micro atx 775 with ddr3 support

Boozebeard · 7 Jun 2010 at 18:16

Hello, I have a thread in the small form factor section about wanting to down size my pc to take to uni.

I've currently got a Q9450 and 2x2gb of DDR3 ram. Can anyone help me decide on the best micro atx that will support these components?

I know most micro atx boards are budgets boards but I would like to be able to get a decent overclock still.

NeoRed · 7 Jun 2010 at 19:20

Well the gigabyte GA-EG41MFT-US2H rev1.3 looks a good fit.

Boozebeard · 7 Jun 2010 at 21:45

Indeed, I can't find any reviews for it though. Anyone got any experience with this board? Another thing is that my ram is 1.6 volt but most of these boards specifically say 1.5 volt ddr3, you think it will cause a problem?

kerrgreg · 7 Jun 2010 at 22:31

should be fine booze beard it will just be the min volt value i would expect but if you look through the manual in the bios section it should give you the values

Boozebeard · 7 Jun 2010 at 22:39

Ok, I still don't want to buy anything without reading a review on it, if anyone can find one please post me a link.

It says it has pci-ex16 but it doesn't specify wether it's pci-e 2.0 or not. If it is pcie 1.0 what does this mean performance and compatibility wise.

Are there really no premium micro atx boards around?

Boozebeard · 8 Jun 2010 at 19:57

No body know of any good micro atx's?

There seem to be a lot of nice 1156 socket ones

NeoRed · 8 Jun 2010 at 20:05

Well intel state the G41 chipset as PCI-E 1.1
The G43 & G45 are both 2.0
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/chipsets/g41/g41-overview.htm

As for PCI-E Version 1 Vs 2, depends on the gfx card and situation.
as these test show on toms, look at the single card HD4870 2.0 and 1.1 Results.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-pci-express,2095-5.html

Boozebeard · 8 Jun 2010 at 20:11

Thanks a lot. Seems pci-e 1 makes very little difference then.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a second hand i5 750. I suppose I wouldn't see much performance difference from my current processor. a lot of more decent motherboard though. Don't think I can justify spending that much just for the sake of downsizing though.