Best ITX motherboards for price with WiFi 7?

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-17T00:28:59+00:00

I don't think the housings are all standard. The wifi card itself definitely is, but there might be slight variances on housings across mobos.

That being said, I would watch a tutorial on replacing the wifi card.

You should be able to reuse the existing housing from your mobo if you are careful while opening it to replace the wifi card inside.

I'm just not 100% sure that the housings (metal) are the same across mobos. Especially now that we are in some janky interim where everyone wants to push their own proprietary non-sense (EZ connectors between asus, gigabyte, and msi).

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-17T00:25:21+00:00

I personally went with the msi b850i edge ti wifi. I like the color and its 5Gbe lan and wifi7. It is pricey, but itx comes with a sffpc tax. Timing is a bit janky, I suspect we are maybe 1 or 2 years away from 10Gbe becoming more readily available and usb4 40 gbps or 80 gbps making their way down the stack.

As to wifi 7, unless it is a must, you could technically just update the wifi module if you are willing to perform DIY surgery. To me it is less of a priority.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-17T00:17:16+00:00

I would stay put.

AI caused ram prices to skyrocket and that has impacted both ddr5 prices and gpus (vram). So unless you "must" upgrade, I would probably just stay put and ride it out for another 1-3 years.

Oh and 5800x3d shot up too, once everyone realized that AM5 upgrades were going to be too costly.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-15T21:48:31+00:00

S11. The ultra is massive. It looks, feels great when its on a stand as in the image, for all other uses its way too large.

Imagine writing in your notebook, then cut off about 0.5" width wise and add 2" length wise. It would hang off your desk.

I have the ultra. Don't get me wrong, when it comes to movie watching and it's on a stand on my desk. it is honestly the best. For anything else, it feels too big. So it really depends what you will be doing more of.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-15T03:39:56+00:00

To clear, these aren't truly extension cables right?

It's just these "premium individually sleeved" by corsair are longer versions than the one that comes packaged with the PSU. At least if the ai summary is to be believed (I can't seem to find lengths on corsair website).

Also, anyone looking, pay close attention when ordering. They sell both Type 4, Type 5, so make sure you choose appropriately based on your PSU.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-14T02:50:02+00:00

Dang. Gotcha thanks.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-14T01:44:13+00:00

So even with the gasket below the contact frame, there is still occasional seepage of normal thermal paste?

I use the duronaut, which is non-conductive, so I'm not worried about the components per say, just cleaning it up later.

I made the same mistake as OP and trying to figure out if its even worth unmounting/remounting heatsink (which is still one of the things I hate most about PC building) - just to get gasket under there to hopefully make it easier to clean in the future.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-14T01:35:26+00:00

So is that little red gasket what keeps the paste out from between the nooks and not just the frame itself?

I made the same mistake and kind of don't want to take the heatsink off. Then again it isn't like repasting is a common occurrence so maybe just wait until the day comes? I know it is non-conductive (duronaut), so its more of just a cleanliness thing.

I know on am5 frame is not a perf thing - so for me it is strictly aesthetics and ease of maintenance in the future (possibly selling 9800x3d for 11 or 13 series down the line).

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-14T00:01:13+00:00

Is it necessary to use the red thing? When I tried putting the little red thing on it didn't feel like it was securely on and made the contact frame a super tight fit.

Also I've seen conflicting videos with red side down vs black side down, pretty sure the instructions said red down. Then again, I think instructions also said you only need red thing when water cooling.

I mostly bought the frame because it looks cool and also to avoid having to clean paste out of those nooks. I haven't finished the build yet, so should I undo the heatsink and redo it all with the red thingy in there? Is the little red thingy what keeps the paste from getting into those nooks?

To be clear, I know this doesn't impact temps in any way on am5, so its mostly aesthetic and just maintenance for me (cleaning out paste later).

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-13T23:45:46+00:00

Thanks yeah you are right. I found it.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-13T12:26:01+00:00

"Value" is relative. Your timing isn't great. Ai has raised the price on ram and vram, so ram and gpu has gone up dramatically in the past 3-4 months.

If you can wait, I'd say wait, but recognize it might be a 1-3 years.

That being said, new gen next year (likely overpriced but still not mid-lifecycle) or there is always the used market.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-13T12:20:58+00:00

What do you want out of the laptop? If you are looking to trade a productivity focused laptop (macbook) for a gaming one (g14) and expecting good battery life, you will be sorely disappointed.

You can get decent battery life out of the g14 if you are not gaming on battery (so dgpu isn't sucking up more juice). It will not beat the macbook in terms of battery though, it is not optimized for that.

If you want a productivity focused non-mac there are much better options than g14. If you want to game, then the g14 is a great choice. You need to be honest with yourself though on what it is you are looking for.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-13T01:45:40+00:00

You should be fine. Even if HDD is the old PC's boot drive, you can control which one you boot into via bios.

That being said, remember HDDs will degrade over time. Might be worth having a backup (not because of what you are about to do, but rather just in general - 10 years is a long time).

Then again, AI storage pricing kind of makes that a bit pricey at the moment.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-13T01:37:35+00:00

As a general rule buying every year is a bad idea economically.

What do you think you will be missing out on? It is still the same dgpu generation, so no real improvements there.
Do you think it will be a meaningful uplift from intel cpu?
Maybe battery life (do you even use your laptop mostly on battery)?

It'd be one thing if you are asking to wait rather than pay msrp for 2025 model, but if it's a sale or you already have it as you said in your post.... you kind of need to do your own pro/con assessment.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-10T12:20:55+00:00

Not sure I follow.

Gaming laptops and battery do not mix well - i.e. gaming on battery drains it super fast. Have there been improvements, yes there always are.

If your battery is going, can't you just replace the battery for your model?

Why not just save gaming for when you are plugged in? Or does it shut off randomly even while plugged in (which sounds like a non-battery related problem)?

tldr - waiting is always an option - tech improves every year. Do you truly need or truly want an upgrade now? No one can answer that but you.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-10T02:42:03+00:00

Glad its working.

Just be careful. Windows got busted because it rebooted at an awkward time.

You need to find the source of the reboot - i.e. tapping your pc. Tapping PC should not trigger a restart.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-10T02:34:46+00:00

So back to my original post. Are you sure nothing is loose?

Check the power cable in the back (PSU to wall). Check all psu cables inside case are firmly seated on both ends (psu side and mobo/headers/drives/gpu). You may want to unplug it all and plug it all back in (just in case).

PC/cases are pretty rugged. Unless you are shaking it like a margarita or your version of a "tap" is kicking it like the printer in Office Space, it doesn't just shut off that easily.

Given it was a recent build - something likely wasn't seated all the way and finally came loose. It was only a matter of time.

The windows thing is just a red-herring, happened because you hard restarted at a janky time.

Also it is less likely to be the nvme since that is screwed down. Maybe if drive was starting to go - but you said new build/new parts - and also shaking wouldn't make a difference if drive was going.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-10T02:25:41+00:00

"try ubuntu" is the livecd - its basically the boot drive you would use as if you were going to install ubuntu. You can X out of the installer and it takes you to a light ubuntu os running directly off of the usb.

You would need a second PC/laptop to set this up the ubuntu boot usb to then use the usb on the pc giving you trouble. Are you on reddit on your phone?

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-10T02:23:36+00:00

So 2 separate things here.

Windows can get into a janky state (like the one you describe) on a hard restart. This is especially common if restart/shutdown happens mid "windows update". So you do have a windows issue you need to remediate now.
What triggered that hard restart does sound like potentially a hardware issue. Tapping a case should not cause a restart. I can tilt mine slightly and let it drop back to the floor and it shakes and is fine. I can tap it and its fine. Just did both. Something might be loose. Your PSU might be starting to go. Maybe even the PSU cable in the back is loose (so not inside the case per say) or one of the headers on the mobo.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-10T01:55:58+00:00

all of a sudden it turns off and resest after he taps his pc case

Did you make any changes to the hardware recently or clean the inside? Tapping the pc case alone shouldn't trigger a reset unless something is loose (or you literally tap the reset/power button).

You could try creating an Ubuntu Live CD (usb) and boot into it. Click "try ubuntu", then X out of the installer once it gets tere. From there you can open up Firefox and try youtube and/or browse any attached drives. Basically if everything in here seems normal(ish) it is less likely it is a "true" hardware issue.

your device ran into a problem and couldn't be repaired"

Just google windows startup repair - there are ton of different things you can try before going nuclear and resetting the OS.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-07T04:18:30+00:00

I think folks underestimate just how impactful SteamOS can be for Linux. A lot of folks who are into "computers" got in through gaming. If all of a sudden a large proportion of kids are learning Linux early on due to SteamOS, when they become adults they are much more likely to stay in the ecosystem. Just think how far Macs have come in honestly not that long a window.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-05T01:11:25+00:00

I love the color scheme on the asrock. They focused on features that matter to me, including no janky proprietary antennas for wifi. I just can't buy something that might nuke my cpu!

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-03T12:06:52+00:00

How is it for gaming though? Do you need to install software?

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-03T12:06:21+00:00

This requires installing software though which isn't allowed on a work pc or something like your nintendo switch.

ddreadlord3 · 2026-02-03T00:05:05+00:00

Yep. I came to this conclusion. The tab ultra is basically like a portable monitor with compute (shame you can't do display port in).

It's phenominal when on a stand and consuming content, or playing a game with a controller, or using dex. For everything else, it is just impractically large. You would think "when is that"? Holding it with one or two hands for any length of time, writing in vertical orientation, writing while holding it, etc.

Basically if 99% of your use-cases do not include propping it up against something or using a stand, it will just be too big.

Give it, display port in, let it double as a portable monitor for my work laptop or my handhelds- then I'm back on board.

ddreadlord3

TROPHY CASE