The Unofficial List of Good mATX Motherboards (Overclocking and Not)

The "duo" P5B VM & e4300 seems not to be the perfect match!
It is apparently impossible to bump the fsb over 200! Every attempts to bump the fsb result in overclocking failed!:confused:
whatever settings (low timing or ram frequency, bumping the pcie-e does not help!)
Even tested fsb@266/267 or @300!
There must be a N/B strap issue with this chipset!
On the contrary, the 4300 works like a charm on an asrock 775i65g @266 out of the box!

Anyone has experienced this issue with the p5bvm+e4300?
 
abit is nearing the completion of they new matx boards :cool:

will this include an SLI capable board by any chance?

I cannot believe no-one has followed in ECS's footsteps with the NF4 SLI mATX board they made.
 
will this include an SLI capable board by any chance?

I cannot believe no-one has followed in ECS's footsteps with the NF4 SLI mATX board they made.

NF4 mATX SLI? no one but ECS? EVGA makes one
 
the e4300 + p5lD2 VM do not match either : no overclocking possibility, seems locked@200
 
will this include an SLI capable board by any chance?

I cannot believe no-one has followed in ECS's footsteps with the NF4 SLI mATX board they made.

No, there will not be any SLI or xfire mATX boards due out this year.
 
the e4300 + p5lD2 VM do not match either : no overclocking possibility, seems locked@200
I've heard the e4300 had problems with other boards as well and requires bios updates. Fry’s was selling a cheap combo recently, but the chip turned out to be incompatible with the board! I don’t understand why intel dropped the virtualization tech from these chips, because that is probably what is causing these problems. Were they worried IT managers were going to use these in servers?

I wonder if these were from a pre-Conroe beta process and they're just trying to pawn the already produced silicon off as a value line. That could also explain the problems...

do you mind if i ask; how do you know this?
Probably because he has not heard of anything and boards generally take at least 6 months to be released once you do. I know I haven't.
 
I've always wondered this as well. I can't believe that a new SLI board wouldn't sell an absolute ass-ton of units.

sli/crossfire is a moot point right now with video cards doubling performance with each release
 
do you mind if i ask; how do you know this?

Because I am in contact with manufacturers, and reps from quite a few companies, including abit.

There is always a possibily that I dont know, and someone is working on it; but thats highly unlikely. Its also possible a matx board with two x16 slots will come out, that isnt meant for crossfire, but for some reason crossfire will work on the chipset, thats another unforseen possibility.

I dont have this signature for nothing ;)

As far as eVGA and other manufac's go on SLI boards, either its a super dooper top secret project that is even more secret than the 600 series boards, or there just really isnt one...
 
sli/crossfire is a moot point right now with video cards doubling performance with each release

That's a good point. A single 8800GTX will kill my 7800's in SLI. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I bought them. Lol. However, I am working on a new project with a Sugo case, and I still love the thought of going SLI with something besides S939.
 
SFF cases no... but a Matx case yes...

understand that SFF and Matx are 2 compleatly diffrent animals...
 
How does this board stack up?? I definately want 939, and an earlier listed board sold out before I could afford to buy it. I should also add that I definately want 10/100/1000 LAN without adding a PCI card.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ECS-RS482-M-Soc...ryZ99245QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

This is the board that sold out.

TFORCE, but its an ebaySTORE link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Biostar-TFORCE-...DVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item280073480862

the guy has over 1000 feedback so ide trust it.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
ECS RS482-M

I think Fry's had those as part of combo deals. Don't recall it being that good of an overclocker.
 
Joining in the mATX C2D fun (i mean disappointment) i have here results from an ASRock 945G-DVI.

My spec:
E6600
ASRock 945G-DVI
Corsair Value 2Gb 667MHz

The RAM and CPU are both capable of 333MHz at least on stock voltage, obviously the motherboard is the problem here.

Here are my max fsb results when changing the PCI Freq: (Bus Speed MHz - PCI-E Freq MHz - CPU Clock GHz). Tests were done with the onboard graphics.

299 - 100 - 2.7 ~100% stable
300 - 108 - 2.7 ~100% stable
306 - 112 - 27.5 ~ 100% stable
320 - 116 - 2.85 ~ 100% stable
322 - 118 - 2.9 ~ Stable when playing a game but not stress tested
326 - 120 - 2.9 ~ Stable when playing a game but not stress tested
328 - 126 - 2.95 ~ Unstable when booting into windows
328 - 130 - 2.95 ~ Refuses to boot.
328 - 140 - 2.95 ~ Refuses to boot

Needless to say the motherboard is maxed at 328MHz.

The ASRock 945G-DVI is a kick ass motherboard if your only planning on light overclocking to 320MHz. Maybe it should be added to the list?
 
NEVER put your PCi-E freq over 120, jesus christ. Your gonn have an 8800gtpaperwight if you actually booted that up...
 
Oh yeah, i forgot to add. They were all done without a graphics card, i don't know why i included my 8800GTS.

I can afford to replace a £40 motherboard but not a £280 graphics card :eek: .
 
Abit NF-M2 Nview motherboard review:
http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-352-1.htm

Reviewers "only" got around 330MHz HTT stable and booting into Windows at 350MHz HTT unstable on their board using a lowered multiplier, which is probably the worst reported for this board that I can recall. I'm wondering if they manually lowered CPU HT multiplier or RAM speeds, or left them on auto? Ahh well, even 330MHz is enough to bring the Brisbane 3600+ to 3.1+GHz.
 
yea obviously a noob OCer, but i like all the other tests he ran for audio and stuff...never saw those be4...
 
Hi!
I am a mATX user and I am about to buy a new mATX motherboard with Intel Q965 chipset.

I do no overclock but I would like to have a complete bios and good features, like with the "ASUS P5B-VM DO" motherboard... but without the PCI slots near to the PCI-Ex 16x.

What I am looking for is a mATX motherboard that has the PCI slots all the way far from the PCI-Ex 16x to use a 8800GTS and a Creative Audigy2-ZS without having to keep the audio card right next to the video card.


Buy the way, if you don't consider that closeness too dangerous for the video card cooling and you think that a 8800GTS can cool good even with a PCI card next to it, please let me know.


Thank you all!
 
i wouldn't say that it's dangerous for the sound card as much as your video card won't like it...

keeping your high end video card happy would be my #1 thing to deal with in a system like that...
 
i wouldn't say that it's dangerous for the sound card as much as your video card won't like it...

keeping your high end video card happy would be my #1 thing to deal with in a system like that...

What do you mean? Do you think I could put a 8800GTS nex to a PCI card without worrying about cooling? Would the 8800GTS cool fine with its heatsink??

Thank you.
 
What do you mean? Do you think I could put a 8800GTS nex to a PCI card without worrying about cooling? Would the 8800GTS cool fine with its heatsink??

Thank you.

No...that's what I'm saying. I would never put another card right next to an 8800 unless it was low profile.
 
No...that's what I'm saying. I would never put another card right next to an 8800 unless it was low profile.

Thank you then. :)



Other question: how is the bios for the MSI Q965MDO mATX motherboard?? In the first page its only mentioned the Q965M model and maybe this "DO" model has a better bios.
Can some one please tell me the "***" related to this Q965MDO motherboard??

Thank you very much!
 
No...that's what I'm saying. I would never put another card right next to an 8800 unless it was low profile.

Or if the card in question is not long enough to obscure the fan opening =D

I just got a 8800GTS/320 yesterday, and IIRC (I'm at work) a PCI card not extending past the actual PCI slot is short enough not to interfere with the fan.
 
Or if the card in question is not long enough to obscure the fan opening =D

I just got a 8800GTS/320 yesterday, and IIRC (I'm at work) a PCI card not extending past the actual PCI slot is short enough not to interfere with the fan.

The 8800GTX fan is half behind my Audigy2 sound card....
Should I do something to that?
 
Not sure there... Only thing I can recommend is to monitor the card's temp under load with and without the Audigy and see whether you can accept the difference or not, if it's significant.
 
Abit has announced their new mATX board:

http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=Fatal1ty+F-I90HD&fMTYPE=LGA775

GOOD:
mATX
no fans
gigabit ethernet
good capacitors

OKAY:
onboard Radeon x700-ish video with HDMI output
one PCI-E 16x, two PCI-E 1x, one PCI
7.1 audio with SPDIF out

BAD:
Looks like to Abit "enthusiast" means more home theater
"Fatal1ty" branded
no Firewire

UNKNOWN:
How does it overclock?
Has ATI resolved Southbridge performance issues?
Price?
 
Abit has announced their new mATX board:

http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/en/mot...hp?pMODEL_NAME=Fatal1ty+F-I90HD&fMTYPE=LGA775

GOOD:
mATX
no fans
gigabit ethernet
good capacitors

OKAY:
onboard Radeon x700-ish video with HDMI output
one PCI-E 16x, two PCI-E 1x, one PCI
7.1 audio with SPDIF out

BAD:
Looks like to Abit "enthusiast" means more home theater
"Fatal1ty" branded
no Firewire

UNKNOWN:
How does it overclock?
Has ATI resolved Southbridge performance issues?
Price?

yea it looks good...finally an intel version of the nf-m2/biostar?

I still wanna know if I can get a 2nd x700 and run crossfire LOL

EDIT: What I came in to say before was I hope they make one with 2 pci-e slots now....cause I might actually cry :)
 
You mean two PCI-E 16x? That's not a selling point for me, well, unless that extra PCI-E slot can be used for other devices. I recently built an SLI setup in a MicroFly case and though I was pleased with the build, after using it at a month's worth of weekly LAN parties, I've decided that SLI didn't add to my gaming experience. Also, it would have been cheaper and faster to just get an 8800GTS (I have two 7900GTO).

Well, at least Abit and Biostar are not totally ignoring people who want "decent" mATX boards.
 
Back
Top