The Desktop PC Needs A Makeover

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I'm not sure if the gang at the Tech Report is trolling everyone or they actually believe that mATX motherboards should be the new default for desktop motherboards. The rationale is that, because the author isn't a power user / enthusiast, the industry standard should be mATX motherboards, no optical drives, smaller PSUs and so on. :eek:

  • Let's make microATX the new default for desktops.
  • Get rid of 5.25" bays. Just get rid of 'em. Optical media is dead.
  • Let's have smaller power supplies, too. Pretty much nobody needs a 1kW PSU.
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Dear Dumb Shit,

Speak with your wallet.

Sincerely,
Logic
 
This is silly even beyond the obvious silly. Most consumer PCs ARE already smaller, with their itty bitty cases, and teeny tiny little boxes. And for us enthusiasts, we have all the options in the world. A quick glance over at the case mod galley thread shows all kinds of cool and different cases. SOme of them very compact and quite sexy. And optical media is by no means dead. Silly noob.
 
There's everything from tiny microITX mobos to full size tremendously featured full size ATX boards and there are pico-powersupplies availalable and a plethora of cases. Choice is good.
 
I could very easily see mATX being the standard for desktops... the only real difference between the two is that mATX is 5 slots instead of 7.

You'd have to be running SLI or crossfire to even come close to running out of slots... though that said, mATX boards are still big enough to support tri-SLI.

Regular ATX will always be a staple in workstations, but there isn't much need for boards that large in desktops.
 
Well, this may fit many people, but certainly not me. Getting rid of optical drives? Heck no, I have 3 bookcases of movies and TV shows on BluRay and DVD, and I mostly watch them from my computer and my 27" monitor. MicroATX? Heck no! That would never fit my sound card, GTX680 video card, raid controller, and NIC. Power supplies are one area I can probably agree with him. Even at maximum, my system barely uses 400W, so an 800W power supply would be just fine for me.
 
Most of his "ideas" are already things you can do when building a PC with aftermarket parts. The rest is kinda stupid.

Also, yes you do need to clean out your laptop. Those things get dirty inside. You won't see it until you open it up.

The author needs to realize people are hungry for jobs, and there are a great many people that could do his better than he does.
 
Wow. Doesn't make techreport look very good.

One thing I would like to see is when you have usb and other cable ports above the drive bays (like my HAFx) the cables dangle over the optical drive bays so they interfere with the drive doors. drives me nuts.

I would love a case to come with a separate matching box that moved all these ports somewhere else on the desktop.
 
HardUp4HardWare said:
Wow. Doesn't make techreport look very good.

One thing I would like to see is when you have usb and other cable ports above the drive bays (like my HAFx) the cables dangle over the optical drive bays so they interfere with the drive doors. drives me nuts.

I would love a case to come with a separate matching box that moved all these ports somewhere else on the desktop.
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There are plenty of cases that don't put all the ports above the drive bays.
 
Author claims about his case being too big and having too much expansion room....ok then, buy a smaller case? Plenty of choices out there, dumbass. :rolleyes:

mATX is still not really suitable for SLI/CF because you can't fit anything bigger than a single slot card in the bottom.
 
Considering mATX is generally only really inadequate for tri- and quad-SLI/Crossfire situations, he makes a compelling argument for mATX being the defacto for desktops. He didn't say anything about ATX boards going away completely, and in fact he specifically suggests that ATX does stay around.

That said, mATX doesn't really get you much in terms of space-saving. In terms of really changing the desktop landscape...it won't. Many OEM systems already use mATX boards or boards similar in size to mATX. mATX only compels case manufacturers to shrink things down a bit to attract buyers who're looking for smaller systems. It isn't exactly a requirement that case manufacturers do that: supporting eight radiators or whatever isn't orthogonal to only fitting mATX boards.
 
I think the author needs to go buy a mac instead of a PC. He is not one of us.
 
Just wait till we seriously start trying to push 4K eyefinity/surround...

yeah, I don't think 1 PCIe slot is going to cut it
 
zero2dash said:
mATX is still not really suitable for SLI/CF because you can't fit anything bigger than a single slot card in the bottom.
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Uh... as long as there isn't some random tall component in the way, a two-slot card will fit in the last slot on a MicroATX motherboard without a problem.

Just need to make sure the case you pick has a 6th slot so that it will mount properly.
 
I agree that the pc needs a makeover. IMO most functions of an everyday computer doesn't need an abundance of pci slots. Take an itx with a pci-x16 with built in nic, usb's, sata, etc... Compared to the average user, the atx, and in most cases matx, are a waste of space. I have a matx and most of the space below the first slot is a waste.
 
mATX does not exceed 4 slots.


Unknown-One said:
I could very easily see mATX being the standard for desktops... the only real difference between the two is that mATX is 5 slots instead of 7.

You'd have to be running SLI or crossfire to even come close to running out of slots... though that said, mATX boards are still big enough to support tri-SLI.

Regular ATX will always be a staple in workstations, but there isn't much need for boards that large in desktops.
Click to expand...
 
Meh us [H] guys/gals have always been in the minority even when tower PCs were all the rage. I think we'll just become cooler and modern versions of what we were, like car enthusiasts over the ages.
 
Yes, I posted a response over there. I thought it was a sort of trolling/boredom/trying-to-think-of-something-to-write article, but I answered as though I took him seriously.

There is no single "desktop PC", that's the problem with what he wrote (and certainly they don't all ship with 1k-watt psu's, etc.) He was talking about *his* desktop, I guess--but a person's desktop can be whatever he wants it to be. Period. You pick the components and you build it yourself. Simple. If a person doesn't want to do that then he best take what he can get and adjust to it--either that or learn a few simple things and build your own. I haven't bought a pre-built OEM box since my last Micron system in 1995...;)
 
wonderfield said:
Considering mATX is generally only really inadequate for tri- and quad-SLI/Crossfire situations, he makes a compelling argument for mATX being the defacto for desktops. He didn't say anything about ATX boards going away completely, and in fact he specifically suggests that ATX does stay around.

That said, mATX doesn't really get you much in terms of space-saving. In terms of really changing the desktop landscape...it won't. Many OEM systems already use mATX boards or boards similar in size to mATX. mATX only compels case manufacturers to shrink things down a bit to attract buyers who're looking for smaller systems. It isn't exactly a requirement that case manufacturers do that: supporting eight radiators or whatever isn't orthogonal to only fitting mATX boards.
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Go read the Steam Hardware survey. Even among gamers people who actually have multiple gpus are a tiny minority.
 
wow -- remind me never to trust and or have computer work done by the retard that wrote that article.

If you have a ton of space in your desktop, sounds like you planned a pretty piss poor build. (not having a good plan or goal)

I'd love to see a tiny PSU push 2 or 3 7970's (much less fit them in the case). The options are out there if you want a tiny/silent PC -- and if you want that then build it, nobody is stopping you.

I see no reason for manufacturers to dumb down the PC even more - of course a large majority of regular people would get by fine with some integrated mATX solution. We are far from normal though.

Why not just cut the crap and get this guy an ipad, with some custom fisher price logos on it, and he will be happy as hell.
 
WOW, Sure if a lot of shit talking here about TR. At least they don't source half their "news" from gawker. And lets just forget that whole frame pacing thing that TR developed/discovered.
 
Pretty much agree with everyone here... article is pointless ranting...

The PC market would easily define his standard is users wanted smaller computers for the price they are offered.

There are a few brands that offer these in nice tiny packages, Shuttle comes to mind. Though that is custom MB.

If customers wanted smaller computers, HP/Dell etc would be selling them.

If and when they are popular enough, those same companies will be pushing them as a primary setup.

Pretty much the result is... don't have to do anything... it will take care of itself.
 
As a PC enthusiast I prefer having options and being able to build my version of the "dream machine" but the idea of standardizing connectors and integrating power delivery and I/O ports into the case makes a lot of sense to me.
The use of SFF in enthusiast components leaves a lot to be desired IMHO.
Here are my thoughts on changes to the existing form factors and standards that would have significant impact on SFF builds:
I would love to see a mobo that supports a way to mount a 2.5" drive to the bottom (solder side) so that there is no wiring to the drive. Another take on it would be to sacrifice a slot and have 2.5" drive mounts built into it.
Why are there no mini-ITX boards that use laptop-sized memory sticks?
What happened to he MXM video card form factor?
A mini-ITX board that combined both features would have room for a discrete video card and still have an available PCIe slot.
I guess what I am trying to say is that we already have small components that are designed for laptops with no performance penalty, why can't we use these on the desktop?
 
IMHO, mATX is a great idea. Most enthusiast boards can accommodate enough expansion to make a powerful system. I agree with with 5.25" bays too.

And let's make 500-700w gold PSU's a standard, in a smaller form factor, with a better ATX power plug (say, a 12 pin 14g cable, rather than a 24p 16g cable). Yeah. I can dream can't I?
 
I've never concurrently put all those expansion slots to use with an ATX board, much less with my mATX.
 
His idea is ok if you are a casual PC user but for a gamer you won't find a very powerful video card that will fit in a small case. When AMD 5870 came out I had to buy a new larger case so it would fit and the previous case was a mid-tower and not small.
 
rflcptr said:
I've never concurrently put all those expansion slots to use with an ATX board, much less with my mATX.
Click to expand...

no neither have I... actually for a while I used Shuttle SFF builds. All I needed was room for a good GPU, 1 hdd, and 1 BR drive...

I went to mid-tower for my last build because it was just a lot cheaper. I am sure I could have gone the matx (actually I might have lol) but a little wiggle room for future builds aka reuse case/PS was my intention. Also I got a underdesk mount so BR drive was still easily accessible.

Though everyone has different needs/wants. Making matx "standard" is sort of a stupid thought because matx is itself a standard. Vendors just need the demand and sales to warrant prime marketing/offers for said product.
 
There has been a shift in the enthusiast market with more variety and availability of smaller than ATX form factors in the past 5 or so years. MicroATX, MiniITX, and some other obsure/proprietary form factors have been OEM favorites for pushing 2 decades now because enterprise customers (where the real sales volume comes from) have been buying smaller footprint systems with each recurring upgrade/new deployment cycle.

Hell, I just switched to a uATX system earlier this year and I absolutely love it. The budget-minded chassis I selected is doing a very fine job with airflow and cooling, plus it has 5 expansion slots so I could go SLI/Xfire with double slot width GPU's and run in to zero installation problems.

I do like having such a huge variety of motherboards and cases in each form factor to choose from, though. Anything one would want to build, can be done, and done easily with a range of budgets.
 
I have full ATX mb and use only one slot for video card. I thought of buying a PCI-E soundcard but they keep putting the PCI-Ex1 slots right next to the main video card slot so that makes them useless because many video cards cover 2 - 3 slots.
 
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