Which motherboard is better??

[mikemikemi]

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/167...tx/index7.html

Only review I've seen with benchmarks, should be ok for pre 2005 games if Crysis is some what playable.

[scaryjim]

... I assume an adaptor would be fine ...

You probably won't even need an adaptor tbh, I'm running my M4A785TD-M EVO with a 20pin main power connector and it's chugging along fine

[kmac]

CAT, the Intel board does not appear to have an IDE connector. How would you get your Optical drive to work? (and what is a legacy I/O controller?)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

CAT, the Intel board does not appear to have an IDE connector. How would you get your Optical drive to work? (and what is a legacy I/O controller?)

I do have an external DVD rewriter lying around somewhere but the Zotac seems to have the faster IGP though and an IDE connector.

[Pob255]

Here's some other things to check, how many USB headers does each board have? You'll want two if you plan to use the front usb and that card reader.

I was going to point out the intel has 3 sata, which would allow for a 2nd hard drive although if you plan to use and IDE dvdr/w that's not an issue.

You can get pci-e x1 graphics cards, I know of workstation quadro cards, 8400gs, 9500gt and 4670. However they are hard to find and not cheap.

I'm surprised you don't sell your cpu's and use the money to go for an AMD system.
Ahh I see after a short hunt, all I can find is around £100

Bah what is it about mITX, there seems to be a larger range of cases than there is motherboards.

EDIT; and how is the intel "for the intel core 2 quad" when it can only take upto a 65W TDP processor?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The picture is off Hexus and I don't have the card reader with my SN41G2 so as long as I can use the front USB ports it would be fine.

The Zotac 9300 would be ideal as it has a PCI-E 2.0 16X slot but it is too overpriced and even second hand ones on Ebay go for £90!!

If I spend any more than £60 to £70 I might have to consider getting a SG03 case as I certainly have all the bits for an mATX build already.

The only thing is that the G2 is smaller and it would be a shame to get rid of it!!

The Zotac G41-ITX looks like it would also do the job as it has a PCI-E 2.0 16X slot too:

http://pden.zotac.com/index.php?page...emart&Itemid=1

In Germany it is available for just under £70:

http://inkpool.de/artikel/mainboard_...-a-e_90580007/

[kmac]

Plus EUR 16 for delivery so another £14

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Perhaps I could use an adaptor if I need to add a graphics card:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...source=froogle

http://linitx.com/viewcategory.php?c...pp=161,165,204

Plus EUR 16 for delivery so another £14

It would be nice if the motherboard was available in the UK.

[Pob255]

Well withough going to £100-120 you're sort of stuck with thoes 2 options only

edit: ps is you case as shiney as the one in that picture?

edit2: only other option is sell the cpu's and go for an atom 330 dual core & ion chipset
eg ASUS AT3N7A-I £105 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173797

[kmac]

If you source the Zotac, then get that - only down side is the PCi-E x1 slot and the 10/100 Lan.
You can cheaply sort the Lan issue. Slot is a bigger problem. Do those adaptors really change the bandwidth of the slot?

[Pob255]

10/100 network isn't much of an issue, only really useful if you're shifting large volumes of data over a network when you also have a gigabit switch.

If it's just pluged into a internet router, then it very unlikely that you have a 100mbit connection let alone faster than that.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well withough going to £100-120 you're sort of stuck with thoes 2 options only

edit: ps is you case as shiney as the one in that picture?

edit2: only other option is sell the cpu's and go for an atom 330 dual core & ion chipset
eg ASUS AT3N7A-I £105 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173797

The front fascia and cover are from the RefleXion special edition XPC which were made to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Shuttle. The front is very shiny indeed. My P2 Shuttle is definitely not as shiny!!

If you source the Zotac, then get that - only down side is the PCi-E x1 slot and the 10/100 Lan.
You can cheaply sort the Lan issue. Slot is a bigger problem. Do those adaptors really change the bandwidth of the slot?

The slot is still x1 and it only means you can fit a normal card though although bandwidth would be lost AFAIK.

[kmac]

So the only downside is the slot then. And since it already has on-board graphics, the issue relates to ability to upgrade in the future. So you gotta ask yourself how likely are you to need more powerful graphics at some stage in the future.

I went for the DG45FC which is about £20 more than the Intel board shown here as I needed 4 SATA ports as it is for a NAS server

Edit: BTW if you need a cooler for the E5200 you can have my Intel stock cooler FOC

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,the XP2800 with 1GB of RAM and the nForce2 IGP seems to run Windows 7 RC1 OK and hence any of the newer bits would be a big upgrade IMHO.

[circuitmonkey]

IIRC the 630i chipset only has a single channel memory controller, this may mean a hit in overall system performance compared to the G41