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micro/full ATX

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kalyan

Registered
Joined
Aug 30, 2002
hello,

i have bought p4-2.4b processor, ASUS GF-3 t2 deluxe, 80GB segate barracuda HDD, 256mb DDR266, HP CD-writer.i will be later adding a slave HDD,cdrom, FDD,SB-live sound also.

i am getting a ASUS p4s533mv motherboard.

this is a microATX motherboard, as after adding all the components the box will become cramped ,i was wondering if i can fit this board in a full ATX cabinet.

is there any performance difference between a micro or full ATX motherboards?

thankx.
 
Yes you can. ATX Cases are compliant with mATX as well. There's no performance difference, the only difference is that they fit into smaller cases which could be easier to maintain than those big full towers or mid towers compared to mATX cases. Bender has a sweet mATX case and he lives it because it's so compact.
 
Yep, no difference. Unless you really need the smaller size of a microATX case to fit into a tight space, I would go for the standard ATX casing so you can use it with standard ATX motherboards in the future.
 
kalyan, you might consider buying a mid-tower to put the system in since, like FlypSyde said, you could put a full ATX board in there in the future.

Cooling generally sucks in micro boxes. At the very most they offer one intake & one outgoing fan. You'd have to do some modding to get good cooling.

A lot of mATX cases come with puny power supplies. I'm talking 140w - 250w.
 
if you do plan on getting a micro atx case, try to find one that will fit standard size power supplies in it.

such as the inwin V5** series of cases (ie v523, v506) they all use the same guts.
 
I wouldnt get a micro MB unless u knew u didnt need alot of PCI slots... at most i think they have 3 tops... so if u can get away with 3 pci slots then go for it... some people like the small cases but again bad air flow and not great for OCing.. and the micro cases suck cuzz the PSU is directly on top of the HSF so temps stay pretty warm all the time. If this is a stock none oc system and u want a small case without alot of pci slots then sure go ahead and go with micro;)

AZN
 
can be just as good as a full tower case my friend with the right fan placement and a tidy case.. DO be sure to get a decent power supply, or at least one that lets you swap out for a better one.. most come with less than 200w power supplies.. they are a godsend if you move your PC around alot!
 
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