I just bought one weird motherboard! (Desktop Mobo, Mobile Socket!)

[AshleyAshes]

A Socket G2 motherboard, which few have heard of!

http://www.advantech.com/products/68ccaea2-9ff5-4f85-97f2-3d11244b0a08/aimb-272/mod_15a5f387-eec8-48b5-863e-59c41953ff70

"WTF is Socket G2 Ashley?  And WTF do you need this for?"

Socket G2 is actually a laptop/mobile socket, it was used for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge laptops back in the day.  I have a Sandy Bridge laptop, i7 2630QM, 2x8GB of RAM still kicking but next summer I plan to replace it, but that said, a 2.0ghz, 2.9ghz Turbo, 6MB L2 Cache, Hyperthreaded CPU is not useless and nor is it's 16GB of RAM, the SSD inside it, or the Windows 7/10 license attached to the hardware.  So why not de-build my old laptop into an ITX desktop?  I've wanted to do an ITX build for some time but didn't want to build a whole new machine out of new components, with this mobo, I have most of the other components except an ITX case.  This will also recycle a laptop that would otherwise gather dust in the corner.  I bought the mobo now because I found a good price on eBay and this is FAR from a very common motherboard, they could get progressively harder to find for a decent price or to find at all.

Now, the challenges.  Firstly, it comes with a heat sink, and G2 coolers are mostly enterprise/server rack type products so I'm not sure about the noise levels.  I may have to replace the cooler or at least replace the fan that come with it. On the other hand, how much cooling can a laptop CPU possibly need? I wonder if I can find a passive cooler for it.

Secondly, it has no USB3.  (But it has four RS-232 options which are so super awesome I'm sure I'll never use them?)  But I can get Mini-PCIE USB3 cards.  ...But the MiniPCIE slot is on the BACK, so no room for a USB3 card, it'll only fit wifi cards and such.  So I'll need to get a MiniPCIE -extension- cable and then put the USB3 adaptor somewhere else.

Third... Honestly, I just wanna stick a fat desktop GPU in that PCIE 16x slot and see how.  well it plays together.

[AshleyAshes]

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 2:02 AM, 6tails said:

At 45W, a fair bit.

http://www.dqsolutions.co.uk/portableexp_dock.htm

45w is pretty low and after some digging the stock cooler will be fine.  Strongly the manufacture didn't list the cooler included in the kit, probably cause it's from a third party, a CoolerMaster HSF.  Suffice it to say it'll offer better cooling than what's in the native cooler.

 

I'm also puzzled as to why you're suggesting a PCIE docking station.  The mobo has a full 16x PCI-E slot for any graphics and the Mini PCIE slot can be use for adding USB3.  There's no need for any other expansion and such a docking station would pretty much ruin any plans for an ITX build inside an ATX case.  Well, I mean, it could be made to work, but it'd be super ugly.

[AshleyAshes]

19 minutes ago, 6tails said:

small enough to actually fit inside any real mid-tower ATX case using an ITX motherboard

Where's the fun of an ITX build if you use an ATX case...? o.O;;;;;;;;

[AshleyAshes]

29 minutes ago, 6tails said:

You said it yourself.

Typo.  Probably made because I've had a Silverstone ITX case in mind that houses a full ATX PSU so I typed the wrong characters.  (Yeah, just don't want to deal with the limited options in SFX PSUs)