What Motherboard for a mATX machine w/200W

[hasu]

Assembling a mATX machine for my friend. Best mATX powersupply I could find was Foxconn Allied ATX 200W from newegg.com

My friend already has a CDWriter, DVD Drive and two hard disks.
What are the best Mobo/CPU to go with them and the above 200W PSU?
Either Intel or AMD is fine.

(I am basically an AMD guy, but AMD has higher power requirements)

 

[Boonesmi]

km266 based boards work great with low power powersupplies

something like a biostar m7vig (support athlonXP up to xp2600+)
or you may want to look into a km400 based board which will support the newer athlonxp barton


edit to add
any more AMD doesnt have more "power requirements" then intel

 

[hasu]

What is the best power supply available for mATX format?

I saw one at PCDirect.com (this) rated for 300W. It is Powmax, I guess.
One at newegg.com Foxconn Allied ATX 200W Power Supply

But is there any better one?

 

[hasu]

I have one more question, which one will run cooler?

AMDXP-1800+DLT3C(1.5v)
or
Intel Celeron 1.8MHz ?

 

[Boonesmi]

no comparison as far as performance (the xp1800+ is much faster)

as for heat output i would imagine they are pretty close... its hard to say for sure since amd and intel measure heat output differently, so reading it off the official tech docs wouldnt be an accurate comparison of the two

 

[hasu]

I am going with AMD-1800+TBred-B.
Already ordered ASROCK K7-VM2 (based on KM266)

Originally I was planning for Shuttle MN31N (nforce2/MCP-T). But there are no mATX PSU above 200-300W.

 

[Boonesmi]

after my last post i came across this page (im not sure how accurate it is???)

but it calculates heat output for cpu's, they didnt have the 1.8ghz celeron listed. but i would imagine its pretty close to the watts of a P4 (again im not 100% sure of that either, since i havent used many intel cpu's recently)

anyway according to the site a 1.6a P4 outputs 64watts and an xp1800+ is 51watts (thats the tbred 1.5v xp1800+0

here is the link http://www.benchtest.com/calc.html





ive never tried an asrock board, but personally i really like the km266 chipset. hopefully your new mobo/cpu combo will work well for what your needing

 

[hasu]

ASRock is basically ASUS, I guess.

I was searching for the following comparison chart (which I saw long ago) Heat Dissipation: All AMD-CPUs Compared.

I got this comparison chart also. Duron / Celeron Comparison Table

I am convinced that I made the right decision

 

[Peter]

ASRock is not ASUS. It's a spinoff from ASUS, brought up to counter ECS's huge success with their business model of making solid, no-nonsense boards for rock bottom prices.

Anyhow. If you need something to fit a 200 Watt budget, I suggest you go for one of ECS's true all-in-one boards that even integrate a (Duron) CPU onto a mATX board. Some of those even have a power saving "mobile" Duron on!

Look for K7SOM+C, K7VMM2+C, those things.

 

[WobbleWobble]

I've built a couple of Asus A7N266-VM mATX systems and they've been nothing but flawless.

 

[hasu]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
I've built a couple of Asus A7N266-VM mATX systems and they've been nothing but flawless.

I am under the impression that nforce chips need more power.
What power supply did you use with them.

I am not getting any good power supply above 200W for mATX.

 

[optimistic]

Originally posted by: hasu
What is the best power supply available for mATX format?

I saw one at PCDirect.com (this) rated for 300W. It is Powmax, I guess.
One at newegg.com Foxconn Allied ATX 200W Power Supply

But is there any better one?

http://www.directron.com/eg265sve.html

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: hasu

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
I've built a couple of Asus A7N266-VM mATX systems and they've been nothing but flawless.

I am under the impression that nforce chips need more power.
What power supply did you use with them.

I am not getting any good power supply above 200W for mATX.

I run a 2400+@2.16ghz, 2x256mb 2700DDR, 120gb 8mb cache HDD, eVGA Personal Cinema, CD-RW/DVD combo drive, wireless PCI Network card, and case fan off a 200w mini ACME PSU in my Shuttle cube Small form factor no problems. Remember that mATX boards have shorter traces between components, ect and require less power consequently so you can run a normal desktop system's hardware off a smaller wattage quality PSU with mATX than you can with full ATX. Obviously you don't want to try to run 4 HDDs in RAID on that 200w PSU but the specs you have should work with that 200w no problem.

 

[Peter]

Shorter traces don't make for lower power consumption - who gave you that idea? This is so absurd ...

If the 200W PSU is real good (those in the Shuttles are) you'll get away with that. With an old unit salvaged from a machine two or three generations old, you won't.
Since a dying PSU tends to take a whole lot of expensive stuff to death along with it, I wouldn't push my luck on THAT.

 

[hasu]

Originally posted by: optimistic

Originally posted by: hasu
What is the best power supply available for mATX format?

I saw one at PCDirect.com (this) rated for 300W. It is Powmax, I guess.
One at newegg.com Foxconn Allied ATX 200W Power Supply

But is there any better one?

http://www.directron.com/eg265sve.html

Thank you optimistic, I got the enermax 250W from directron today!
I have ordered it on 21st (last tuesday). Looks very good. It fits perfectly into the mATX case.

 

[hasu]

Thanks for all the replies...

Here's the final configuration:

Motherboard : ASROCK K7-VM2 (Has built in 4xUSB2.0, 2xUSB2.0 header, NIC, Modem, Video, Sound and takes either PC133 or DDR2100)
CPU : AMD-1800+XP DLT3C @ 1.5v
RAM : 2x256 DDR (Kingston)
IDE1 : HDD : 120GB Seagate
IDE2: CDWriter
IDE3: DVD Drive
Power supply: Enermax 250W

Very good motherboard and Excellent CPU!!

DLT3C CPU has the best temperature I have ever seen, it runs so cold!!
(Only Celeron less than 1.2 GHz has lower temp)