Micro ITX boards

[rozz]

Any of you guys have experience with micreo ITX boards?

I'm getting ready to buy one for the parents, just as a small PC that can watch movies, check email, and browse youtube. Wireless would be nice and small form factor is a plus.

I was looking at this one with the Atom 330 in it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500036&Tpk=N82E16813500036

Any have experience with them? are they fast enough to run win 7 x64 smoothly?

Anything cool you can do with them to give em a kick?

Thanks

rozz

 

[Wolfshadw]

I went with this MSI Wind Nettop 100 (Atom 330) for my mother about a year and a half ago. She only uses it for E-mail and web surfing. It's running Windows 7 Home Premium. It does freeze up from time to time, but I think that's because I could only put in 2GB of RAM and she's not tech-savvy enough to not click on those "You are the 11 Billionth visitor! Click here to claim your prize!" links.

-Wolf sends

 

[geofelt]

I think the atom is a weak cpu; there are better options.

Even the lowest priced sandy bridge duo has enough cpu and graphics power to run HD movies well with the integrated graphics.

A G530 is $57, and you can get a itx motherboard for as little as $50, but $80 is more common.
Still cheaper and better than the $152 atom you linked to.

My backup pc has an older G6950 which works well for web browsing and enough graphics for civ2.

If you need wifi, a itx board will have a pci-e slot, or you can get a usb dongle.
Zotac sells one with included wifi, but it is more expensive and probably not worth it.

There are some nice small cases out there.
I used a lian li pc-Q07 which is 7 x 8 x 11" tall.

Antec makes some tiny isk cases with included psu for $70-80.

Be nice to your parents. Splurge on a 2.5" SSD. It will make everything feel much much quicker.
About 60-80gb will be fine for most. If they store video, then get a secondary hard drive for storage

 

[ScrewySqrl]

i would suggest a slightly cheaper MicroATX board.

say a Celeron G530 for $56.99
AS Rock H61M-VS for $53.99
60/64 GB SATA II SSD for $99
8 GB DDR3-1333 for $42.99
500 GB HDD for $89.99
Antec Basiq 350W for $29.99
Rosewill R102 for $29.99
Rosewill 120mm fan for $7.99

you have a solid system for them for $411

 

[rozz]

I'm fine with Micro ATX

But would a celeron be ok for them?

 

[rozz]

What you think about this combo buy?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.752616

 

[geofelt]

What you think about this combo buy?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.752616

Looks like a great buy to me.

Do put a SSD in it.

 

[Dougie Fresh]

If you have a MicroCenter near you, you can pickup the G530 for $39.99. If not, I've seen it for $48.99 on Directron. The G620 is not worth the $25-$30 premium. Check the Passmark results to see what I mean. Couple that with the ASUS P8H61-I motherboard, 2GB of RAM (single stick so you can upgrade later if needed), Rosewill RC-CIX-01 case and a PCI-e wireless card and you're all set.

 

[rozz]

Best answer selected by rozz.