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Looking for a Mini Atx

S

Superfly3176

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
4,770
Im looking for a board that will fit an Aspire qpack or Antec Aria. That is Socket A, has an agp port and has onboard video. If i build one I'll probably use onboard video for awhile but I'd like to upgrade to like a 6600gt or 6800 vanilla.

It will be used at school but my main thing is that I want to keep the board as close to 50 as possible and it has to play games, I know some of the VIA chipsets arent to good at them. The 266 ones anyone I don't know if the 400 series has been any better.

Anyway I was looking at this board. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131509 and depending on the expensive of the board it will be paired with a 2400 or 2600+.

Thanks for all the help.
 
That's an alright choice but I would suggest that you get a nForce 2 based chipset since it comes with geforce 4 mx based onboard graphics which is superior to the s3.

If I were you, this is what I would get
Biostar m7ncg

Hope that helps. I believe you get dual channel as well with the nforce board whereas the via chipset doesn't hve dual channel.
 
The S3 for onboard graphics is crud. Try to find a nForce2 chipset with onboard. And a cheap AGP card is going to be better than any onboard found on the socket A boards.

*EDIT for post that wasn't there before I started typing :D )

I have a Biostar (some don't like that brand but they have never failed me) M7NCG (not the 400 version ) that I don't use anymore. When I was using it....it worked great and I had a 3000+Barton in it. Hard to find though, as is my other unused mATX board...Chaintech 7NIL1 (the Chaintech doesn't have onboard video though).

Heck...when I was waiting for some parts to go s939 ( I was waiting on my cpu and PCI-e card) I was playing CSS on an old ATI Rage 64mb card because the onboard couldn't cut it.
 
I didnt think that Biostar would fit due to the extra slot at the bottom of the board, but I could go with that. Is the Chaintech 7NIL1 a better choice because I can get one for like $40 and possibly borrow or get a VC.
 
I have the 7NIL1. Its decent for the price, but I was kind of unimpressed with the onboard sound. (I guess im spoiled from my Soundstorm on the A7N8X Deluxe though)
 
I'd like to stay away from SiS chipsets if at all possible. Just had some bad experiences.
 
In my opinion you cant go wrong with a Shuttle MN31N for what you are asking for. Onboard video with dual output, soundstorm audio, and the mounting holes around the socket for oversized heatsinks. Only downside is that if you plan on going the mobile unlocked multiplier route then you will need to wiremod the socket to set the mutiplier or it will just kinda pick one when it boots each time. Was amazing though with my 3000+ Barton.
 
If you're buying both the CPU and mobo new, and are trying to save money, I'd go socket 754

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130513

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104251

If you go with this setup, you can purchase a PCI-Express video card later, and then if you decide to upgrade to socket 939, you don't have to buy a new video card.

I wouldn't ever consider buying a socket A mobo at this point in time unless I already had a socket A CPU to stick in it. Same thing goes for AGP motherboards. I wouldn't buy one unless I already had high end VGA card to stick in it. To me, it's just a waste of money on old technology, when you can have the newer (not newest) and faster technology for about the same price.

You obviously plan on doing some gaming. Socket A CPU's are going to severely bottleneck any decent video card for today's games.
 
to the origional poster- the selections available for socket A are pretty dismal right now. I've been looking for what seems like forever for a SFF system to use my 2600M+ in once I upgrade my main system. I want to recycle this processor in a lan/HTPC box, because a HTPC dosen't need anything more than socket A and I don't want to drop a lot of money into a lan box that i might drop someday. The MCP-T southbridge seems like a no brainer for a HTPC, but its tough to find that on a m-atx board from a manufacturer that I really trust. This is the closest I could get:
n-force2 m-atx but no ddr400 support

I guess I'll have to live with a 166bus, it shouldn't make too much of a diffrence i guess.
 
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