboards are basically meant to be used with small PCs with a low cost so that it becomes affordable for everyone to use. With time, technology and innovation raised the prices of these motherboards but still, they are pretty much to the affordable extent. An ITX motherboard comes with only 2 RAM slots with one PCIe slot and they cant be used with higher configuration systems.

There are various sizes of these motherboards such as MiniITX, NanoITX, and PicoITX from which the MiniITX is commonly used for computers. They are usually more expensive than ATX motherboards and they can only be used with portable PCs having small form factors.

ATX Vs ITX

  • ITX motherboard is comparatively smaller than ATX motherboard.
  • ITX board has a small dimension with 170* 170 mm than ATX board at 305*244 mm.
  • ITX is compatible with small form factor cases and ATX is upgradable and usable with bigger systems for gaming and multi-tasking.
  • The ATX board has 4 RAM slots that can be extended to 8 slots and the ITX board has only 2 slots for RAM and it cant be extended more.
  • ATX has 3 PCIe slots which can be upgraded to 5 slots whereas ITX has only 1 and it cant be upgraded to more.
  • ATX board’s capacity for RAM can be extended where ITX has limited capacity.
  • An ITX board is expensive than an ATX board due to its compact size and fixed mechanism.
  • ITX board can be used in compact PCs while ATX is used in gaming PCs.
  • ATX has smaller size type MicroATX and FlexATX whereas MiniITX, NanoITX, and PicoITX are the types of ITX motherboards.

Conclusion

This was a short discussion about ATX vs ITX motherboards where we compared both the motherboards for their features. We discussed why ATX has some better features over the ITX and at which points does ITX standout the ATX motherboard. This comparison was done for your ease of understanding to provide complete info on why both of these motherboards have some differences.

FAQ’s

Q#1: Which one is better, ATX or ITX?

Ans: If you want to consider a motherboard for gaming, then ATX is the best option. In case you want a motherboard for average use, then ITX is the best suitable option for you. ITX is an expensive option than ATX but ATX motherboards provide more upgradability and expandability options.

Q#2: What do ATX and ITX stand for?

Ans: ATX stands Advanced Technology eXtended and ITX stands for Information Technology eXtended. Both of these motherboards come in different models with smaller sizes and standard sizes. The mini-ITX and Micro-ATX are two examples of small form factor motherboards. They are meant to be used in small computer systems.

Q#3: What are the advantages of ATX over Micro ATX?

Ans: ATX motherboards are pretty good boards to use with PCs and the advantage of having a standard ATX board over the Micro ATX board is that there is more availability for PCIe slots and you can also expand the slots. It has better cooling for heat and temperatures but both of them are quite popular among computer users for their performance.

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