Which motherboard is better??

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I had a scout round at some mini-ITX motherboards for upgrading my SN41G2 with something a bit newer as mentioned in this thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...placement.html

Here are the two contenders:

1.)The Intel DG41MJ



This has the G41 chipset and can take upto a 65W TDP processor.

2.)The Zotac nForce 630i-ITX



This has the the 630i chipset and can take upto a 65W TDP processor.

The Intel motherboard has a PCI slot and the Zotac a PCI-E 1X slot. What has the better integrated graphics?? Which would be better to have - a PCI slot or a PC1-E 1X slot.

I already have an E4300 and a E2160 although I may pick up a secondhand E5200. I also have the RAM too.

It would be nice to get a G41-ITX,G43-ITX or even a 9300-ITX motherboard due to their PCI-E 16X slot but at around £100 they are to expensive IMHO.

[DanceswithUnix]

If the integrated video matters to you, I would have thought the very idea of Intel drivers would steer you straight to the Zotac regardless of what the hardware was like?

[mikemikemi]

Zotac is going to have the better integrated graphics

[oolon]

I would like to say... Neither! Intel graphics products do suck however the Zotac board only has 10/100 ethernet where as the Intel one is Gigabit. So it depends on what you want to use it for.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would like to say... Neither! Intel graphics products do suck however the Zotac board only has 10/100 ethernet where as the Intel one is Gigabit. So it depends on what you want to use it for.

It is not an option TBH as I simply cannot spend over £110 on the Zotac 9300 and they even go for nearly the same amount on Ebay.

[oolon]

Personally i would go for the intel one, if your using integrated graphics you not going to be playing may games on it anyway. So you might as well have the faster networking so you can use the board as some kind of server in the future. Intel is fine for web surfing and word processing, it even claims to have some kind of HD decoding.

[jim]

I would go for the PCI-E, at least then you've got more flexibility with things like graphics cards in the future, if you ever wanted to go discrete.

[oolon]

I would go for the PCI-E, at least then you've got more flexibility with things like graphics cards in the future, if you ever wanted to go discrete.

Don't think either of them have PCI-E, The intel board has PCI



edit... Oh i see a PCIE 1x slot on the Zotac ... thats not going to do graphics either... 1x or PCI are about the same in speed, 1x I guess is better as its more future resistant, however anything you put in a 1x slot will be low cost anyway... So it make little odds.

[DanceswithUnix]

Is the £110 for a 9300 a hard limit or just what you are prepared to pay for this project?

Do you know how much you could ebay the existing box for, and put the money towards something new? For example:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148249

£153 for a new Shuttle with AM2+ socket that can take up to a 955BE, gigabit, decent (compared to what you were looking at) graphics and the option of a single slot x16 card if you want proper graphics on it.

The Intel ones seemed more expensive, and only came with a 250W psu.

[DanceswithUnix]

Don't think either of them have PCI-E, The intel board has PCI

The Zotac board does seem to have a PCIe slot, but only X1. Might be useful for a TV tuner board, but frankly neither that or straight PCI are that useful these days.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is the £110 for a 9300 a hard limit or just what you are prepared to pay for this project?

Do you know how much you could ebay the existing box for, and put the money towards something new? For example:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148249

£153 for a new Shuttle with AM2+ socket that can take up to a 955BE, gigabit, decent (compared to what you were looking at) graphics and the option of a single slot x16 card if you want proper graphics on it.

The Intel ones seemed more expensive, and only came with a 250W psu.

I would like to re-use my existing Shuttle case.



Also,I already have some socket 775 CPUs and some RAM too.

Another factor is that I am a bit skint ATM,and a cheap upgrade would mean I could use the G2 Shuttle as a web browsing box. I can re-use parts I have lying around.

I actually have more like a £60 limit for the motherboard since spending more means I could get a newer Shuttle like you said. Also with around £150 to £160 , I could probably get a SG03,an AMD motherboard and a new CPU too. I have the RAM,an HX520,and HD3870 and the other bits already.

I also have an SD37P2 with a Q6600 in it. I want to extend the life of this until next year and parts like the PSU cost something like £100. Ideally I want to use this computer for more important things and leave more general stuff to the other computer.

[oolon]

The Zotac board does seem to have a PCIe slot, but only X1. Might be useful for a TV tuner board, but frankly neither that or straight PCI are that useful these days.

My mistake, the previous reader gave the impression of PCI-E slot suitable for graphics (which i was I was looking for), and clearly I didn't check the picture close enough, the Zotac board does indeed have a PCI-E x1 slot. I however agree with your DanceswithUnix about the usefulness of it. Without knowing the usage pattern i would go for the one with the gigabit networking, rather the slightly better graphics.

[oolon]

Ah your re-using processors... right which one of the ones your using in the most powerful, it would make sense to prolong the life of that one. However that is assuming the memory you have suitable for either board, if you have to rebuy memory cost should throw it one way or other.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The computer is only going to be used for web browsing,some light word processing and maybe playing some old games from before 2005 if possible.

I am most likely going to use XP or Ubuntu as the OS.

Edit!!

Well I have a few DIMMs of 1GB 667MHZ and 800MHZ DDR2 and a pair of 2GB generic 800MHZ DDR2 DIMMs.

I also have a 250GB Spinpoint P series SATA drive and a IDE DVD rewriter.

Regarding the CPUs I have an E4300 and a E2160.

[jim]

My mistake, the previous reader gave the impression of PCI-E slot suitable for graphics (which i was I was looking for), and clearly I didn't check the picture close enough, the Zotac board does indeed have a PCI-E x1 slot. I however agree with your DanceswithUnix about the usefulness of it. Without knowing the usage pattern i would go for the one with the gigabit networking, rather the slightly better graphics.

I know that it's not brilliant for graphics, but if you want to buy a card I think you'd have more luck with PCI-E x1 than PCI. You can stick standard PCI-E x16 cards in a PCI-E x1 slot as well IIRC, although it takes a bit of dremelling and a bit of luck.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The PSU is a PC40 250W which has a 20 pin power connector but the newer motherboards have a 24 pin power connector. I assume an adaptor would be fine as I have an Asrock Conroe 1333-D667 which has a 20 pin power connector and it worked fine with the E4300.

The PC40 power ratings are as follows:

Nominal Output
voltage max. Current
+ 3.3V DC 18A
+ 5V DC 19A
+ 12V DC 16A
- 12V DC 0,3A
+ 5V DC Standby 2,0A

It powered an XP2800 and a fully unlocked and overclocked 6800LE fine so I would expected a newer motherboard running a lower TDP processor should be fine.