Micro-ATX mobo

lacsap · Post by **lacsap** » Fri Jul 18, 2003 4:59 pm

ok, here goes. I need a uATX motherboard for my HTPC. I don't need gaming capabilities. I want S478. I will PVR (cable TV), play MP3 and browse the web. Nothing fancy. It will be connected to my receiver for sound

- Which integrated video is the best to display on a NTSC 32" standard TV?
- For MPEG2 playback, I know than most AGP cards have harware acceleration to free up CPU. Is it the same for integrated video?
- What's a good chipset? (SIS, intel,etc)
- Any with integrated sound (good) and SPDIF out?
- Will the quality of the sound card influence anything with SPDIF passthrough to the receiver?

Thanks

Lascap

AJ913 · Post by **AJ913** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 11:57 am

I can't help you in finding a mobo but I can deter you. I bought one over the christmas break so it could be used as a HTPC. It sounded like a turbine! The amount of modding I would have had to do to make the thing anywhere near as quiet as I would find acceptable was just not worth it. So I sold it and bought a standard ATX tower.

The problem is good airflow is simply not possible. As a a result, the fan in the power supply was screaming. At the same time, the unit was not powerful enough to even support an ati video card and a video capture card.

nan0dog · Post by **nan0dog** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 6:14 pm

"There can be only one". nForce2 chipset. Why?

Best onboard graphics by a mile. You can actually play games on it.
Best onboard sound. Reviewers compare it to an Audigy 2 board.
SPDIF Out? Yes

Try and get a board that undervolts and use a DLTC Athlon. My Athlon 1800+ is slightly overclocked to 1600mhz (200 x 8 @ 1.25v stable) with a 5v papst ngl fan ( 32c degrees ). It will run fine at 2300mhz with 1.7v and fan at 12v. They are amazing chips for 75 euro. The lowered Voltage makes a huge difference in heat, so this is probably your best bet in a small uatx case. Try and get a case that takes a standard PSU, so you can use a quiet one. Once everything else is quiet, the PSU fan is all you can hear.

I think the Biostar m7ncg might undervolt to 1.3v. Let us know how you get on.

mudboy · Post by **mudboy** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 4:22 am

AJ913 wrote:I can't help you in finding a mobo but I can deter you. I bought one over the christmas break so it could be used as a HTPC. It sounded like a turbine! The amount of modding I would have had to do to make the thing anywhere near as quiet as I would find acceptable was just not worth it. So I sold it and bought a standard ATX tower.

The problem is good airflow is simply not possible. As a a result, the fan in the power supply was screaming. At the same time, the unit was not powerful enough to even support an ati video card and a video capture card.

I disagree.

MicroATX is an excellent platform for an HTPC; however, the important piece to remember is that you CANNOT expect to make this the fastest PC on the planet. Faster generally equals hotter, so starting with slower hard drives and optical drives (or ones that are known to be quiet-running) are a good place to start. A 5400 RPM hard drive like a Maxtor drive with FD Bearings and a quiet optical drive like the Samsung SM-348 are good choices. The next place to look is the CPU, or the CPU & motherboard in tandem. Get a board that allows undervolting and a broad range of FSB & multiplier settings (though with a P4 multiplier is less likely); get a cooler-running CPU like a 2-2.4GHz P4 (2GHz = 54.3W), put on a nice-efficient heatsink and an 80mm, lower-speed fan. Most important, though, is the case and power supply ventilation. Make sure there is a clear path for the heated air to exit the case, or be prepared to live with your temps at the higher end of the comfort range. Part of that is making sure your cable routing is neat and clean. I've found that it's possible to route ribbon cables, audio cables, etc., under the motherboard. It can be a pain to do, but it yields a much "cleaner" interior.

EDIT nan0dog, not sure where you got the info that the Biostar M7NCG might be undervoltable, but unless a recent BIOS revision changed that, it's not -- I just looked. If you know otherwise, please let me in on the secret.

Pete

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 7:53 am

I had thought about using a uATX motherboard myself. From all the searching for one that would undervolt, I came up empty handed. Seems that there just isn't enough of a market for uATX motherboards for the manufacturers to spend the money making ones as feature-rich as standard ATX MBs. I don't see any physical reason why they can't be. I mean all that is really different is two less PCI slots.

LushMD · Post by **LushMD** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 5:25 pm

Hey lacsap, if you're willing to consider an AMD-based solution, the Leadtek K7NCR18GM motherboard seems prime. It uses the well regarded nforce2 chipset and also offers s-video out (a surprisingly rare feature on micro-ATX motherboards). In any case, I am presently in the process of building an HTPC/media box based on this motherboard (should be done within ~1 wekk; just waiting for parts to come in). I can post my impressions if you are interested. Take care.

ruprag · Post by **ruprag** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 3:07 am

Please post your results LushMD, all experiments of this nature are very interesting

Tom P · Post by **Tom P** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 2:36 pm

LushMD, that Leadtek motherboard sounds nice. Are you sure it has s-video out, though? Kind of hard to tell from the blurb on their web site or in the pictures.
Three PCI slots seem plenty these days...still seems a shortage of reasonably priced, compact, nice looking cases, though.

Matt-man · Post by **Matt-man** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 8:30 am

I built a MicroATX system for my sister last month. I used an Asus A7N8X-VM and an Athenatech A100 case.

The Asus board was nice. It didn't have all the bells and whistles of my A7N8X Deluxe but I didn't need them for this project. This board has video out but you need a slot panel adapter (sold separately!) to break it out from the connector on the board. It's not brought out on the back panel connectors.

The case is available from Newegg for about $40. It's reasonably quiet - the power supply has an 80mm fan. You'll definitely want to mod the PS with a quieter fan for HTPC use. There are two 60mm fans in the back, and of course you will probably not want to use them at all. Two internal and one external 3.5" drive bays, one external 5.25" bays. A little cramped on the inside but that's the nature of MicroATX. I was, however, able to get a Thermalright AX-7 with an 80mm fan mounted on the motherboard - the cooler barely cleared the optical drive (Samsung CD-RW).

LushMD · Post by **LushMD** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 4:12 pm

Will do guys (I might not be able to get to it until next weekend though; work has been crazy lately)...Tom P: check out these pics from NewEgg.com (in particular, the last picture shows the S-video out bracket...

Tom P · Post by **Tom P** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 7:00 am

Ahh, okay, that's cool. Was wondering if maybe they had some sort of header on the motherboard, but didn't look at "all" the pics on Newegg.

trinitrotoluene · Post by **trinitrotoluene** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 10:44 am

nForce2 is the only way to go for mATX. The other chipsets just don't provide enough options and newer features.

It wasn't designed to be a small system, but I upgraded my parent's computer with:
Chaintech 7NIL1 Summit (7NIF2 has onboard video)
Athlon 2100+ XP (overclocked to 2700+) w/ Coolermaster DP5-7JD1B-0L
Radeon 9200 SE (doesn't even have heatsink! Parents don't play any graphic intensive games, so speed isn't issue here)
Replaced case fan with Panaflo L1A

Even with a Sparkle 250W PSU the system is only audible when sitting right next to it. You guys may be more sensitive, but the system, to me, would be acceptable as part of a home theater.

Oh, and the overclocking was by pure accident, I didn't realize the FSB was set at 166, but everything went smoothly the entire weekend I was there, so I left it at that

PhilgB · Post by **PhilgB** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 6:03 pm

If you are still looking for a mobo, I plan on buying the EPoX 8RGMi.

I just need to know if anyone has used this board, is it undervoltable?

EPoX says it is pretty much the uATX equiv. of their 8RDA, which is undervoltable.

Thanks

Keel · Post by **Keel** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 4:28 pm

ack...wat happened to socket 478 compatibility? an nforce2 platform would be ideal to making a HTPC but lacsap wanted it to be an intel system i think

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.a ... +%2DRETAIL

that looks good to me, although no 800fsb support, it does have s-video output and is only $62, leaving enough $$$ for an add on sound card