Opinions on this motherboard?

[AD-15]

hello,

I'm looking at purchasing this motherboard for my new budget-ish system:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductId=26728

Anyone had any experience with this (new) board? Any problems? I will be using it in conjunction with:

2x1GB sticks of Corsair XMS2 800 CAS5 RAM
INtel E2180 (only for a while, will switch to E6600 soon)
SATA drives
HIS 4670 card

Also, I'm concerned about the amount of space this heatsink will take up on the board:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=340995 (freezer 7 pro)

Any ideas on how I can check whether the motherboard and this cooler are compatible in terms of clearance?

Thanks!

[tonschk]

Dont know about the motherboard , the freezer 7 pro is not too bad , but I took the decision to avoid CPU coolers that use push pins because already I got two motherboards warped due to the lack of backplate , therefore anymore CPU coolers with pushpins ,and I only use CPU coolers with backplate screws and nuts with nylon insert

[Pob255]

Strangely enough when I first went to socket775 the stock cooler actually warped my motherboard, thanks to the thick slab of wax intel used on the pentium d stock cooler

There was noticeably less strain out on it with the ACf7p

However I'd consider the Akasa AK-965x3 instead of the ACf7p it's just as good but cheaper
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=608228

No idea on what that motherboard is like overall but I will say there should be no trouble with ether the ACf7p or AK-965x3 on it as there's nothing tall on there around the cpu to get in the way. (both of these coolers are relatively small)
The main problems come with the larger heat sinks and mounting brackets on high end motherboards as they have big heatsinks on the PWM chips around the cpu sockets that can get in the way. (all coolers are designed with enough height to clear the components on there own)
(I will say I don't like the 24pin Power socket location)

[AD-15]

hello,

Thanks for your advice guys.

Yes, I've looked at the layout of the motherboard and I have to say I don't like the location of the 24-pin connector either. Do you think this will be an issue?

[Webby]

It is in my opinion not ideal but you can just route the cable over the IO shield (if the PSU is above the motherboard) or over the expansion slots (if the PSU is below the motherboard), but I would consider this board instead, http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=848059 unless the is a need for a full ATX board?

[AD-15]

hello,

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Webby, that board is not really what I'm looking for TBH. Although, I have found this board which I'm happy with so far:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=866078

However, do you think the massive NB heatsink on that board could introduce clearance issues with the CPU cooler? This image demonstrates what I mean:



What do you think?

EDIT: Would the PCI express (x1) slot closest to the NB be usable aswell? It seems pretty close to the heatsink.

[tonschk]

In my computer the CPU cooler was almost touching the northbridge , just 1mm separation , no problem with the video card

[Webby]

The northbridge heatsink is normal sized ~40mm tall you will have no more issues with it than yuou would any other board.

As to the PCIe 1x slot nearest the northbridge yes it will be fine for anything as long as the card is short enough to fit before the memory slots.

And what perceived advantages to you have for that board over the G31 that I linked? Looking at their specifications I would say the only differences are the number of expansion card slots, 5.1 rather than 7.1 audio and the number of DIMM slots (but both boards can only support 4GB, and the P31 has some additional stipulations on memory configurations, see the product page here).