Intel has launched a new motherboard form-factor, the so-called 5x5, which will be the smallest socketed motherboard form-factor so far, measuring at 5.5x5.8-inches or 140x147mm.

While Intel NUC motherboards are pretty much the smallest motherboards that you can see so far, excluding Intel's Mini Lake and Compute Stick form-factors, these also use BGA socket, which means that the CPU is soldered to the motherboard. Unlike BGA socket motherboards, the new Intel 5x5 form-factor will be the smallest motherboard with LGA socket.

The 5x5 form-factor has 29 percent smaller area than mini-ITX standard and supports LGA based CPUs, has feature rich I/O selection, uses dual-channel SODIMM memory, can support 2.5-inch SATA or M.2 storage, have wired and wireless networking and support up to 65W TDP CPUs, which means that it can be equipped with CPUs ranging from Intel Celeron up to certain Core i7 CPUs.

According to Intel, such form-factor motherboards will enable sub 1-liter systems, at least as long as you decide to use M.2 storage and 35W TDP CPU which should fit in a 39mm tall case. Of course, 65W TDP CPU and 2.5-inch SSD will take a bit more room and require a better cooling but we will still see a small case.

With such motherboard form-factor, it would be possible to make a perfect office system or ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) system. According to Anandtech, which In Win is already working on a PC case that will support the new 5x5 form-factor.







Source: Anandtech.com.