arghyle

For months now I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of VIA’s Pico-ITX motherboards. I am a big fan of the Mini-ITX form factor and was excited about Nano-IT before it fizzled. Well, that may not be totally fair- VIA decided that they would be focusing it on industrial uses and OEM instead of consumers. This means no support for enthusiasts, no marketing, and then very limited products from third party case manufacturers and limited availability of motherboards.

Pico-ITX is a motherboard form factor that is roughly half the size of Nano-ITX but will be packed with features. At CES I got to play around with some samples (reference designs) and the reps there made it clear that Pico would be great for enthusiasts but so far sample boards have been impossible to come by and I can’t find any manufacturers that will be making gear. VIA tends to be pretty secretive pre-launch and this time it’s no different. Aside from a white paper about their PX motherboards, information is almost impossible to come by. From what I have found they have not allocated any motherboards for reviews in the USA.

Anyway, I’m still excited for Pico motherboards and am going to try to put together a few systems once they come out. I can’t seem to get my hands on a reference board or reference case, and I can’t find anyone who will be making a case but I am trying to stay optimistic. I’ve been talking to a few other site owners and some retailers so we can pool our recourses and try to get something done, but it’s slow going. Hopefully we will get some news from Taipei next week!

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