The move to uATX

t_aitch · 13 Feb 2007 at 11:18

After watercooling throughout my student life, ive started to lose interest, and the vibrating pumps and shear size of my rig is starting to get on my nerves a little.

I want to downsize to a smaller case, preferable a Micro ATX case like the Silverstone Sugo, or LianLi V300.

I was just wondering about the pros and cons of this.

I currently overclock my 4400+ on my DFI Nf4 board, obviously there arent any overclocking oriented uATX boards out there, but i would like some recommendations on some that would offer some oc'ing features.

Also, size is a bit of an issue. Basically the only two components i want to change is my Case and Mobo, and get a decent (quiet) cpu fan.

But the two components that im worried about getting in there are:

My ATI x1800XT and my Silverstone Strider ST60F PSU.

The x1800xt is quite a long card, and i was wondering if i would run into any problems with this, and also, in the future when i take the leap to a DX10 card eventually.

The Silverstone PSU is about 5cm longer than the conventional powersupplies, and again, would i run into any problems with this?

Any help would be absolutely spot on.

Ps. Any comments on the advantages of a uATX setup would be greatly appreciated!

t_aitch · 15 Feb 2007 at 08:43

Anyone?

t_aitch · 16 Feb 2007 at 08:17

Thanks for the info guys.

Im guessing that a gamer oriented 939 board isnt going to be released any time soon though, now that am2 is unleashed.

Im not that bothered about sli to be perfectly honest, and this will probably only be a temp motherboard (6months perhaps) while i save for maybe a c2d setup perhaps.

Just out of interest arc, what is the decent sli uATX board that you speak of?

I may be able to track it down on the bay.

t_aitch · 16 Feb 2007 at 12:58

Yeah i had a Zalman CNPS7000 on my old htpc and that was awesomely quiet. I think ill go for another Zalman GPU and CPU cooler for this. And perhaps opt for a resorator sometime down the line.

Thanks for the motherboard options, helped a lot.

Ive sent an email to silverstone about the PSU, so hopefully theyll get back to me soon.

t_aitch · 16 Feb 2007 at 13:07

Woohoo, found the DFI board above.

Gonna order!

Thanks for this guys.

EDIT: Actually ive had more of a read around the website and ive just realised that the DFI one is an ATI board, and the Biostar seems to get more praise.

I see that the Biostar definitely supports Raid 0, which is quality for my Raptors, however, there are only two ports on board, so my spare drive (ignore my sig specs, out of date) which is a Hitachi 250GB will have to go in an enclosure of some sort.

Can anyone recommend a good one?

t_aitch · 19 Feb 2007 at 09:54

Managed to get a Biostar Jobby for the handsome price of £50, couldnt find the eVGA one anywhere at all.

This means though, that im going to have to get an external caddy for my spare drive (SATA2).

Can anyone recommend me a decent one?

t_aitch · 19 Feb 2007 at 19:39

Kezmo said:
What case have u got/getting ? u can mod the drive holder in the sugo to hold 3 drives or stick 1 under the optical drive..tbh theres lots of places u could stick another drive in the case

Its not a case of the case (erk) its becuase of the mobo, it only has two SATA ports

I guess i could get a SATA card which would eliminate my problems completely.

I know that ill be able to slot a drive into the spare 5 1/4 drive bay, which is sweet.

t_aitch · 20 Feb 2007 at 00:25

Duncan888, my apologies for being so blunt, but your very ignorant to think that "a Micro ATX case wont have room for so many drives anyway".

As said earlier, the Silverstone Sugo has two 5 1/4" drive bays and the spec sheet also says that it has 2 x 3 1/2" drive bays. So if i really wanted to, im sure its not completely impossible to get four in there, somehow.

Why i need so many sata ports? I have three drives thats why, as said earlier as well.

Can you please read over the thread before making comments next time please

Cheers bud.

t_aitch · 8 Mar 2007 at 10:51

Yeah silverstone confirmed that for me too, but they said i might need to watch the length of the CDROM drive.

joeyh51 i got it from an auction site, but it was from america and i had to pay import taxes, which blew a little,

Im trying to get hold of a second hand SUGO, not having much luck at the mo.