ATX vs mATX format - new upgrade

[Rhezuss]

Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade soon to a new AM3 CPU and motherboard. I already have 4gb od DDR2-800 so I won't go fetch DDR3 for now.

So i'm looking for a new motherboard. All I need is 2 PCI slots, one for my SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer and one for my D-Link wireless card.

In my shopping, i've seen many boards with many formats. ATX and mATX are ones i'm looking for.

But is there any downside going with micro ATX?

What I need / do:
- 2 PCI slots
- AMD 785G and up
- No overclocking
- Play games, watch movies/series and work with AutoCAD for most of the time

I saw many mATX boards with the PCIe 1x between the PCIe 16x and the first PCI slot, which leave the 2 PCI slots clear to be used and sometimes those small format boards go cheap!

Thanks a bunch all!

 

[capt_taco]

Basically, get mATX if that's all that can fit in your case, or if saving a few bucks is really important. Otherwise, I wouldn't, unless you like having space constraints.