microATX vs ATX mobo

[nguyen10251]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but whats the difference between the two? I'm building a budget gaming rig and the microATX boards seem significantly cheaper than the full sized ATX boards. I hear there's like less expansion slots of something but I only need slots for my video card and possibly a sound card i think, so can I just go with the microATX boards?

 

[fffblackmage]

You answered your own question. microATX is just a smaller physical board, so there's less space for expansion cards (PCI slots, PCIe slots). That's it.

Oh, a lot of microATX boards seem to have only 2 slots for RAM, if that matters to you.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Some or all of this depending on the board:
- fewer slots
- fewer ports
- fewer RAM slots
- not as good cooling of chipset (lower overclocking potential)
- simpler power management (lower overclocking)
- might not be room around CPU socket for some third-party heatsinks (but this can happen on full-size boards too, something to look for in reviews)

 

[Blain]

Micro-ATX MBs have come a long way in the last few years.
With the higher board quality as well as "onboard" component quality, I'm seriously considering making the move to these smaller boards.
I'd like to go Mini-ITX but they just don't offer enough expansion slots for me.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm thinking mini-ITX for my next gaming PC since there are boards with 4 SATA ports and a PCIe-16 slot. Stuff it into a Silverstone SG06 or SG08 and it's half the size of my current system.

(I usually buy one $300 video card and $200-300 CPU, not a monster system.. My current build from 2008 is an E8400 and ATI 4870-512.)

 

[Axon]

I love my micro-ATX LAN rig. I really couldn't tell you the difference between my ATX X58 board and my AMD3 Micro-ATX other than the 2 PCI-E slots and tri-channel RAM, but that would be the same if I had an ATX AM3.

 

[Zap]

The only difference between ATX and mATX based on the specification is the bottom three slots. That is all. Any boards "missing" RAM slots or anything like that is just cost cutting to make it as cheap as possible. It is not part of the specification. Look at socket 1366 mATX motherboards - all of them (MSI, EVGA, DFI, Asus x2) have had six RAM slots.

Basically any perceived difference beyond three fewer expansion slots is purely a cost/design choice and not part of the specification.

BTW it is possible to make monster gaming rigs that are small. Friend of mine runs dual GTX 260 in SLI and an overclocked Core i7 920 with 6GB RAM, an SSD and two HDDs in a Cooler Master Elite 341 case with an 800W PSU.

 

[piasabird]

Well the cases for a full-size ATX case usually is less crowded and has more room for a larger video card and also has better air flow. Also a lot of the ATX motherboards typically are better suited for overclocking. This may not be true in all cases.

A lot of ATX motherboards are made for integrated systems with no video card, or with fewer options in the BIOS for overclocking. This may have been more true in the past, than today.

There have been some newer motherboards like ZOTAC that are offering wireless MATX/Mini ITX motherbords. Also some vendors like Gigabyte have been making some MATX motherboards with 2 x16 with crossfire or SLI, and things like firewire and USB 3.0.

If you plan on putting a MATX motherboard in a smaller MATX case make sure the video card you want will actually fit in the case.

Beware of some of the MATX motherboards which are built cheaper and designed mostly as office computer motherboards.