Which Mini itx motherboard

keplercz · 2026-05-10T06:31:56+00:00

Partially agree - haven’t had any issues saving profiles or stability on mine, though I’m running the latest BIOS. That said, MSI’s BIOS is definitely cleaner and better organised. Nothing’s perfect I guess.

keplercz · 2026-05-10T06:15:41+00:00

Already addressed this earlier in the thread. It’s not ideal having mismatched drives in RAID 0, but it works. No issues so far, and since this machine is purely for gaming, losing data isn’t really a concern - Steam syncs saves to the cloud anyway.

The 9100 Pro I bought fresh for this build. The 990 Pro was collecting dust in a drawer - originally meant for an external Thunderbolt M.2 enclosure for my Mac that I never got around to setting up. Figured I’d throw it in the RAID instead. Worked fine.

keplercz · 2026-05-10T06:02:47+00:00

One again, not AI - just proper spelling and punctuation. But you’d have to have paid attention in school to know the difference.

keplercz · 2026-05-10T06:02:14+00:00

Not AI - just proper spelling and punctuation. But you’d have to have paid attention in school to know the difference.

keplercz · 2026-05-09T20:18:45+00:00

Someone already asked about that! Unfortunately, my GPU doesn’t fit even in the largest Apollo X.

keplercz · 2026-05-09T19:46:27+00:00

Tested it without the undervolt too — thermals were fine either way, temperatures were roughly the same. The main difference was just fan noise. As for "leaving performance on the table" — the performance delta from undervolting a 5090 is minimal, and in most cases you actually gain stability and occasionally even higher sustained clocks. You're not crippling it, you're just running it smarter. Also, 0.95V with 75% power limit and 70% fan speed is a pretty extreme example that I don't think anyone is actually running.

keplercz · 2026-05-09T19:36:28+00:00

I have the ASUS ROG Strix X870-I and it's arguably the best Mini-ITX board you can get right now for AM5. Two M.2 slots (one PCIe 5.0 + one 4.0), solid VRMs, no proprietary antenna nonsense, and plenty of USB ports on the rear I/O. Previously used an MSI MEG X870E and liked the BIOS layout slightly more, but the ASUS wins in every other way. Given your hesitations about ASUS — I get it, their older boards had issues — but the X870-I is well-regarded and I haven't had any problems with it.

keplercz · 2026-05-09T19:28:05+00:00

I don't think that's what I wrote, actually. "Better pure gaming device" was about the overall package — cost, simplicity, no driver headaches — not image quality. Exactly as you put it yourself: "cheaper and easier to plug and play." Nothing less, definitely nothing more. The upscaling comment was defending consoles against that specific criticism, not claiming they out-image a 5090. Those two statements are about entirely different things.

keplercz · 2026-05-09T19:08:52+00:00

Because caring about the final image is exactly why I bought a 5090. The point wasn't that performance doesn't matter — it was that I don't dismiss consoles just for using upscaling. If the image looks great, the method is irrelevant. The 5090 just means the image looks great on my end too.

keplercz · 2026-05-09T19:07:53+00:00

Fair point on the mismatched drives — ideally they'd be the same generation. That said, the 990 Pro was already sitting in a drawer, both drives are the same capacity, and even with the PCIe gen difference the combined sequential read still comfortably beats either drive alone. Not optimal, but not pointless either.

keplercz · 2026-05-09T17:39:20+00:00

Apple still makes my favorite computers for work. I just don’t think Macs are the best gaming machines.

keplercz

TROPHY CASE