Micro ATX

Wee · 27 Jul 2006 at 18:22

Been looking at giving my machine a complete overhaul in the next couple of months, and one thing that has caught my eye is the Lian Li V300. Now i know they're pretty rare to come by in the UK, but i'd love for it to be my new case.

Anyway, i noticed that they take Micro ATX boards. Which is understandable, considering it's a midi tower. Now i've been looking around at Micro ATX boards, but really not to sure what i'm looking for. The machine will mostly be used for gaming. Infact, that's really the only thing it'll be used for. Are there any Micro ATX boards out there that are gamer friendly? That offer SLI or Crossfire support etc ...

Appreciate any help. Cheers.

lee87 · 27 Jul 2006 at 18:28

What cpu and ram will you be using?

Wee · 27 Jul 2006 at 18:31

Haven't really give that much thought. Will most likely be an AMD X2 Dual Core for CPU. As for RAM? Would like it to DDR2, if it's possible with mATX boards that is.

lee87 · 27 Jul 2006 at 18:41

I don't think there are any AM2 micro ATX motherboards with sli or crossfire support.
This is probably the best micro-atx am2 board you can get but it will only support a single graphics card.
Asus M2NPV-VM Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-145-AS)

Sandmaster500 · 27 Jul 2006 at 18:44

Most of the nvidia nforce 6100 and 6150 boards are pretty good, with the biostar one being well respected for its price and overclocking options. I personally have a Asus A8N-VM CSM which has been amazing but has limited overclocking options.
I'm not too keyed up on AM2 but i believe the same applies (for chipsets and such).
As for conroe there isn't much or anything out yet but i'm sure this will change fairly soon and there is a growing demand for mATX.

Finally i have recently got the Lian Li v300 (in black from OCUK as soon as they came out

) and it is a lovely case with a few niggles. It will cope fine but may need a little bit of modification (easy and fun to do). They are very popular at the moment and i'm sure there will be more people with them soon doing some amazing things with them. I'm writing a review for www.yewen.co.uk very soon so keep an eye out for that - just need to get some decent pictures.

Is you have got any questions about anything ask away

Wee · 27 Jul 2006 at 20:52

Cheers for all the help guys. Much appreciate.

I feared tehre wasn't going to be any AM2 with SLI or Crossfire, was going to be to good to be true. I'm sure something will arrive in a few months that'll suit my needs.

I'm not big at all on overclocking, so having a mobo that isn't overclocking friendly isn't a big issue for me.

Sandmaster500, you said that the V300 had a few niggles? What like? Anything that would cause problems in the future?

WJA96 · 27 Jul 2006 at 22:49

There is a Socket 939 mATX SLi board (EVGA 131-K8-NF44 NF4 SLI) that is the basis of some very fast gaming lan-party specials by a specialist US competitor. It is available in the UK from competitors.

Wee · 27 Jul 2006 at 22:53

WJA96 said:
There is a Socket 939 mATX SLi board (EVGA 131-K8-NF44 NF4 SLI) that is the basis of some very fast gaming lan-party specials by a specialist US competitor. It is available in the UK from competitors.

Ah, so there is a SLI mATX available. Shame it's not AM2, though. Do you think 939 will last for a gaming machine for the next 2 or so years? Or should i am at one of the new fangled sockets like AM2?

WJA96 · 27 Jul 2006 at 23:05

Wee said:
Ah, so there is a SLI mATX available. Shame it's not AM2, though. Do you think 939 will last for a gaming machine for the next 2 or so years? Or should i am at one of the new fangled sockets like AM2?

If it's the only game in town, then I guess it will have to be fast enough. I'm in the Intel camp so I honestly couldn't say what the differences are between S939 and AM2, but I think it's really just a format change and the motherboards support DDR2 which was never a big thing for AMD as they have their own memory controller on the chip anyway.

I would say it will probably be plenty as most systems are graphics limited over 800x600 anyway so why not give it a go (S939 is as cheap as it's going to get right now) and I doubt you'll be disappointed.