SFF.Network M-ATX's Slow Decline Continues - EVGA Launches their Z370 Micro-ATX Motherboard

After MSI's mediocre X299M-A Pro launch recently, I came to the conclusion in my view that M-ATX is dying a slow, painful death. Today that continues, with the oddity that is EVGA's Z370 Micro. Selling for US$179.99 on EVGA's own webstore, this Intel Z370 based board supports LGA1151 for Intel's 8th generation Core Processors. The board is targeted at the enthusiast market, with angled power and Io connectors, SLI certification and claimed strong overclocking support.

Read more here.

 

[parlinone]

I have a really hard time believing any mini-ITX board is (vastly) outselling some of the more mainstream m-ATX boards, high-end or not. With motherboards, I do believe the quantity of products available is representative for the popularity of that format. Whether those are mid- or high-end is quite irrelevent to the premise IMO. For probably 50% of system builders the features offered on mATX boards will suffice, and that's why there is such a big market for it.

People here would like to believe m-ITX is growing in popularity, but I havent seen any evidence pointing to that in the last 12 years.

Are mATX designs generally disappointing to enthusiasts? Yes.
Is there any proof this correlates to lower sales? No. It's a different market.

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

People here would like to believe m-ITX is growing in popularity, but I havent seen any evidence pointing to that in the last 12 years.

In the last 12 years? If you said, since 2013/Haswell there has not been an increase in ITX popularity, I would say for motherboards that might be true. For ITX cases, there has been an absolute explosion in number however. Unfortunately most of them are pretty large. But good luck finding an ITX motherboard in 2005. Until Ivy Bridge you didn't have a lot of options.

This might indicate Availability not popularity, but why increase availability if popularity also isn't increasing?

 

[XeaLouS]

I think ITX is increasing in popularity over the last 10 years, but not by an "explosive" amount. mATX has become the de-facto standard, replacing ATX as the most common (imo). Are there stats anywhere?