Very Small PC Motherboard

[antsals]

I'm after a "very" small pc motherboard. I want to be able to run Windows 7 or Vista 64 bit. Do these small motherboards allow for graphics cards to be added onto the board.

What would everyone recommend? I've not really spent much time looking at them so I'm looking for some guideance.

Cheers
Ant

[chrestomanci]

How small?

Hexus reviewed a Gigabyte E350N-USB3 Mini-ITX motherboard a few days ago. The boad had a slot for a graphics card, and is avalable now.

Mini-ITX is a standard motherboard size and is 17cm square. There are loads of boards out there. Most have low end or embedded processors soldered on, some have sockets for recent intel desktop processors. Most have one graphics card slot.

If you need to go smaller, there is Micro-ITX. I think it is 12cm square. At that size you would have to make do with low end integrated graphics and a low end CPU. The boards are expensive and there is not much choice.

If you need more features, then the next size up is Micro-ATX. (AKA uATX). That is a standard size used on a lot of consumer level PCs, and you will have a wide choice of features, and usualy four slots. The system I am currently using has a Micro-ATX motherboard (see 'chrestomanci's system on the left).

Why do you need a small motherboard? Do you have a case yet to put it in if so what size? Where will the computer be? What do you plan to use the computer for?

[antsals]

I already have a "higher" powered desktop and this new computer will be for connecting up to a cnc machine tool in my workshop. It will be used to run the cnc software and USB connection to stepper drive control cards. I had found a din rail mounting case on a website I currently run the software off my HP laptop. I am only concerned that I used to run it from an older laptop and because the graphics processor wasn't too good it affected the movement on the machine.

Thanks
Ant

[gordon861]

Depending on how good you need the processor to be, I built one of these last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv300VDiS2U

It has a PCI slot so you should be able to get a gfx card on there if you need one, will just need to use a different case. Mine has been sitting there with two users logged in virtually non-stop since I bought it, one running emails and one handling torrents on a 1920x1600 monitor with no problems.

Here is the best site I've seen for small PCs http://www.mini-itx.com/