If you wish to build a small and good quality home theater PC, then you have to first of all, consider several important factors. One is its case. There are different types of computer cases available in the market although not all of them are good enough for your home theater. A good PC case should be user friendly and small in size. This is not to say that the large computer cases do not have a place in the modern world. On the contrary, they are the most commonly used. The problem with these large cases is that they occupy a lot of space on your desk thereby making it appear full and stuffy. If you really mind about the style and trend, you cannot afford to install a home theater PC that occupies all your working space. You need a small case that is easy to handle. It is in this line of thinking that you should consider installing a mini itx case for your home theatre PC.
Mini itx case is considered to be the next generation’s motherboard that provides you with all the simplicity you have always wanted. So, what makes this case special? To understand this clearly, it is important to start by understanding its history and a couple of its special features. This article therefore seeks to provide you with information on how the mini itx case came to be and some of its great features that make it more popular in the market. For starters, Mini itx case is a motherboard form factor with a 17x17cm size. It was developed in 2001 by the popular VIA Technologies. This motherboard form factor is most ideal for home theater PCs mainly because it has a low power consumption architecture that requires a passive cooling mechanism. Another reason why it is ideal for home theater PC is because noisy fans can easily detract you from a great cinema experience. Besides being ideal for home theaters, mini itx case can also be used in other much smaller form factor computer systems.
Mini itx case has four mounting holes that are compatible with the four holes in ATX motherboards. The location of its backplate and the expansion slot is similar to that of the ATX motherboard. These features therefore can allow a mini itx case to be used in a case designed for all ATX variants if necessary. A mini itx case has provision for a single expansion slot. Conventionally, such a slot is more or less the same as a standard 33 MHZ 5V 32 bit slot for PCI. In most cases, majority of case designs come with slot riser cards, with some having even two riser cards.
However, not all boards are compatible with two slot riser cards. Also, some boards that use PCI express x16 slot cannot be used in PCI mini itx cases that use slot riser cards. A mini itx case is mostly common in the industrial and embedded computer markets. Majority of these cases are sold in bulk as separate components or integrated to a complete system and sold as a ready to apply computing system.
