My northbridge heatsink was held on by thermal epoxy (or maybe it was just superglue, I don't remember) for two years. Well, it fell off in this heat wave we've been having. The board is scorched, and I guess that means it's time for a new mobo.
It's a wall-mounted PC (components attached to the wall, no case) with zero moving parts (SSD, PicoPSU 150), plus a hard drive that spins up sometimes. As you can imagine, I've been happy enough with it that I haven't been following SPCR much.
But I need recommendations on a replacement mobo, which will need to operate in this fanless environment. Old mobo is a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H with the 780G. I want something equally efficient, hopefully with enormous heatsinks and no fans so this doesn't happen again. I'd like to keep using my existing Athlon 64 X2 and DDR2, unless that CPU is really awful or something.
Priorities include very low idle power consumption and undervoltability. The more components I can undervolt, the better. Onboard video doesn't matter.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Heatsink fell off; Need recommendations for a new mobo
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NeilBlanchard
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Neil, GA-MA78GM-S2H was the old one. I would go for a 785G, MSI has good boards I hear, low power consumption. Gigabyte is also good, with the ability to lower voltage to NB and CPU and also to underclock the IGP. The MSI board probably have similar features, I haven't got any experience with modern MSI boards though.
Or perhaps a 740G or 760G if low power consumption is a very high priority, but since the old board was 780G I think a 785G would be better. What do you use the system for anyway?
I don't think you'll need a huge NB cooler. If the motherboard hangs on the wall without a case a normal stock cooler would do nicely I think.
Or perhaps a 740G or 760G if low power consumption is a very high priority, but since the old board was 780G I think a 785G would be better. What do you use the system for anyway?
I don't think you'll need a huge NB cooler. If the motherboard hangs on the wall without a case a normal stock cooler would do nicely I think.
Hello, Neil. The CPU is AM2 or AM3.
Vicotnik, it's my only computer nowadays. It used to be my low power consumption computer just for office tasks, but then I dropped in a dual-core and a Radeon 5000-series, and now it does that plus gaming. The onboard graphics will probably never get used, so right now I'm leaning towards the Gigabyte 740G.
What's the difference between the 740G and the 760G?
Vicotnik, it's my only computer nowadays. It used to be my low power consumption computer just for office tasks, but then I dropped in a dual-core and a Radeon 5000-series, and now it does that plus gaming. The onboard graphics will probably never get used, so right now I'm leaning towards the Gigabyte 740G.
What's the difference between the 740G and the 760G?