AOpen nMCP68St-LA Mini-iTX

AOpen's Mini-iTX is one of the few small-form factor boards on the market to accommodate AMD's Socket AM2 hardware, and is compatible with Athlon 64, 64 X2 and Sempron processors. The onboard GeForce 7025 integrated graphics aren't up to much and, as you'd expect, upgrade potential is limited with a single PCI slot included for expansion, but the two SODIMM DDR2 667MHz RAM slots have plenty of potential capacity - up to 4GB. Four USB ports, 7.1 audio, ethernet, PS/2 ports and VGA fill the backplate - a reasonable line-up, but there's no HDMI. Despite the limitations, the board's integrated 19V power supply makes for a compact and elegant unit, and means it's a competent, if expensive, choice for low-profile systems.

Author: Mike Jennings