The current PC market sees a rise in demand for M-ITX solutions. But with the with ATX and M-ATX motherboards already flooded in the market , will going small means you have to sacrifice in performance? Read on to find out more.

ASUS today releases a mATX board based on the Intel P45 Express Chipset, the Maximus II GENE targeting at gamers, case modders and enthusiasts. It comes with features such as CPU Level Up, an OC utility for easy overclocking as well as MemOK! that auto-load the failsafe settings to ensure a boot up.The board also bundled in a SupremeFX X-Fi soundcard.

The AOpen XC mini claims to be the smallest desktop PC in the world since 2005, and it was this reason Japanese company Universal Roaming Co. Ltd selected it as the core for their Ryou series Art PC like their latest AM6501/6502.

Most motherboard manufacturers nowadays create bigger and bigger motherboards loosing their sense of compactness. The current review though will focus on a micro-ATX jewel bearing the MSI product logo - namely the K9N2GM. The micro-ATX standard is relatively comfy from modder's point of view for creating quite compact works of art. But enough talk, let's see what action can the small guy dispense.