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mATX with 4 PCI-e

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drgnfang

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
1,085
Any Intel based mATX boards with 4 PCI-e slots? Preferably a x16 and 3 x4 (or bigger)?

On a (semi) related note, any non-fugly mATX cases?

Trying to "downsize" for my next build.

Thanks.
 
Some cases that I think personally look cool are

The Antec Mini P180 (I plan on building my next rig around it, although it's not exactly SMALL, it's on the larger side). Big plus on it is it's also pretty quiet and I hear it has excellent airflow as well.:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129041

The Silverstone SG03 (and family... there are a few variants). I built a rig around this before, it's a pretty nice looking case, and pretty damn efficient with space, I don't think you'll get much smaller than this and still run micro ATX while still fitting 10.5" video cards. You can also cram 3 hard drives in it as well as a full size optical drive. Pretty impressive. Temps are an issue here, though, the H50 and a blowhole up top fixes that.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163085

Lian Li's PC-V351 cube. It's very popular, but kind of a love it or hate it design. I admire the design of it, and I'm sure it's built to a very high degree of quality, but I don't think I'd ever use one. This one can also fit full size video cards, so that's a big plus if you're in to that sort of thing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112222

I can't think of anything else at this moment, but as far as the motherboards go, all the LGA1366 boards have 3 PCI-e slots I believe. Two X16 slots and another one that varies, but isn't X16. I think they all have a PCI slot though.

A few of the LGA1156 boards have a similar layout.
 
drgnfang said:
Any Intel based mATX boards with 4 PCI-e slots? Preferably a x16 and 3 x4 (or bigger)?

On a (semi) related note, any non-fugly mATX cases?

Trying to "downsize" for my next build.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Everyone thinks every case is ugly so oh well

Most matx boards will only have 1 or 2 pci-e x16 slots (only one running at x16). Having four would a little silly since you'd have to use 4 single slot cards.
 
Intel Sharpsberg has 4 PCIe slots, and there a couple of others appearing now. I think the MSI H57 board does? Anyway, I went through this a while back and in the end opted for the Asus H55 EVO as it's got a PCIe slot above the x16 and I concluded this is sufficient for a single graphics card system.
 
I've found a few server class boards (socket 1156 with Intel 3400/3420 chipsets) with 3 PCIe + 1 PCI. These are functional for my purposes since they have dual Intel NIC's. It looks like all the consumer level 1156 mATX boards have 1/2 x16, 1/2 x1, and the rest PCI. The consumer 1366 are all 2 x16, 1 x1, and 1 PCI.

On the case suggestions so far:
The mP180 is a great case, had one for about 6 months before selling it. Very functional, and great looking, but not "small". My "cheap" mid-tower ATX case was about 1/4" bigger...

The SG family are (in my opinion) the definition of ugly mATX cases. Overall functional and and small enough though.

I actually have my bedroom HTPC in a LL v350. It's there because it was a PITA to work with. Was always tempted to mod it with a Dremel and make it a "convertible" (take the top off).
 
LOL!

You've pretty much torpedoed most of the best SFF cases out there :)

Oh check out that "Da Box" case as well.
 
Cooler Master Elite 360 ... small case but actually fits full ATX so there's your 4 PCI.
 
IanM said:
Intel Sharpsberg has 4 PCIe slots, and there a couple of others appearing now. I think the MSI H57 board does? Anyway, I went through this a while back and in the end opted for the Asus H55 EVO as it's got a PCIe slot above the x16 and I concluded this is sufficient for a single graphics card system.
Click to expand...
These are not what he is looking for is it? Those boards have x1 and x4 (among others)
 
I actually like that LL case.

The "Da Box" is very interesting (mix of LL V350, Sugo 01 [the angled fan over the expansion slots], and Qmicra). It's on my short list, along with the next version of the Qmicra.
 
Steeeeve said:
These are not what he is looking for is it? Those boards have x1 and x4 (among others)
Click to expand...
Yeah, I haven't found any consumer boards that have anything close. I am intrigued by the "One PCI Express 2.0 x8 bus add-in card connector, bifurcated from the primary PCI Express 2.0 x16" on the Intel DP55SB.
 
drgnfang said:
I actually like that LL case.
Click to expand...
I think it might be the only thing that will meet your needs. You can find several ATX boards with all PCIe but hardly any mATX boards with four of them. The up side too is that the LL case is about as big as any of the other mATX cases around here too.
 
Ah, but a mATX will get me onboard video (with the exception of odd ducks like the P55 boards). Oh, and I'm actually looking at parts for two builds here.

The mobo is to replace the GB P45-DQ6 in my WHS (it's been giving me problems lately). That's why I was looking for so many PCIe slots, and why x4 and x8 speed slots would work fine. I'm actually leaning towards the SM X8SIL-F and a Xeon L3426 (45W TDP on a quad with HT - yum), just don't know if I want to drop that type of cash on it (+ 2-4g of registered DDR3). Since it already has two Intel GB NIC's on board I can stand to loose one of the PCIe slots for a PCI one. If I do this I'll still keep it in my Norco 4020.

The case on the other hand is for my "daily" and aging E8400 on a Asus P5Q Pro. This mother board is also giving me problems, so it to is up for replacement. Because this would be a full rebuild I'm looking at a SFF system. I don't need alot of drive space (everything is on the WHS or the cloud), and frankly my CM ATCS 840 is ginormous (keeping in mind that it replaced a TJ07). This build is completely wide open at the moment. I will probably go with a S1156 board (assuming I go mATX) as I want to do a discrete GPU without "loosing" anything. Looking at the Xeon X3440 as a possibility for this build. It falls between the i5-750 and i7-860 in price, is slower than both, but has hyper-threading (which I want), and can OC to right around 3.6 to 3.8 (which is my target) without to many problems.

If I don't go mATX I'll probably go with a generic i7-920 build in the Silverstone FT-02.
 
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say. What one person thinks of the outside looks of a case is doesn't mean another will agree. Each buyer needs to look at each case and decide for themself if it looks good or not. Function is more important in my mind. I can forgive a bland look if the function/performance is tops but that's just how I am. :)
 
Ah, I answered that in post #13 I believe.
"The mobo is to replace the GB P45-DQ6 in my WHS (it's been giving me problems lately). That's why I was looking for so many PCIe slots, and why x4 and x8 speed slots would work fine. I'm actually leaning towards the SM X8SIL-F and a Xeon L3426 (45W TDP on a quad with HT - yum), just don't know if I want to drop that type of cash on it (+ 2-4g of registered DDR3). Since it already has two Intel GB NIC's on board I can stand to loose one of the PCIe slots for a PCI one. If I do this I'll still keep it in my Norco 4020."

So, 2x PCIe x4+ for the SASLP, and 2x PCIe x4+ for the Intel NIC's. As mentioned, the SM board only has 3, but has dual onboard Intel NIC so I won't need two PCIe slots for that.
 
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