Looking for AM3, mATX, Integrated Graphics with Floppy

[amp88]

Preface: In the thread title I've specified a floppy connector as being required. This is due to the fact that I want to install XP Pro x64 on a SATA boot drive. The only ways (AFAIK) to install without a floppy connector on the board are a USB floppy drive or slipstreaming the SATA drivers into the installation, neither of which I want to do. If there's an alternative way which doesn't require buying additional hardware or slipstreaming please let me know and that can drop the floppy requirement.

I'm looking for a new AM3 motherboard to replace my old M3A78-EM that's currently in my home server. As the title says, it needs to be mATX and (given the preface) have a floppy header.

The other components in the system:

Case: InWin Micro ATX EM002
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T BE
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212+
HDD: WD 2TB Caviar Green
GPU: Integrated
RAM: <See Below>
Optical Drive: SATA DVD-RW (dunno what model yet, doesn't really matter)
PCIe: RocketRAID 2314 (x4 slot)
PCIe: Intel Pro 1000/PT Desktop (x1 slot, unless the gigabit LAN on the board will provide similar/better performance)

I don't need USB3.0/SATA3, but I wouldn't mind paying a small premium to get them to give me a bit of headroom for the future.

I've been looking around for a while and found a couple of candidates:

GIGABYTE 880GMA-UD2H
ASRock 880GMH/USB3

It seems there are quite a few boards that would be candidates but they don't have floppy ports. For example, the ASUS M4A88TD-M and the MSI 890GXM-G65.

Another thing to consider is the RAM. I want to go for 4*4GB sticks, but one of my concerns is that due to the small form factor and the relatively large cooler it seems like I need to look hard for RAM that's not going to get in the way. This probably rules out stuff like Corsair Vengeance and G-Skill Ripjaws. This seems to force me into stuff like the slower 1333MHz CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 kit from Corsair. Is this accurate? Are there any good 8GB kits (2*4GB) that are fast and low profile? My searching on UK sites isn't turning up much atm.

It feels like the mATX route is quite constrained at the moment, but I really don't want to go down the ATX route for cost and space concerns. I'd appreciate any help or advice you could give on my mad ramblings. Thanks in advance.

 

[flexcore]

I'm not sure about the floppy port, can you use an add in card? As far as ram goes, I think Gskill ECO 2x4GB is some very good ram that uses normal heatspreaders. It has default 1.35v IIRC, but I know peole that run it at 1.5v and it OC very well. May want to look around for the ECO soon though, because it seems like it is disappearing.
I've heard good things about that Giga 880G board.

 

[amp88]

I'm not sure about the floppy port, can you use an add in card?

Possibly, but I don't want to buy any additional hardware.

As far as ram goes, I think Gskill ECO 2x4GB is some very good ram that uses normal heatspreaders. It has default 1.35v IIRC, but I know peole that run it at 1.5v and it OC very well. May want to look around for the ECO soon though, because it seems like it is disappearing.

Hmm, I took a look for that RAM and found it here. At the time of posting they have 6 in stock, but it's crazily expensive (£151.98 for the 2 * 4GB kit). That site did give me some more kits to look at though, including this GVP38GB1600C9DC kit from Geil that's on admittedly worse timings than the G.Skill and it's branded "Value Plus" (which makes me question its performance). At the time of posting, though, it's only £73.44 (i.e. less than half the cost of the G.Skill). I'll see if I can find any more info about the Geil stuff. Thanks for the tip.

I've heard good things about that Giga 880G board.

Yeah, the reviews I've read of it make it sound like a decent board (considering it's in the mATX form factor and it's effectively a budget board).