mATX rather than Shuttle???

[Visitor101]

Hi All

I seem to be looking in vain for a mATX with the Intel X38 or X48 chipset.

Shuttle now have them but with aim of keeping the total costs down together with a smaller form factor than using a full sized ATX board I was hoping that one of the big players like Gigabyte or Asus would have such a board already or have I missed something?

The overall spec would be ideally:-
mATX X38 or X48
Q6600 ( for the bang per buck but with such a board a little future proofing i.e. a more powerful CPU one day)
Dual head graphics card such as the Matrox - note here not gaming so no 3D required.
Suitable case with space for 4 HDDs (good HDD cooling a must )

The primary usage is for Video and Photo Editing so ideally need min 3GB RAM and dual/quad core capability (note to run WinXP Pro 32bit initially).

Am I waiting on lost cause???

TIA for any insight

PS Or do I have to accept that if I want mATX then the best of breed is G45 ???

PPS Hmmm! just spotted this one on the OC list DFI Lan Party JR P45-T2RS Intel P45 ~ cannot recall knowing much about DFI so please don't flame me but any good?

 

[Tute]

Why do you "need" X38 or X48? Surely the main attraction of those chipsets is Crossfire, but as you're not gaming then it's just going to be wasted.

If you want a Shuttle i'd just get whatever supports your CPU and graphics, you don't specifically need a fast chipset.

Or you can get a good microATX system with a G33 chipset that'll suit your needs fine. You're going to struggle to get 4 HDDs in a Shuttle without cramming anyway.

 

[matt100]

the only dimensional aspect thats helped with MATX or a shuttle frankly is height, if you have a height restriction then fine, width you'd be better off with a tower as MATX boards tend to go flat and shuttles are quite flabby these days and depth isn't much better.

I've "downsized" a couple of times then realised as my pc sits on the floor a shuttle etc made it hard to get to the dvd drive and on the desk it took up too much room!