micro-atx question

[tcc2f6]

hello-

i was looking at cases, and for the heck of it i checked out some desktop looking ones and fell in love with the coolermaster 600

i've never really read much about micro atx, so i apologize if these are dumb questions, but i was curious if there are any issues/problems with going micro atx... micro atx just requires a smaller mobo, right? does this usually limit RAM, and PCI slots? (and i'm assuming regular AGP cards and PCI cards fit so you wouldn't have to get all new hardware, right?) Right now I have a huge thermaltake tower and would love to go smaller (and nicer looking), but would cooling be a problem when going so small?

thanks
tyler

 

[Xtian]

I'm a big microATX fan.
Sometimes there are memory limitations. My Nforce 2 mobo only has 2 slots.
Of course the number of PCI slots is limited to 3-4.
I've never seen a MATX board with raid, not even one with SATA.
Getting anything out of using MATX boards means using MATX cases.
Most MATX cases only has room for a MATX PSU, and those are
usually no more than 200w. Seventeam has a 250w PSU.
Some MATX cases has room for full size PSU, and that is what I use.
I use a cheftec MATX tower. It's not intended for full size PSU, but it
is just enough deep to fit one and still have room for a low-depht
DVD/CDRW. I use LG DVD/CDRW combos. These are great drives IMO
and they are an inch less deep than most other drives. It is still a
very tight fit between the drive and the PSU but it works.
Cooling can be alittle difficult. Not all MATX boards have mounting holes
for those large HSF units. Many also have capacitors placed too close
to the CPU socket to allow room for big HSF.
To keep my system cool I usually mod the cases slightly.
In the front i cut an opening for a 12cm intake fan. Then I use one
8cm exhaust fan and a dual fan PSU. That way I get about the same
cubic feet of intake and exhaust so the air pressure in the box
is normal.
There aro also the so called slim-cases. They are pretty difficult
to work with, especially when it comes to cooling.
Many MATX MB are also too deep to fit in the popular Aopen slim-cases.
It's also difficult to fins any good graphics or sound cards in the
low-profile format required by those cases.
The slim cases usually comes with only 150 or 180W. I have, however,
one aopen slim-case with a 150W psu that is running an Athlon 1.2Ghz
CPU. Those 150W from the Aopen cases seem to be of good quality.
Currently I'm using a XP2500+ @ 2127GHz and a radeon 9500@9700
in my MATX box, together with a NFORCE2 MB, 2x256Mb PC3200 DDR,
3 HD and a DVD/CDRW and a 450W dual fan PSU.
No need for any other PCI cards as the MB has firewire, 6xUSB2.0,
NIC and the NVIDIA soundstorm APU.
No stability or heat problems. The system is very
small and quiet.

/xtian

 

[TonyH]

A microATX will require a MicroATX mobo. A full size ATX board will not fit.

Most of the newer boards will include onboard sound, lan and probably video. The number of PCI slots will be limited to three or four and there may not be an AGP slot. The memory is usually limited to two slots but you may possibly find a few with three.

Whether you'll have problems migrating to a smaller case will depend on how much you have in your present system and how much of it you'll to transfer over to this case. If you decide to take advantage of the onboard devices and not use expansion cards you may be able to keep airflow optimized and not notice too much of a loss in cooling capability. But do take note that most MicroATX boards don't accomodate the larger HSF's.

 

[hans007]

some microatx cases use low profile half height slots. so that could be a problem.


a lot of cases use 200watt or less power supplies (i have an inwin v506 before, and you could put a normal power supply in it though).


the really nice slimmer cases tend to have the special power supplies though. i have an inwin l545p now (actually 2 of them) and you cant use very large heatsink fan combos if you want to have a cdrom in there because the cdrom will be slightly over the fan or not even fit if the hsf is too tall.


usually microatx is 1agp and 3 pci slots. which is plenty. most boards have so much onboard you dont need to even use cards (both my boards have onboard, video sound and lan, so all 4 slots free on both my machines)