What's a decent uATX mobo?

[bluemax]

Things I'm looking for in a motherboard....

SIZE: must be uATX!

1AGP, 3PCI much preferred. AMR/CNR slots are a waste. :| DDR is a given, I suppose. I can live with that. 🙂

Platform: Haven't firmly decided AMD vs. Intel yet. Might have to go Intel because this will be a micro-case setup and I don't want to have to worry about overheating....

Price: cheap is good. 🙂

Quality: stable but not overly fancy overclocking as I might not be doing much of that... then again. 😛

Future: The more it supports processors into the future means less upgrade jitters for me. 😉

USB 2.0 is high on the list.

ONBOARD Sound & Video: Would be very nice, if they're decent quality. I AM NOT A 3D GAMER as a general rule, but I do appreciate good audio quality. Might even go with a SB Live card for use with soundfonts. (No other card can handle SoundFonts so don't give me the "eww SB!" routine!) 😉


Any suggestions to get me going? 😛 I'm thinking that the Celeron 2.0 overclock would be pretty nice for everything *I* do.... though a tiny bit more cash would get a 1.7a P4 that would perform better in certain apps.... only games?

 

[Remedy]

Asus Nforce 1. Mine is up for grabs.

 

[tart666]

Yep, Asus A7N266-VM-AA. $69 shipped from newegg.

The best budget uATX board out there.

 

[bluemax]

I know the nForce220 video is sluggish at best, but is the 2D output still rather clear/sharp? Onboard sound "nForce" quality or some el-cheapo onboard?

NCIX Canada had it on sale until today.... 🙁

 

[tart666]

I don't have the links, but both video and sound quality seem pretty good to me. It also comes with an SPDIF breakout panel for all your digital sound needs...

 

[pukemon]

Yeah I'll second the Asus A7N266-VM. Just make sure you are using two sticks of DDR and everything will work very nicely. The video is definitely usable and the sound is better than most built in sound chips.

 

[bluemax]

Sounds like a GO to me! 🙂 And it's easily available....
I can't help but be concerned about a hot AMD chip in a tiny case.......

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: bluemax
I can't help but be concerned about a hot AMD chip in a tiny case.......

Don't be. Just make sure you've got good airflow (like an exhaust fan right besides the CPU) and it should be kept nice and cool. If you're really concerned about airflow, build some ducting.

- M4H

 

[Swanny]

I agree that the Asus A7N266-VM is the best mATX board out there in price/quality. I wouldn't be worried about AMD chips overheating. I think people blow that way out of proportion. It really shouldn't be a problem.

 

[mechBgon]

I've found that the 2D quality is not as sharp as I'd like on the A7N266-VM but I still like them very much.

 

[Lonyo]

Your worried about heat, then talk of overclocking a Celery.
You migh as well buy a slower t-bred and run it stock, or uunderclock, and you'll still get similar levels of performance to an overclocked celery.
Plus its possibly cheaper.

 

[bluemax]

It's got the GOOD onboard sound too, doesn't it? 🙂

It's tempting... verrry tempting.

Almost moreso than the Shuttle nF2 cube.... I just can't justify the price tag of the shuttle, when a mini-case and this ASUS board come to only 1/3 of the Shuttle's price!! Of course, the shuttle has a much better internal video "worth" another $50 in comparison.... but that's really the only major upgrade.... Well, USB2.0 might be nice too. *sigh*

Newegg has a microATX nF2 board, but they don't sell to Canada. Too bad.... I'll just have to get the nF1 and get a video card for it.
Something with dual-monitor output. 😉 I'm almost completely sold on it.

 

[mechBgon]

The onboard sound is the same as on the Soundstorm-certified nForce2 boards. The retail board comes with both optical and coax S/PDIF-out too. 🙂

 

[bluemax]

Here I was almost dead-set in my purchase decision, then I find that VERY nice MSI box... *slobber*drool*slurp* :Q 😛
Of course, if the MSI "MEGA" costs too much, this will be an excellent "fall back". 😉

 

[RanDum72]

Just make sure you are using two sticks of DDR and everything will work very nicely.

The Asus A7N266-VM is based on the nforce1 220 chipset which is single channel DDR only. Two sticks won't make a difference so the choice would be to go with a single, large capacity stick of DDR.