Need a matx sandy bridge board.

[tpfaff]

I want to use the gpu on the new sandy bridge i3 to save some cash and other then that it just needs to be a matx board. Anyone know of some solid ones? I'm partly asking here because I've been out of the loop for a while and all these different chipsets are confusing me

 

[diizzy]

I would look for a Q67 based board with Realtek sound instead of IDT, VIA, Sigmatel. The Q67 boards are pretty solid in general otherwise...
//Danne

 

[PGHammer]

I would look for a Q67 based board with Realtek sound instead of IDT, VIA, Sigmatel. The Q67 boards are pretty solid in general otherwise...
//Danne

Actually, there are two Z68 mATX boards that meet the OP's specs - Gigabyte's GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3, and ASRock's Z68-Pro3M. The ASRock model is a single-slot Z68 mATX board (a decided rarity), while the Gigabyte has no PCI slots and supports either SLI or CrossFireX/TriFire. Both include and support Lucid Virtu and most of the panoply of Z68 features (other than the differences I've previously explained in this post) and are priced within $10USD of each other at Newegg. About that price - it's also in line with P67 or the high-end of H67 ($110-120USD), and the Gigabyte model includes some features that higher-end Z68 boards from Gigabyte actually lack.

I'm looking at Pentium-G (lower than even i3) as a cost-cutting maneuver (after all, this board will replace Mighty Mouse) - however, Z68 (and especially these two models) give me a ton of maneuver room at H67 board price tags.

LGA1155 isn't going anywhere except lower in price, which can't be said for LGA775 or even LGA1366, and with these two entries, what's missing?

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Intel Chipset Cheat Sheet:
-Q67 designed for a business environment these boards are generally the only one that support AMT and VT-d enabled on the board. This is the basic with support for the IGP (Intergraded Graphic on Processor).
-H61 this is the low cost entry level board. This is the basic with support for the IGP.
-H67 is a main stream board with support for the IGP. Like the Q67 and H61 the H67 will not allow you to overclock the core speed of the processor.
-P67 this chipset is designed for a performance oriented person who will add in a dedicated video card. This board will allow you to overclock the core clock speed of the processor but not the IGP.
-Z68 this is our news board that supports Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) for SSD caching and on most of the board support for the IGP and LucidLogix Virtu software. This chipset will allow you to overclock both the core clock speed and the speed on the IGP.
If you are just looking for an outstanding board right the Asus P8P67-M or the MSI Z68MA-ED55 are both great boards right now that you can get that are both MicroATX.