Micro ATX inside of ATX case?

[kingneptune117]

Will a micro atx board fit inside of an ATX case, such as the Antec 300? It would save me money.

Also, will having a micro ATX hinder my choice of graphics cards. I want to buy a 5770, but im afraid it wont fit on a micro.


Thanks

 

[badge]

Will a micro atx board fit inside of an ATX case, such as the Antec 300?

Yes, I have three Antec 300's.

Also, will having a micro ATX hinder my choice of graphics cards. I want to buy a 5770, but im afraid it wont fit on a micro.

Radeon 5770 will work with any MB that has a PCIE slot.

 

[saint19]

Hi.

Yeah, any m-ATX mobo fit in an ATX case, and can handle the 5770, but IMO the mATX mobo aren't good.

 

[Crashman]

Hi.

Yeah, any m-ATX mobo fit in an ATX case, and can handle the 5770, but IMO the mATX mobo aren't good.

Yes, but your opinion is misguided. Read this conclusion:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/rampage-gene-lanparty,2302-9.html

I know most "enthusiasts" avoid any articles that can despoil their assumptions, but it's always nice to consider all possibilities.

 

[badge]

Absolutely, mATX boards have came a long way since the days they were relegated to cheap workstation solutions. I currently run daily 945G, 965G, G35 and 780G as well as a couple of other older 'cheap workstation micro boards'. The four mentioned are by ASUS and each has an advanced BIOS geared toward enhanced performance, the exception being the 965G which is a poor performer due it's lack of VR capability. I always consider micro boards when building for my home and office. Small footprint is a good thing when measuing up and installing a workstation in a limited space area. And as pointed out, today's onboard grapics solutions suffer no notable lack of performance power than comparable full featured desktop chipsets.

 

[Crashman]

And as pointed out, today's onboard grapics solutions suffer no notable lack of performance power than comparable full featured desktop chipsets.

Pointed out by whom? The OP wants to use a graphics card. The article I linked points to Micro ATX motherboards that don't have onboard graphics.

I don't think anyone here was even thinking about onboard graphics, even though those technologies are the same regardless of form factor.

 

[badge]

I just skimmed over the conclusion of your article you posted and didn't notice the boards you referred to did not have onboard graphics. I was referring to a board such as the G35 losing no measurable performance hit when compared to the P35. This is the article I referred to when I bought my 780G a while back.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2475/7

 

[Crashman]

I just skimmed over the conclusion of your article you posted and didn't notice the boards you referred to did not have onboard graphics. I was referring to a board such as the G35 losing no measurable performance hit when compared to the P35. This is the article I referred to when I bought my 780G a while back.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2475/7

Right, the chipset performs the same whether Intel disabled the graphics (P35) or you did (G35). That's because the parts that are still active are identical.

 

[badge]

I bookmarked your article. If I build anything new around here or for anyone, I will refer to it.

 

[Crashman]

The article you linked is about X58 m-atx boards. Which as far as I know is the only m-atx board available WITHOUT onboard graphics.

We don't even know what cpu this guy has and your concluding that he has an i7 in socket 1366.....

I'm not concluding anything about his processor. I'm concluding that it's complete BS to assume that a Micro ATX board is lower-quality than an ATX board. I've P55 Micro ATX boards too, those have no onboard graphics connectors and are actually previous to onboard graphics processors. I've H55 boards as well, and some of those are just as solid as the P55 boards they resemble, even though the H55 boards have graphics outputs. I've had superb G45 boards that could rival most of my P45 boards...how many examples do you need...and where does the X58 assumption come in?

 

[ekoostik]

Will a micro atx board fit inside of an ATX case, such as the Antec 300? It would save me money.

Also, will having a micro ATX hinder my choice of graphics cards. I want to buy a 5770, but im afraid it wont fit on a micro.

King Neptune,
Wow there is a lot of misinformation floating around in here. To answer your first question, yes a micro ATX board will fit inside an ATX case such as the Antex 300. Don't let folks dissuade you from getting a micro ATX based on the opinion and other information floating around here that is not backed up with facts. I got a micro ATX for my i7 860 (the GA-P55M-UD2) and it has proven to be more than capable with any input or expansion that I needed plus solid OC potential, all that for under $110. But don't take my word for it -

give Crashman's article a read to see that there are some quality micro boards out there, or if you're interested in P55 boards you can check this out: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/microatx-p55-motherboard,2524.html

Of course there are low quality boards out there, too, of the micro ATX and standard ATX variety, so if we're giving good advice we shouldn't generalize about anything one way or the other. If you want to be more specific about the board you're considering, we could be more direct in our responses. However, to answer your second question, and I have to guess since I don't know what board you're looking it, I'm betting that it will run a 5770 just fine. The board you're considering probably has a x16 PCIe 2.0 slot on it where you'll insert the 5770 GPU. Look and see if it does, or let us know more of your system specs if you want any additional help.

 

[Crashman]

I never said m-atx boards were inferior, I stated that the boards your referring too and linking articles are i5/i7 motherboards that do NOT have integrated graphics, where as every other m-atx board DOES. So you can't use that as a generalization for all m-atx boards. These are new generation boards.

You can't really generalize the form factor because it's all based on chipset. The Via PT880 or Gforce 7050 is going to be crap no matter what the form factor is.

The article says just about everything that needs to be said. That is, it says Micro ATX has the same size CPU area as ATX, so it can be made the same quality. The best example I can think of isn't one of those two boards, it's the Intel DP55KG

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enthusiast-p55-motherboard,2494-6.html

You can chop that ATX board off with a hacksaw and toss it into an Micro case. Intel also sells a Micro ATX version of it, of course.