Please Suggest the best Micro atx Board

[thebestMAX]

Thinking of building a new sff system with either the Shuttle SN45g case or the Antec ARIA. The Antec takes the micro ATX so might be more vesatile.

Would like on board sound, 10/100 and Nvidia chipset.

SATA not necessary. Going to use 1700XP proc and Crucial PC2100 ram, 40M Maxtor drive.

Suggestions appreciated.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I didn't think about the Aria when you ask about the SN45G, it's kinda new still so I haven't added it to my brain pan yet. Since you didn't mention vid card I'd suggest the MN31N since it has MCP-T, G4 MX IGP, and I've built a couple systems with it and they are all chugging along beautifully, even with a 1700+@166fsb.

Edit: I keep trying to sell you a Shuttle don't I?

 

[thebestMAX]

HeeHee, Thanks!

Im leaning that way but the 300 watt P/S and the ANTEC name (I have 3 SX1030Bs) and the upgradeability to possible new standards intrigue me.

If they only took a standard ATX mb Id be fat!

MN31N is what brand/case? Shuttle I guess . I have vid card already also, 8500le for now.

EDIT: what part of Fl are you in?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The MN31N really is a solid lil' board and if that's a decent 1700+ setting the fsb to 166 is no sweat. I used T-Bred A's to do it. My mom-in-law has one of the systems I built and it scores 5000+ in 3Dmock2k1 with the IGP, not too shaby. It would make a good 2nd or 3rd system and that aria does look pretty nice.

yep, it's a shuttle

edit: there's a agp slot so you can slap that 8500le in there too if you want.

 

[thebestMAX]

1700xp had been running a stable 2.1G for over a year so Id say its a good one. Same for the ram I want to use.

Ill definately look at your suggestion, know you are one of the more knowledgeble helpful people here. Bought my EpoX boards on your and whats his names suggestions. (Alzheimers, I guess. Cant remember his name )

That board have sound??

 

[Vette73]

Yea I agree the Shuttle MN31N is a great nForce2 IGP board.

With the MCP-T southbridge you get the soundstorm sound, so great sound and saves soem CPU cycles.
Also has firewire header on board.

 

[thebestMAX]

Thanks, Guys

One more question. How is the video on that MN31N board??? Might just use it for a while before I put in the 8500le.

Probably be fine for what I want to use this guy for in any case.

 

[Vette73]

The video is like a GF4 MX420. If you use 2 slabs of ram, to enable the Dual Ch memory, then the performance in games will be very good for onboard.
Also the board has DUAL video out so you can even hook up t monitors.

 

[EvilYoda]

I'm actually looking to build a new system too, with the same parts/requirements. Antec Aria with nForce2 mATX board. I was looking at the Shuttle mobo as well, but I need a few things cleared up, if someone could help:

NewEgg says "Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC650E 6-Channel Audio", so does the board have the SoundStorm chipset or not?

Other than that, I'm not sure what to do about the video...the dual onboard VGA would be nice, but my main problem right now is that my TV still only accepts composite (saving up for FP), so there's 2 ways I could do this: Shuttle dual-VGA, with one VGA->component to Denon 3805, which can down-convert it to composite for the TV. OR, could you suggest another mATX nForce2 board with TV-out? In which case I'd just attach an s-video to composite converter.

So, other than the Shuttle, what else has the SoundStorm chipset (not much gaming, lots of movies and music...if the onboard is good enough, then I won't have to throw my GTXP in there), and good performance?

The other parts will be a 2500+/2600+ mobile Barton, 2x 256 memory, 120 & 80 gig ATA133 7200RPM HDDs, NEC 8X DVD+/-.

Thanks guys.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The MN31N has the MCP-T southbridge but you have to buy the brackets for IEEE1394 and S/PDIF seperately, and if you use the analog and not the SPDIF you have everything processed through teh ALC650 anyways so besides CPU utilization being a bit lower the sound probably won't change much and you'll have to remap the ports for the mic and line in to the rear and LFE/center channels. That makes me think you might be better off with the Albatron KM18G Pro 2.0 because it has tv-out but no MCP-T and you can just go ahead and use your sound card with it.

 

[cheapgoose]

hope you guys don't mind me jumping in here with a question.

I'm looking to build a HTPC, i was looking at the A7N266-VM, but if you guys wouldnt' mind listing some boards that you would use, that'd be great.

thanks

 

[EvilYoda]

DAPUNISHER, thanks for the help. I would actually be looking to use the digital output, but yeah, the sound isn't a big deal...I'm mainly looking to build an "in-between" computer, since I'll be building another fullblown HTPC down the road, and then I can use all the onboard stuff from the nForce2.

Still have to figure out the TV-out situation...the dual VGA would be nice, especially if I went with dual LCDs and not a single large 20" in the future...bah. decisions.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: cheapgoose
hope you guys don't mind me jumping in here with a question.

I'm looking to build a HTPC, i was looking at the A7N266-VM, but if you guys wouldnt' mind listing some boards that you would use, that'd be great.

thanks

If the primary use will be for HTPC the A7N266-VM is actually a great board IMO. You get the Dolby Digital, support for up to the 2400+ realistically since the 266fsb version 2600+ is becoming fairly rare, and IGP good enough for HTPC use. They have the TV-out bracket for it too
here

Now if you believe it'll need to handle some gaming then the Albatron or Shuttle mentioned above are nice choices if you can live without the MCP-T features on the Albatron and tv-out for the MN31N. There's the Biostar M7NCG 400 that@$65 leaves the money to purchase a cheap TV-out vid card as well, the one real minus again being the lack of the MCP-T.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: thebestMAX
Thanks, Guys

One more question. How is the video on that MN31N board??? Might just use it for a while before I put in the 8500le.

Probably be fine for what I want to use this guy for in any case.

As long as you are running at least 333DDR dual channel synch mode the video is surprising for on-board and handles light gaming duties well. I've played MoH:AA, UT2k3, Ghost Recon @8x6 med to low details just fine. The 2D IQ isn't as good as the 8500LE but it's not enough to warrant serious consideration unless you are uber-particular in my mind.

EvilYoda, You could grab the Biostar and an inexpensive AGP card as I listed above for a bit more money given that the MCP is OK by you.

 

[cheapgoose]

thanks guys. I'm gonna go hunt for another a7n266

 

[BFG9000]

I'm also building a similar PC. I just picked up the Aria case, it's very nice. I intend to game on this PC and use it as a HTPC. A Barton 2500 w/ 512M @ 333MHz and a Radeon 9600 Pro on any nForce2 chipset should hold me for a while I hope, even through Half-Life2/Doom3 without *all* the details turned up

I checked nVidia's site for motherboards and they do not show any M-ATX boards using SoundStorm. Some boards do say the use the MCP-T southbridge, but that apparently does not mean SoundStorm certified in itself. The only non-ATX MBs nVidia shows as SoundStorm are 2 Shuttle SFF systems, SN-45G and SN-41G2v2. Link: http://www.nvidia.com/object/motherboards.html


At the moment I'm considering Asus A7N8X-VM/400, Chaintec 7NIL1 and now the Shuttle MN31/N. I consider the IGP versions even though I intend to use a video card. Important to me is the right number of headers for my front panel connections and sound quality, otherwise I expect any of them to perform reasonably well for gaming and HTPC use. I have not looked into any Via chipsets though :\

Hope some of that helps someone, comments appreciated.

 

[cheapgoose]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: cheapgoose
hope you guys don't mind me jumping in here with a question.

I'm looking to build a HTPC, i was looking at the A7N266-VM, but if you guys wouldnt' mind listing some boards that you would use, that'd be great.

thanks

If the primary use will be for HTPC the A7N266-VM is actually a great board IMO. You get the Dolby Digital, support for up to the 2400+ realistically since the 266fsb version 2600+ is becoming fairly rare, and IGP good enough for HTPC use. They have the TV-out bracket for it too
here

Now if you believe it'll need to handle some gaming then the Albatron or Shuttle mentioned above are nice choices if you can live without the MCP-T features on the Albatron and tv-out for the MN31N. There's the Biostar M7NCG 400 that@$65 leaves the money to purchase a cheap TV-out vid card as well, the one real minus again being the lack of the MCP-T.

two more questions. the av thingy that you linked only shows that it's compatible with the newer a7n8x-vm model, i checked asus.com and they say the same thing. are they just not listing the a7n266-vm ? or are they not compatible.

thanks