Micro ATX boards

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Merlin
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Micro ATX boards

Post by Merlin »

Anyone have experience with Micro ATX?? What the the best board for that? AM2+ or AM2
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Methious
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by Methious »

I don't think your going to find a micro ATX am2+ ATX is the smallest am2+ I've seen. if it absolutely has to be micro atx, go with a 570/590 chipset am2, I really would advise going ATX 12" X 9" . That way you can go with the 770, 780, 790 AM2+, why? Phenom forward compatibility, pcie 2.0 for the new video cards, ht 3.0. Some am2 boards can be flashed to am2+ but used only at lower hyper transport speeds, and only pcie 1.0. Take a gander at my m3a mobo upgrade thread in this forum. Using the M3A 770 atx, I grabbed fastest machine in both 3dmark06, and pcmark06. With no over clock, and antivirus and anti spyware running.

What kinda budget you lookin at? What processor you wanting to use?
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by hercules71185 »

I had an atx micro AM2 by elitegroup. I think ECS I'm pretty sure. I'd highly recommend it.. Staying away from it. Pci x16 only registers as x8. FSB is capped at 280. Anything higher the board won't work. Any reason why you want micro over standard? Choosing a small case? If so, The only thing I didn't like about the micro aside from that since that is EASILY fixed by spending 5 more dollars on a better board. Is Sata and IDE ports. 1 port I can hook up my 2 dvd players, and none of my 80 gb IDEs. I have 2.. It was a choosing what I wanted. My sata hard drives I have 2 320s. also only had 2. Basically the ports. Then I have a wireless pci card. soundblaster sound card, and firewire pci port. With my 8600gt. This took up EVERY port the mobo had. Micros don't usually come with many ports. But, now with my full size. I have 2 free pcis incase of any expansion whether internal extra sata ports, extra ide ports anything for expansion.
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by Apoptosis »

Merlin wrote:Anyone have experience with Micro ATX?? What the the best board for that? AM2+ or AM2
MY HTPC uses the MSI K9AGM2-FIH, which runs $66 at mwave. it's served me fine for a good 9 months now. The 780G that I showed off a little bit in this article: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/612/1/ will be coming out in the months ahead to replace the now year old 690G chipset.
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Merlin
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by Merlin »

I guess I should also look at Intel boards as well?? Any have one in use?
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by summerisle »

I've got a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H - pretty decent for a microATX. It's only socket AM2, not AM2+, though. I'm not running anything fancy in mine (well, my girlfriend's, actually) - 5600+, 2GB of DDR2-800. It works pretty well. A fair number of ports, and the BIOS has some decent options for tweaking your memory / HT link. I dunno, I like it. I haven't seen any AM2+ micro boards, though I have been looking. I don't need all the extra space on an ATX, and I don't like mid-sized or larger towers, which is why I was looking for the micro. Ah, well.

**edit - type in the mobo name ;) **
Athlon 64 x2 5000+ BE @ 3100MHz
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Merlin
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by Merlin »

Do you have a video card in that as well?? Also If you wouldn't mind sharing what case did you get? and does it accept standard ATX PSUs??
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by summerisle »

Yeah, the system is running an evga 8600GT 512MB in it right now - I don't know how the stock graphics perform, though I imagine they're quite acceptable for non-gaming. for power, it has a Cooler Master Real Power Pro RS-650 power supply - 80+ performance and 5 year warranty. This is all mounted in a Cooler Master Centurion 534 case (my girlfriend doesn't share my bias against mid-size towers). Her cooler is just the retail HSF that came with the 5600+ 1M Windsor she's running, as she isn't interested in overclocking anything.
The motherboard is a true microATX form factor, though, so any case that will take a 244mm x 244mm (9.6"x9.6") motherboard should work fine with it. I personally was looking into using an Apevia X-QPACK-2, a Silverstone SG-03 Micro Tower, or an NZXT Rogue, until I decided I'd get a 770-based motherboard instead of the 690-series. I'm 99.9% positive the board would've worked fine in any of those setups.
It's a shame I couldn't find any AM2+ microATX boards, as I was heavily leaning toward the NZXT Rogue. I think it's got room enough to run an 8800GTX, and it'll take a pretty hefty power supply and a pair of internal hard disks.
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by Merlin »

Is this a good choice or can someone recomend a better one? http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6813131172

It will run a X2 6400 with 4 gig of ram
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by summerisle »

Just a little update - I decided I'd wait on the 790-based board, seeing as how the 780s are just around the corner. I picked up a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H and a 5000+ BE, Zalman 9500, 4GB of Patriot DDR2-800 (5-5-5-15) and threw it into an NZXT Rogue. The setup works well, though the Gigabyte's not what I would exactly call an overclocker's board. You can adjust the CPU bus, HTT multiplier, and things like that, but there aren't a huge number of tuning variables you can access. However, with an unlocked multi, I'm running 3150MHz @1.3v right now (x15 mult, 210 MHz bus) - 43' under load in the little case (though it has decent ventilation) and about 30 seconds' worth of time to do this.
This is the second setup I've done using this board, and both times things have gone smoothly. The Zalman and the mobo fit fine into the NZXT, along with my Cooler Master PS.
Athlon 64 x2 5000+ BE @ 3100MHz
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Re: Micro ATX boards

Post by Merlin »

Here are some of the available NVidia chipsets for an AMD Micro ATX setup. Could someone please explain briefly which is better??
I belive these are all Nforce....7050, 6150, 6100,560, 570 Ultra, 590, and then the 690 series I have seen both G and V and I think there are other 690 boards as well but G and V are all that I saw today then in the middle of all that was one lone AMD 580X chipset board?? Like I said these are all Micro ATX boards except the red ones, I included the red ones becaese I now they are all good ATX chipsets. IF possible could someone tell me which way I should go? The 690 are the most visible are they close to the 570 or not really? Also is it worth it to go with an AM2+ board IF it does nothave PCI-X 2.0?
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