Recommend me a basic mATX setup please

Snash

Snash

Snash

Soldato
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Haven't upgraded in a while (last upgrade was XP1700 T'bred :p ) and me thinks it's time to take a step up. Am now wanting to go down the mATX route, neater case etc. Don't play many games, only those that are a few years old so no high end power needed.

I have a decent PSU, HDD etc so would only need mobo, processor, RAM and case. Have near enough settled on the SG01 Silverstone having now seen it in the flesh.

Any recommendations for mobo/CPU? Happy to go AMD or Intel. Only requirement for mobo is the usual on board stuff and DVI. Doesn't need to be capable of overclocking.
 
Biffa said:
Budget would help :D

And perhaps what you plan to do with it.
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:o Budget not really an issue within reason but only to be used for general duties. No photoshop, encoding etc - the most stressful thing it would be doing is playing those two year old games :p
 
Tute said:
That X1650 will be silent, they put out such little power I don't know why they bother with a fan anyway - on a case with reasonable cooling, passive would be more than enough! :)

And there's a reason that board is so cheap - it doesn't support Core 2 CPUs. So if you go for it, you'll have to pick up an old Pentium 4 or Pentium D.

And I really don't advise that. ;)
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Eh? It says on the website "LGA775 Socket for Intel® Core™ 2 Duo/ Pentium® D/ Pentium® 4/ Celeron D/ Celeron® Processors with 1066 MHz FSB" :confused:

Anyway, there are probably other reasons why it's so cheap :p

Any thoughts on the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD? It's cheaper than the Asus and Gigabyte boards and has the DVI. Would I be wasting my time trying to play games by the on board graphics?

Cheers.
 
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £56.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £39.99

Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD ATI Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £61.99

Sub Total : £158.97

Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25

VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £29.26

Okay been looking at some combinations as I don't want to spend too much, all I'm really looking for is a reasonable upgrade and a performance boost over my existing Athlon T'bred XP1700.

Any thoughts? Is it false ecomony going for the budget processor?

Total : £196.48
 
Kezmo said:
Loads of people have had probs with that board from what ive read, also woulndt he be betteroff with one of the newer chipset boards for future upgrades ?
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Thanks for your input Kezmo & Tute - please excuse my ignorance - which is the newer chipset? Does the Abit F-I90HD have the newer chipset?
 
Tute said:
I would recommend he goes with a G33M board unless he really wants onboard DVI, which the F-I90HD provides. It uses an ATi RS600 chipset, and yes there have been questions about it's stability.

I'd highly recommend the Asus P5K-VM Snash. It's a simply brilliant board, and all ready for Penryn later this year (45nm support). :)
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Just been looking at the specs for the Abit and saw that it only supports up to E6700 processors. Not exactly future proofing but then again the Asus is a bit more expensive. Argh! Decisions, decisions.

Thanks for your input guys, might take a wander into MM to see what I can get cheaper for the other bits.
 
People thanks for your help in helping me decide. Eventually took Tut's advice re the motherboard (sort of) and went for the Asus P5B-VM MicroATX Motherboard, a little cheaper than the Asus P5K-VM. 2 x 1GB G.Skill HK DDRII Blue Alu PC6400 and an Intel Core 2 DUO E4400 775 2.0Ghz CPU to go in a SG01 silver case.

Started building it last night. Got the motherboard, RAM, chip and cooler in then added the Tagan 380 that I'd bought 18 months ago and never used. Don't know where I'm going to stuff all those extra power cables :(

Thanks again chaps :)
 
Okay, a week or so later, the system's built and generally running fine for basic tasks. Temps are good at 29C idle. But.....

The on board Intel GMA X3000 on the Asus P5B-VM MicroATX Motherboard is pants. Soldier of Fortune (original version circa 2000) is rank rotten. Even with all the settings at the lowest of the low (where you can't see what you're doing) is unplayable. I was obviously dreaming to think that it would be good for anything except browsing :o

So I'm thinkng of getting an X1650 as kindly advised by Tute further up - gets good reviews and seems good value for money. But problem is the space for the PCI slots is stuffed full of the cables from the power supply (Tagan 380). There's no way I could get a PCI card in there without taking scissors to the unused cables.

What do I do? Forget SFF? Change power supply? Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

Snash
 
Thanks Tute - there's clearly an art to cable tidying! I just can't see where I could put them :( Any on line tutorials giving examples of this black art?
 
Biffa and Tute - thanks for that. Especially the photos Biffa :)

Seems like I just stuffed the spare PSU cables in the pci space simply coz it seemed easiest when I didn't have a graphics card in there. One thing, is that a shorter than normal DVD drive Biffa? Or a smaller PSU? I could hardly get a pubic hair between the psu and rear of the dvd drive?
 
Well, I now have space to put the Sapphire 1650XT in, as delivered by those nice blokes at City Link at 8.30am this morning.

Big problem. It won't fit :( It seems the line up of the Asus P5B-VM and the Sugo back plate isn't suite right. Or maybe this card's just not meant to fit with this combination. For it to fit I'd have to hack out the strip between the first two bays on the case.

Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong......
 
:p I should edit the above for lameness. I'd forgotten how much "force" you have to use with these. I could have sworn it was the fault of Asus, Silverstone and Sapphire to the power three, but not me, oh no, not me :p

I did mange to break off the plastic retainer clip at the back of the pcie slot when I eventually forced it in.

All done now, tidy looking case and a system that is just ever so much just a little quicker than my old XP1700 (T'bred mind ;) ).

Thanks to all for their patience and advice. :)





/wanders off to MM to sell some old stuff <whistles>
 
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