mATX format views

[orbitalwalsh]

Thought i'd post this up to see peoples views on the mATX format of boards?

Are they wanted?
Are they looked at less/feature less then ATX versions?
Are they charged more then ATX version?

stems from a conversion I've had with an EU forum member on US sites trying to track down a Gigabyte Z270MX board in the EU- which is just impossible and has to be shipped from US and thats proving tricky for him.

I personally did an ASUS Gene 8 build a while back and found that it had the same features as its ATX twin, often cost more for less physical board - even ITX formats are demanding a lot of cash for their physical layout.

and lastly looking at AMD Ryzen launch most of the mATX boards are not featuring flagship chip sets forcing users to get the b350 and Hoping they can match better VRM equipped X370 ATX boards , which is a shame and in some cases like the Gaming 3 are doing better then their ATX counter parts.

Personally would like to see a flagship z270/x370 ATX model shrunk down to a mATX format keeping its aesthetics and features- seems you can either get one or the other and if you can get both it costs a bomb!

Would personally love a Aorus K7 AM4 or the new X299 Strix in mATX goodness

 

[eddiew]

Well I want to go mATX for my next build so's to have the option of shrinking the case. With optical drives more or less redundant now, there's no need for a PC to be such a massive object, imho

They shouldn't need to have less features vs full size, other than having less slots, but frequently they're targeted to business users and therefore do sometimes end up being more basic for cost reasons.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

@eddiew i saw the Strix mATX and seems they stripped out the lovely IO shield found on the larger ATX models which just kills the looks for me, and have used the LED is a place it would never been seen, had it kept the IO shield or used the side strip like the ITX version would have been a killer... but its costly already =/

MX 5 looks stunning and more RGB that you'd need but wont sell in EU ....

I think ASRock keeps full features but just dropped half the looks, Taichi in this would have been a sweet little number .

 

[eddiew]

Tbh, I really don't care about the looks of the electronics - it'll go into a closed windowless case with no LEDs What I do want reassurance on is that they're not scrimping on things like VRM phases or cooling. It shouldn't be necessary, but again, a lot of mATX gets targeted at businesses, so it probably does happen.