Best P4 micro atx motherboard?

[TJ69]

Whats the best micro ATX motherboard for P4s right now?

Seems to be alot of discussion on micro atx for AMD but none on the P4. I may go with an AMD nforce2 board if I can't find any good intel alternatives.

Thanks.

 

[Vette73]

Someone asked that the other day. I looked around and was suprised to see that there were no real bright stars as far as mATX and P4 boards go. Maybe someone has seen one that stands out.

But the 2 best small boards I have seen are either the VIA M10000 setup or a board based on nForce2 with the MCP-T southbridge

 

[oldfart]

I'm not really into the uATX stuff, but there is a company called Intel (maybe you've heard of them), that has a bunch of P4 uATX boards. You didn't mention what features you are looking for, so its hard to make a recommendation. Check Googlegear. They have a fairly decent selection.

 

[onelin]

Best? I'm not sure on best, but MSI makes some good ones. I've dealt with a few micro-atx P4 systems with them. I can't seem to find the model names quickly since MSI's site doesn't have a micro atx _section_ you just sort of have to guess which 845 board it might be, click, and see if it's micro atx. :-/

 

[TJ69]

Thanks for the help.

I guess I should've said a micro atx board with oc potential and the latest chipsets. I couldn't find any with the sis 655. Aopen seems to have some for all other chipsets, but noone sells them.

Newegg's search/filter didn't do a very good job, so I manually sorted through the boards. I found the MSI 845GEM which seems to be the winner. There was a liteon, but I couldn't find much information on it. There were a bunch of intel boards, but they were using older chips and were quite pricy and lacked some features.

The MSI looks to have the most control. With its fuzzy logic software, you can supposedly control the fsb and voltage through windows. This may come in handy if I need to undervolt or plan to overclock.

 

[oldfart]

Intel brand mobos are not (obviously) for the overclocker. They do offer uATX boards with the same 845GE chipset as the MSI. MSI boards are known to be poor overclockers. I have no exp with that board, but would be surprised if it were a good overclocker. I looked at Googlegear and Gigabyte has some boards based on 845G and 845GE. Asus has a couple based on 845G there as well. You may want to look at them also.

 

[ALstonLoong]

Using p4s533-mx ......with ati videocard . As good as atx in overclocking.

 

[TJ69]

I got the 845GEM today. I'm using it to type this message.

The fuzzy logic software is crap. It does not let me adjust the vcore or fsb. The bios does let me set the fsb.

I was dissappointed, but it may still be ok for my application. Not sure if it worth the shipping cost to return it and buy something else.

 

[oldfart]

I may be building a uATX for a friend. The Gigabyte GA-8GEM667K is looking pretty good. I never even consider MSI when looking for a mobo.

Now to find a decent case.....

 

[D3xx]

Epox do a uATX 845pe board - the 4PEAMI. Supposedly has full oc and
voltage settings in bios. I havent been able to find a review anywhere.