MSI E350DM-E33 - cheap motherboard for use in a media centre or server

This motherboard only costs around £50 to £60:

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/E350DM...ml#/?div=Basic

It comes with an AMD E350 CPU.

OcUK and CCL Computers have it in stock ATM:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...03&subcat=1949

http://www.cclonline.com/product/814...board/MBD0389/

http://www.msi.com/pic/product/five_...0328155901.jpg

http://www.msi.com/pic/product/five_...0328155910.jpg

6 SATA ports and HDMI,DVI and VGA outputs.

Ideal for a basic office machine too, really. Love the PCIe x16 slot though - what do they think people are going to put in there?!

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

Ideal for a basic office machine too, really. Love the PCIe x16 slot though - what do they think people are going to put in there?!

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RAID card maybe?

I like the look of it though, don't think it would have enough oomph to record tv though?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GeorgeStorm

RAID card maybe?

I like the look of it though, don't think it would have enough oomph to record tv though?

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This time last year I would have said a big GPU for some Bitcoin mining.

Its a shame its not M-ITX really, i want a cheapy to run E-350/450 to replace the thirsty Core 2 Celeron in my home server, and im NOT replacing the case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MadduckUK

This time last year I would have said a big GPU for some Bitcoin mining.

Its a shame its not M-ITX really, i want a cheapy to run E-350/450 to replace the thirsty Core 2 Celeron in my home server, and im NOT replacing the case.

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It appears to be an extended mini-ITX form factor - I wonder if it is a DTX variant??

Looks more like an extra-slim mATX to me CAT - around 17cm x 24cm*. Quite a lot of cheap mATX motherboards are full "width" but reduced "depth" - that way you can get the full 4 expansion slots in but reduce the cost of the PCB by quite a margin. They tend to be 20cm x 24cm, but I guess using a small APU means you can trim the depth even further... ;) Certainly going for full mATX width gives it plenty of expansion options and gets the full allowance of SATA ports in - something it's hard to do on an mITX board.

*yeah, overclockers confirms 17 x 24.4, which makes it almost an mITX/mATX hybrid... :o

EDIT: of course, that makes it a lovely form-factor for scratch builds: tall tower with very small footprint...