[Discuss] mini-ITX boards for Haswell CPUs

[Richard Pieri]

Tom Metro wrote:
> My understanding is that Haswell uses yet another incompatible socket
> format, so I don't think you can plug an "old i3" onto these boards.

That's intentional. Haswell's TDP is about half that of Ivy Bridge. If
you were to wire a Haswell CPU to a Ivy Bridge socket you'd burn out the
CPU. If you were to wire a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge CPU to a Haswell
socket, it wouldn't have enough power to run.

> Your point, though, that NewEgg might have left off the video specs due
> to them varying by CPU installed, does make some sense, except some of
> the video functionality is attributable to the on-motherboard DACs, as
> you point out above, and deserves to be spelled out in the specs.

There are THIRTEEN different Haswell models last I knew. Some have the
GT2-based HD Graphics 4000 series GPUs. Other have the GT3-based HD
Graphics 5000 series GPUs. If you want specs, look at the CPU models,
not the boards they go on. Because, like you point out with ASRock, all
they can list is an absolute minimum across the board for all Haswell
models.

-- 
Rich P.