Please help me find a SFF mobo

[kiwi32]

Hi guys,

I'm looking into building a SFF machine some time this year to replace my old PC and I need some help deciding what hardware to go with. I would like it to be a SFF PC but if its not feasible, power consumption and noise take priority.

Current/Old hardware:
Intel 2.8P4E / Asus P4P800 / ATi Radeon X800XL / 1g ram (not mine anymore, gave it to my father)
Macbook Pro (2g ram / 2.33ghz Core 2 duo)

I am looking for something that will play games smoother than my macbook pro (not that it doesnt do a good job for a notebook, it just gets really hot and the fans are a little annoying. I'd like to keep the notebook for things other than gaming) When I say play games I do not mean play crysis or anything but i would like to be able to play older games like Halflife 2/Battlefield2/GuildWars without much stress to the system.

The perfect system would consume little power and be silent while running idle or surfing the net with only a slight change in noise when experiencing low to moderate stress levels.


As I said earlier its not urgent and it can wait so if you guys have suggestions for future hardware that is alright too as long as its not an endless waiting game.

 

[IlllI]

shuttle is probably the best known company that makes sff systems. they make a variety of different configurations.


noise level also depends on which video card you will use. some of them come with rather loud fans

 

[kiwi32]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into the shuttles. I am planning on replacing the stock gpu fan for a quite one... the small fans that are put on most graphics cards are loud at high rpms.

what do you guys think about the mATX board Asus P5E-VM HDMI?

 

[IlllI]

well theres a difference between sff and matx. matx is larger than a sff. also you can buy a matx mobo and case and psu separately. the shuttle sff i was referring to comes with proprietary mobo, case and psu already assembled

 

[aceO07]

I have the Asus p5k-vm. It's nice, though I can't say I push its limits at all. Using Q6600 and 2gb ram. I undervolted my Q6600 to the lowest voltage it allowed.

I went for the p5k-vm since it has 2PCI slots, which I wanted for hdtv tuner and audio card(which I haven't installed yet). Though the p5e-vm hdmi seems nice with sata raid and onboard hdmi. Though in a micro case, you will probably only cram in 2-3 drives.

 

[kiwi32]

Originally posted by: clandren
well theres a difference between sff and matx. matx is larger than a sff. also you can buy a matx mobo and case and psu separately. the shuttle sff i was referring to comes with proprietary mobo, case and psu already assembled

I am aware that the mATX is nearly an ATX board but i have not been able to find anything smaller than mATX which offers PCIe. I really like the shuttle pc's but it would be great if i could put something together on my own. It just makes it that much more fun =)

Anyone know of any boards smaller than mATX with a PCIe slot?

Originally posted by: aceO07
I have the Asus p5k-vm. It's nice, though I can't say I push its limits at all. Using Q6600 and 2gb ram. I undervolted my Q6600 to the lowest voltage it allowed.

I went for the p5k-vm since it has 2PCI slots, which I wanted for hdtv tuner and audio card(which I haven't installed yet). Though the p5e-vm hdmi seems nice with sata raid and onboard hdmi. Though in a micro case, you will probably only cram in 2-3 drives.

I have read that the p5e-vm wont let you under voltage very far which is a bit of a shame although the same source did claim they could add the functionality with a bios firmware update.

would be nice to pop in a 45nm chip and under voltage it

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: kiwi32
Anyone know of any boards smaller than mATX with a PCIe slot?

Besides a Shuttle box?

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9642
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9803

There is supposedly also an Albatron mini ITX socket AM2 board with a PCI-E 16x slot, but good luck finding that anywhere.

 

[Zap]

BTW look at this thread

 

[IL2SturmovikPilot]

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: kiwi32
Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into the shuttles. I am planning on replacing the stock gpu fan for a quite one... the small fans that are put on most graphics cards are loud at high rpms.

what do you guys think about the mATX board Asus P5E-VM HDMI?

I for one find it to be a kick-ass motherboard, perhaps the best I've owned. It's based on Intel's G38 Express which is their latest in that area. This particular board uses Intel's newest ICH9R which means you get SATA RAID. It isn't a true SFF though, MicroATX tends to be considerably bigger than the Shuttles even with the Aspire cases. (EDIT: that's also noted above.) Some are luggable, though, with built-in handles and such. A decent number of MicroATX boards out there, and I think the P5E-VM is the best in its class. I THINK Gigabyte might also have one out but I haven't seen it. Kontron makes some REALLY small form factor motherboards. Shuttle does a very good job with their little boxes but they charge a bit more and sometimes, with their newest ones, they have teething problems and a lack of reliability. Mine's been great.

***EDIT*** It's based on the G35 Express. The ICH9R is NOT part of that chip set; Asus thoughtfully included it on this board anyway.

 

[DaveSimmons]

mATX is better than a shuttle in my opinion since you can replace any parts yourself in a couple of days via newegg instead of needing to deal with shuttle for parts.

Also, a case like an Antec NSK4480 is very quiet since the case fan and PSU fan are both much bigger than a shuttle's (bigger = runs much slower for the same airflow = quieter).

The NSK4400 I use for my work PC is close to slient, but it has a $30 cooler on the CPU and it's using onboard video.

For video, the nvidia 9600 or ATI 3870 are good choices for under $200, both will give a huge speed increase over the 800XL.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

If you're looking into silent, I sincerely recommend looking into an nVidia setup. Wait for the new chipsets to drop. If you combine it with a low wattage AMD you'll be even better. You can run integrated graphics while doing normal surfing, then when you start a game you'll always have your potent graphics card to crank up and use.

 

[mshan]

Check out http://www.silentpcreview.com

 

[WoodButcher]

P5K-VM is one of the best boards I've ever owned. I'd recommend it to anyone. The only downsides I've found are no raid, not stable no NB or SB vcore control for OC but other than that I have no bitch.
I'm thinking getting an 8800GT for the next upgrade.

 

[boomhower]

I would recommend the board in my sig. It updates most of the short comings of the Vm. It has raid and obviously HMDI. I have been very satisfied with it. It will do 500FSB on my E8400 without a hitch. The only thing I am fighting right now is Vdroop but there are mods to combat this but I have not had a chance to try them yet.

 

[WoodButcher]

I was joking when I cried about not stable^^^^^^^^^^ not many folks get the Q6600 to boot at 3.8 let alone run windows.
@ BoomHower- do you have NB- SB vcore on that board?

 

[D3xx]

The new nVidia 8200 and AMD 780G chipsets look good for AM2 systems. On Intel theres the G45. Both are very good.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: kiwi32
Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into the shuttles. I am planning on replacing the stock gpu fan for a quite one... the small fans that are put on most graphics cards are loud at high rpms.

what do you guys think about the mATX board Asus P5E-VM HDMI?

Well shucky darn, I just posted a thread about that.

Also, here's a very sweet looking AMD alternative, esp. if you want the best integrated video and HD playback without having to buy a video card. In fact, in retrospect, I might have gone for this if it had been out then. But I like the P5E-VM HDMI a lot.

 

[wwswimming]

what do you guys think about the mATX board Asus P5E-VM HDMI?

i was going to ask, what is a good micro-ATX m'board to use with a Q9450.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128085

that's a Gigabyte uATX with the G33 chipset.

\/ the P5E for $130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131237

i figure either of these boards will be good.

i wish Asus would give one of their micro-ATX boards the same however many
channel power supply they use on the M2N32 and their top level boards.

 

[Skott]

Currently the P5E-VM HDMI is the more popular mATX mobo due to its good performance and overclocking. The P5K-VM is equally good but has some different features and is a little lower on the overclocking potential. I'd suggest either of those two mobos. Just check which has the features you want and then go with that. Some new g35mATX pics showed up recently (probably from CEBIT) but no actual info about them so I dont see them coming out before April. The P5K-VM & P5E-VM HDMI is the best way to go right now as far as Intel CPU goes.