Micro ATX Motherboard(s)

I'm not familiar with Micro ATX motherboards. Can someone point me in the right direction? I'm building a gaming SFF rig and need a little help. Thanks.

Which chipset/CPU are you looking to use?

Regards, Balrog

I'm either going to use an A64 3200+ Venice or an A64 3500+ depending on the video card I get (e.g. GeForce 7800GTX or Radeon X850XT.

There are some new boards coming pretty soon from Gigabyte & Asus that appear to have some potential - not a lot ot choose from currently.

The best option at the moment - IMHO - appears to be the Jetway A210GDMS-Pro:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813153027

It has very good OCing features & uses the ULI M1573 SB which is much better than ATI's version. Do some forum searches on this board, some nice OCs & performance are being acheived with it.

FYI: - ULI is an up & coming player in the chipset market (again) & should be a viable alternative to nVidia & Via - check out T-Breaks review on their latest chipset offering:

http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?id=388

Jetway are a small company but are starting to make a push into the retail US Market (finally), they still do quite a bit of OEM work but are trying to be a player in the retail board market as well. The people I've talked to in the European & Asian forums, where Jetway has most of their market, regard them highly. Remember that it was only a couple of years ago that DFI were basically an OEM maker & look at them now.

Check out Sudhians Forums as there are some on-going threads regarding mATX 939 Mobos.

Regards, Balrog

The MSI RS480M2-IL is a good choice. It even has onboard video so it is great for a budget non-gaming build

Stavros,

It is usually very tempting to built yourself a gaming SFF PC, that included myself as well, which can be located even in the Common Room as Media PC if needed. However a SFF case or mATC motherboard would usually come with non-powful PSU fitting, usually around 350W at most,which may therefore limit us from using Extenisve HWs including speedy Video Cards like the Nvidia 6800 U/7800 or ATI X850 etc. That by itself is defeating the Objective of being able to functioin as a "Gaming PC". I am therefore very hestitate to consider using a SFF PC as a "proper" gaming PC due to the above primary reasons.

Personally, I would rather use a mid tower, but (as I have stated in other forums and is a major factor) I will be transporting it between two households.

Well this one might be the one to build that true high performance gaming rig in and the most powerful cards too.

http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2464&p=1

Hi,

That link: http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2464&p=1
provides a very positive mATX Aspire Case with "420W" review! Could someone second that with another link for mATX motherboards which support AMD 939pin x2 CPUs with PCI-E add-on Video Slot please? I am very interested in the above said mATX Case, but I have plan to use it for AMD x 2 CPU and PCI-E Video Card such as Nvidia 6800 U or similar.

Thanks

OCdragon said:

Hi,

That link: http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2464&p=1
provides a very positive mATX Aspire Case with "420W" review! Could someone second that with another link for mATX motherboards which support AMD 939pin x2 CPUs with PCI-E add-on Video Slot please? I am very interested in the above said mATX Case, but I have plan to use it for AMD x 2 CPU and PCI-E Video Card such as Nvidia 6800 U or similar.

Thanks

Click to expand...

I'm waiting on the mATX motherboard myself. I already know what other components I want including the soon to be released AMD64 X2 4000 and that Aspire case. I'll be getting an nVida 6800GT or ATI's equivalent unless that mATX board somehow get's SLIed. At least one of the PCI slots will have a 4GB SATA i-RAM card when Gigabyte gets around to releasing it for sale to the general public.

There's also the Intel Pentium-D dual core processor to consider. There are some mATX boards for that processor too.

Just plug these terms into google or other search engines and you'll know as much as the rest of us.

Hi, Audioaficionado:

I will do that and thank you for your suggestions!! However, I will probably wait for a bit longer prior to my next upgrades too. I am still waiting for the relevant reviews of these mATX motherboards I wanted and, in particular, the prices for these AMD X2 CPUs and 6800 U PCI-E to drop as currently they are a bit "deep" for me!! Sorry to have hijacked this discussion.

Yes, I intend to do that prior to consider buying the Apsire SFF Case. As you have said there is absoultely no chance to upgrade the accompanied PSU IF its total power DOES NOT fit my mATX, CPU, hard-disks (I have intention to deploy TWO SATA HDs), and external PCI-E Video Card requirements. Thank you for reminding me though I have already known these "cricual" decisions.

Regards

I have the Q-Pack sitting right next to me, waiting for a motherboard as well, the stock PSU is the same width and height as a standard ATX PSU, the length is one inch shorter, 4.5in vs. 5.5in. The case is 9inHx11inWx14inD and it appears as though using an aftermarket ATX PSU won't be a problem, as a standard ATAPI drive is 7.25in long, that gives us about an inch and a quarter to allow for cabling and breathing room. I'm thinking worse case scenario is we lose the lower 5.25 drive for the sake of the primary cord coming out of the PSU, but I unfortunately do not have any spare drives or PSUs to be sure. I'll post again once I get them ordered.

Thank you for the updates! Does the Aspire INTERNAL PSU have the exact "four" rear mounting holes, i.e. those enabling the PSU to be mounted to the chasis,as typical ATX PSUs at all??

Thank you for searching.

I've figured out this much...

OK, I've figured out all the parts I want except for the motherboard. I think these parts will fit in the case.

Case-ASPIRE X-QPack (Silver/Black)
Video Card-MSI RX800XL
PSU-FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX500-A 500W
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice
Corsair XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR
HITACHI Deskstar 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache
NEC IDE DVD Burner

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Hi, Stavros:

Are you convinced that the SFF Case xQ-pack can take your alternate "FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX500-A ATX12V 500W Power Supply 115/230 V" PSU? Because I am still waiting for the proofs of ding that, which is a deemed "Nicety" for the Q-Pack Case!

This is just a rough idea right now. I'm hoping (and praying) that jcollins82 comes back with a positve review. I kind of need it to have all panels since I'll be transporting it every-so-often. The thing is this is a powerful set up for around $1000 and I have a limited amount of money. If I were going to get a notebook I'd have to spend 3 times that amount.