Micro ATX advice

doccy

Just looking for a bit of advice. I'm building a p.c. for my folks and I think I'm going to use a micro ATX board. I built a PC before but is there anything I should look out for if I'm using this kind of motherboard.

I'll use a standard Intel pentium dual core processor, a sata hard drive and dvd drive, compatible ram. I'm presuming I'll need to pick up a graphics card (?).
I should have an OS sorted too.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone has had any problems using these motherboards before. The only thing I'm finding is the cases seem pretty dear because I'm trying to bring it all in under 300.

The Motherboard I'm looking at is a Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L over at Komplett, though they don't seem to be overstocked in them.

Solitaire

Depends on what you intend on doing with the machine but the G41 chipset has integrated graphics so you might not need a graphics card.

doccy

I'm not 100 per cent sure to be honest but it might be used as a HTPC mainly for watching movies, internet and maybe word processing. I'll probably do some burning and encoding on it too.

Solitaire

What kind of encoding? A cheap-ish graphics card could greatly expedite the process in certain applications (recent versions of Espresso and PowerDirector) but its far from essential.

doccy

Nah it'd just be something along the lines of handbrake, back up of dvds etc. I'll probably pick up a cheapish graphics card.
I'm more worried if you would lose performance or reliability to be honest.

Solitaire

So long as you stick with the G41 chipset (which has an integrated GMA4500 GPU) you don't need a graphics card. The GMA4500 can handle HD content fine so long as the CPU is better than that Atom trash

doccy

Cool, thats good news. Can I ask where you might look for a decent priced case?
I'm looking at elara, komplett and Misco?

Solitaire

Oh dear... there aren't really any good mATX cases out there at the moment except the odd dodgy eBay/Dabs mini-tower

What type of case do you want for this? Cheap, mATX, slimline or media/HTPC? If you want a decent mini-tower or desktop, expect to pay more money than you would for even a superior midi-tower nowadays. Slimline cases are even worse, but that's becuase they typically come with a non-dire low-end PSU. Media centre cases are more expensive still if they have an integrated iMon or similar, but c'mon, it comes with an iMon!

doccy

The only case I've found that seems okay is this http://www.misco.ie/productinformation/~Q116123~WW~/Antec%20NSK%202480%20Desktop%20mATX%20PC%20Case.htm
But it's 110 euro :eek:
Even on ebay shipping costs are around 30 stirling for cases.

Solitaire

That's ****! :mad: You could probably get an Antec MicroFusion for less!! :eek:

Not only are the three stores pretty mediocre price-wise, they just don't have a good selection (barely any in fact!) of mATX cases. You might have to look further afield I'm afraid, or put up with a slightly incogruous midi-tower

How much have you got already or are you still pricing? Its always best to get a case with a ton of other stuff as well as you're always going to get hit with stiff shipping charges buying a case

doccy

It's a good point. I kind of like elara and komplett in that you can collect the stuff.
I'm beginning to think maybe I should just buy a cheap and nasty case for the moment and take my time sourcing a decent mATX and transfer everything over when I do.

Actually this is delivered from Amazon for 67euro and seems to fit the motherboard.

Solitaire

Most things will fit an mATX mobo, the issue is that the average midi-tower is hardly a discrete object

"Cheap and Nasty" is often hard to countenance due to the high shipping costs you usually get stuck with for cases. A "cheap" but good quality midi-tower will set you back €30-40, but add shipping and it becomes €50-70 Given that you can get high-end cases for €100-120 shipped you start to wonder if you'd have been better off with just ponying up the dosh for the better case in the first place...

This is a nice example of a proper compact HTPC case. Expensive, but undeniably awesome. That's a high-quality, low-noise case with built-in iMon and a 350W PSU that's actually worth using and not stripping out and binning (and in smaller cases you're often stuck with the PSU! :eek: )

doccy

Damn that is a nice case lol.

I'm stuck on a budget though and I could get a gigabyte motherboard and the above case for the same price delivered.

But it is a beauty

Chosen

I've built a mATX case before for home theater purposes, but no matter how you put it, mATX is still huge for a sitting room.
You're better off with something like this or this.

The first one is sexier (size is like a small wireless router), comes with 2Gb of RAM and a 320Gb HDD, while the 2nd one is slightly bigger (think of an external DVDROM) and it's a barebones system (you'll have to buy RAM and HDD separately.
On the other hand, the first one can only take an external DVDRW (say this one or this one) while the second one already comes with an internal slimline DVDRW drive.
They are both carrying an Atom cpu (2 & 4 threads respectively for the two systems) and they are members of the Nvidia ION family (have an onboard Nvidia graphics card, multiple times better than any onboard Intel gfx).


I would strongly recommend it, especially the first one as it's sexier (important factor for a HTPC imho) and it fits in your budget even after you add the external DVD recorder.

doccy

Thanks for that Chosen, the second one in particular is interesting.
I suppose I'm trying to keep the options of OS open as well. With an Intel dual core chip and gigabyte board I have the choice of windows 7, Ubuntu or OSX.

doccy

Solitaire wrote: »

Most things will fit an mATX mobo, the issue is that the average midi-tower is hardly a discrete object

"Cheap and Nasty" is often hard to countenance due to the high shipping costs you usually get stuck with for cases. A "cheap" but good quality midi-tower will set you back €30-40, but add shipping and it becomes €50-70 Given that you can get high-end cases for €100-120 shipped you start to wonder if you'd have been better off with just ponying up the dosh for the better case in the first place...

This is a nice example of a proper compact HTPC case. Expensive, but undeniably awesome. That's a high-quality, low-noise case with built-in iMon and a 350W PSU that's actually worth using and not stripping out and binning (and in smaller cases you're often stuck with the PSU! :eek: )

In the end I am going for this case. Elara are selling it for 104 and I managed to wangle a few more sheckles for the build. Thanks for the advice!