Best microATX mobo + cpu combo?

[d94]

i just bought a aria computer yesterday and it currently has a 2.8a(400mhz) and a soyo mobo w/8x agp ext.
the only thing is, it doesn oc @ all! so im pretty sure im going to sell that combo and buy another one... im not sure if i should take the amd route or intel (iv always bought intel)..the video card that will go in the sys will be a OC'D 6800nu.

recommendations?

[Sentential]

Since this is an SFF you are pretty well limited to Intel unless there is a S939 or S754 micro-ATX board with decent features. Ill check egg now...

[Sentential]

No good S754 or 939. Here are a couple LGAs:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-186-021&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-186-022&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-185-047&DEPA=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-170-140&DEPA=0

<High End Brands>
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-252&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-466&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-121-258&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-520&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-121-252&depa=0

[d94]

maybe i should wait a bit?
looks like some are coming out soon :) (http://www.ati.com/buy/promotions/radeonxpress200/index.html)

i found a review @ [H]ard|OCP :
quote from it about an ATI chipset board:
Radeon Xpress 200 Overclocking

As mentioned above, the past ATI chipsets have simply fallen short when it came to enthusiast features. That certainly does not seem to be the case with the Radeon Xpress 200 series. This RS480 BIOS has more switches and tweaks than you can shake a stick at. Also, the PCI bus, and every other bus on the board, runs asynchronously of the Front Side Bus. We are happy that it did not take ATI a year to bring that true enthusiast feature onboard like NVIDIA and VIA did.

Put that together with the fact that it looks like ATI has gotten their memory latency issues tidied up on the RS480, and you have an enthusiast platform. That is, of course, as long as you have one more thing, and that thing is FSB scaling. It looks as though the RS480 is going to be very capable in this area. While we were not able to get our sample this high, we did get reports of FSBs running stable from 270MHz to over 300MHz. This RS480 has been able to do something that the challenging nForce4 has not been able to accomplish, and that is healthy FSB overclocking while running SATA controllers. With NVIDIA’s SATA controllers utilized, you are hitting the edge of the OC envelope at 240MHz or so, and that does not seem to be the case with ATI’s reference board.

We have to say that this motherboard was very stable as well and worked better than many retail motherboards we have been blessed with over the years. Still, when it comes right down to it, this is a reference motherboard and it may or may not resemble anything that you and I will actually be able to purchase one day. We have had terrible reference boards here that have done great in retail form and vice versa. In fact, it makes me wonder why we bother with some of this stuff sometimes. If anything, we now know that ATI is able to produce an enthusiast level product. Now the trick will be to see if our friends in Taiwan and China can take the RS480 chipset and make it work well enough to impress you and me in retail motherboard form.

*yet another update!:
these boards ARE FOR SALE! (http://www.atacom.com/program/print_html_new.cgi?&USER_ID=www&cart_id=4845886_132_60_240_80&Item_code=MBA9_MICS_K8_V5)
is it worth the $200 price tag? :-/

[Mortis03]

I've heard the BIOSTAR M7NCG 400 is a very good board. I'm pretty close to building a lan machine and I think I'm going with that when I do go for it.

Couple things w/ that board though, 1) it's amd 2) it's getting kinda old, it'll do good for my lan/gaming rig but not exactly top of the line.


Good luck w/ finding something

[Posidon42]

heh, you should buy mine :) I just got done trying to put that biostar board into the aria and although it fits, the size limitations just make it too difficult to add anything more than a stock amd fan to the case. Yes, it fits, but you lose so much more. In the past week I have had a thermalright SLK-900A and the SI-97 in that case with that motherboard. Though they work fine, their height makes it so the power supply has to be moved with the SI-97 and with both of them I can't use that additional hard drive bay. I had such high hopes for this combo, but it looks like they are going to be hitting the classifieds soon as my targets are now set on a socket 939 shuttle solution. :(

So much money and time wasted, but all in the pursuit of the perfect computer :D

[Mortis03]

heh, you should buy mine :) I just got done trying to put that biostar board into the aria and although it fits, the size limitations just make it too difficult to add anything more than a stock amd fan to the case. Yes, it fits, but you lose so much more. In the past week I have had a thermalright SLK-900A and the SI-97 in that case with that motherboard. Though they work fine, their height makes it so the power supply has to be moved with the SI-97 and with both of them I can't use that additional hard drive bay. I had such high hopes for this combo, but it looks like they are going to be hitting the classifieds soon as my targets are now set on a socket 939 shuttle solution. :(

So much money and time wasted, but all in the pursuit of the perfect computer :D

threadcrap

I would be interrested in that mobo. If you do decide to put it up in the classifieds, shoot me a pm. Thanks

/threadcrap

[d94]

i just ran 3d mark.. the score sucks!
in my oc'd 2.6 i got around 10,500 in 3dmark. in this aria it gets more like 7,000 with my 6800nu in there.
im thinking that im gonna sell the mobo and proc right now! and buy a new one that oc's well.... socket 775 or 478? which proc would be the best to buy for the board? and what cooling :)
or should i just sell this 400fsb one and buy a 3.2c or e?

[Posidon42]

could be the chipset. I went from an ATX NForce2 to a mATX Nforce2 and saw no degredation of my scores. In fact, I ran my 2500+ mobile at 2.4ghz (200x12) last night and got about 7000 points in 3dmark2003 with my 9800pro. Not too shabby for the sff. The only bad thing was I had to run my exhaust fan at full speed and it makes too much noise. I might run it like that for a LAN party where the silence isn't that important, but for now I can run that mobile at 200x10 with almost passive cooling :)

[d94]

could be the chipset. I went from an ATX NForce2 to a mATX Nforce2 and saw no degredation of my scores. In fact, I ran my 2500+ mobile at 2.4ghz (200x12) last night and got about 7000 points in 3dmark2003 with my 9800pro. Not too shabby for the sff. The only bad thing was I had to run my exhaust fan at full speed and it makes too much noise. I might run it like that for a LAN party where the silence isn't that important, but for now I can run that mobile at 200x10 with almost passive cooling :)

wow.. your 9800pro is beating my 6800nu :p
this chip i have really sux right now..
i tried playin gta 1280x1024 and it was choppy!
better get back on that 800fsb bandwagon

[Posidon42]

well I didn't say it was clocked at XT speeds at that time :) So much heat!!

[Ramlaen]

My socket 939 shuttle o/c descent 3200 at 2.4

[d94]

what are you using to cool it? or does it have that built in heapipe...

[Posidon42]

the shuttles use the heat pipe. Man, I wish the Aria came with something like that.

[dreadlord79]

!!!Read your power supply post, I responded over there and don't want to double post.

Also, I might be able to get you a MSI RS480 Socket 939 mATX for around $115 + S & H; of course; from a friend of mine who is selling his (I figure he will sell it for what he put into it). He wants to put in more cards than this board supports; he should have thought of that first huh?:P If you are interested just send me a PM and I will talk to him tomorrow.

I myself just build a system for the girlfriend and it works great! It set up without a problem. One thing I might mention is the 4-pin connector is really close to the socket area and if you have an X-Connect, the cable will be too high in some cases (read: XP120).

[d94]

id love to have that board, unfortunatly it doesnt support NCQ, which is 1 of things i'm after