Cheap Z68 with digital out and SATAIII

Bossk128 · 11 Nov 2011 at 15:43

As titel really,
I have a Dell that I'm slowly but surely gutting. I don't really require a new motherboard, but my SSD is bottlenecked by SATAII and I kind of fancy using a digital out into my DAC.

By the time I look at a SPDIF sound card and a 6GBps SATA3 card I'm most of the way to a new motherboard anyway.

What is regarded as being pretty decent but cheap? Everything I look at sub-£105 is missing one or both of my criteria.

Bossk128 · 11 Nov 2011 at 18:50

stulid said:
Is there a size restriction your case accepts? mATX,ATX?

Good question, I'm not sure. It's a midi tower and looks like it would take ATX but not easy to find out from the specifications.
That cheap over looks the business. Cracking saving on UD5 but just don't need the features!

Bossk128 · 11 Nov 2011 at 19:14

No pictures until Monday I'm afraid. 2x PCIE 1 slots .plus the PCIE16 slot. It's a Vostro 260MT

Bossk128 · 11 Nov 2011 at 19:31

That's the fella.

Bossk128 · 11 Nov 2011 at 19:40

Bossk128 · 11 Nov 2011 at 19:52

Thanks for your help Stulid. May make a purchase.

As for spdif, of I use ASIO does it matter that it's onboard?

Bossk128 · 12 Nov 2011 at 10:27

Input isn't necessary, do all good. The asio 4 all driver had worked well for me in the for both on board and Audigy 2 sound cards. My next area of research is asio in Windows 7.

This looks like a decent board.

Bossk128 · 12 Nov 2011 at 13:31

Devious Dell. I'll check before I buy. The mATX board isn't on special so no need rush.