Hey, Just wondering if anyone knows if there are any M-ATX s939 SLi motherboards made, i am looking at getting the board for a SS SG01 case, and using it as an enclosure for my other hardware to just swap over for transport to lans and when i get boredd of my overly loud akasa eclipse-62 with deltas. Anyway if someone knows of a AMD S939 SLi board please let me know.
rob
I would love for such a beast to be available, (I have a similar mATX system) but I think it is unlikely that you will find one. (Let me know if you do). The reason is that motherboard manufacturers equate mATX with low cost integrated systems for offices, or non gaming home systems, so they are very unlikely to put in enthusiast features like SLI. When I built my mATX system a year ago, I could not even find a board that supported 939 pin Athlons, or Gigabit Ethernet, despite those features being easily available on full size ATX boards.Originally Posted by xrob
Basically, if you want a small system with enthusiast features, consider a shuttle. It may not be so upgradeable, but it will work better now.
The closest I know of is the MSI RS480M2-IL which is featured in the Ars Technica Budget box. It has Socket 939, PCIe, and uses the ATI Xpress200 chipset.
I should also warn you of the potential downsides of the mATX system you are considering. I have a similar system (Antec Aria) and while everything fits as advertised, it is a tight fit with little room for cables or airflow. A simple job like swapping a PCI card, or adding ram, Can take 20 minutes because of the degree to which things have to be taken apart. It is much worse to work on than a shuttle.
I note that Silverstone recommend a CPU cooler for the system. You will probably find that it is the Only cooler that fits, due to the limited headroom between the motherboard and the PSU.
In concussion, a small mATX system can be made to work, but it is a pain to work with, and I have decided to buy a full size ATX system next time I upgrade.
Thanks for the reply.
My previous system was an old s478 shuttle and although it was a good pc i wanted more power and just upgraded to my Akasa Eclipse-62 (see sig) which i love aswell but its a bit of a monster, i think the only option is for me to get a water cooling setup as this will allow for better overclocking aswell as quieting the pc down. I've been crawling the web for weeks trying to decide what i want, but there are so many blocks around i'm finding it quite hard. I know i want 2 x single crossflow 120mm radiators, still dont know which radiators i want tho. i really like the look of the dangerden heater core, but i cant find anywhere that sells them and has them in stock. 2 of those with the cooled water feeding a single input and double out feeding 2 7800 gtx's. i am going to start buying my kit pretty soon i think.
thanks for you help anyway would have preferred to get that silverstone case as it has a fair bit of headroom for the CPU cooler thats why i liked it, 78mm i think, thats easily enough for watercooling. but oh well.
rob
I guess if youve already got the case its not much use. But the Shuttle SN26P is SLi.
I am begining to think that 77 or 78 mm appears in the ATX spec somewhere, as that is also the amount of headroom above the CPU in my Antec Aria, and is the size of both the AMD and Intel stock CPU coolers. As I said, virturaly no other aftermarket air cooler will fit in that space. (I used a Zalaman cooler)
Clearly watercooling is a different matter, but if you can fit a pump, tubing, radiator etc all inside a cube case it will be most impresive. Have you considered the Zalaman Resonator? It is a very quiet external system, that got a rave review here on Hexus about a year ago.
Do let me know if you find any enthusiast frendly mATX boards out there, and good luck with your build.
the 78mm is defined by the height of the I/O shield without basically making a proprietary form factor.
The SS SG01 has no space, and to date there are no microATX SLI boards. There are practly no S939 motherboards at all. They all suck completely except for the Shuttle, but you need a Shuttle case.
The only half-decent NF4 microATX board I've found is the Foxconn Winfast, and it pretty much sucks too if you overclock at all.
With SLI and overclocking (especially with the X2) power is a huge issue. The SG-01 uses a baby ATX PSU. The two best PSUs for that box are the Enermax 285 (275 watts) and the Topower 350 (350 watts), neither of which has the power needed for two high-powered videocards or an overclocked X2.
The SG-01 is a nice Media Computer box but it's not sufficient for a high powered gamer or enthusiast.
Last edited by StormPC; 26-08-2005 at 05:40 PM.
I think that is a bit hash, from the website the SG01 has more space than the Antec Aria, and I have built one into a workable system.
If xrob drops his requirement for an SLI system, then I see no reason why he should not be able to build a decent lan party box. Clearly you cannot build a god box into any mATX case, but then you can't into a shuttle either. The way I see it, a mATX system represents a decent compromise between upgradability and portability. It is not the choice I would make, but I don't think you should flame xrob because he has chosen that type of system.
the sugo uses a full standard atx psu according to silverstone so you can use what you want
I agree that the ATi S939 board suck, i think I've managed to go through all of them, three in total?, and never got one to work properly :S. The Foxconn I've ordered twice only to be told they whoever can't get it, I'm going to order an Asus A8NE-FM and see if that is any better, at least I can get hold of that.
Baby ATX? like what a NeoPower 480w, like I've been using w/out issue in my SG01, thought that was a full sized ATX, oh well...
I think it is safe to say that Silverstone enclosures are yummy
If you read my post you will see that I like the SG-01, but it's not a good choice for a high performance system. The fact that the Aria is not as good does not make the SG-01 good.
I stand corrected on the PSU...it does indeed take a full ATX, not a baby. Still, the absence of a decent motherboard and the limited space make it a very poor choice for a gamer or enthusiast system. The Shuttles will outperform anything you can put in the SG-01.
Yes, the SG-01 is much better than an Aria, but the Aria is one of the worst cases you could possibly use for any system. Sure it will work, but the only thing it has going for it at all is it's portability. It doesn't even look good.
I use Silverstone cases for my media PCs (have not used SG-01 yet, but I offer them). They are very cool.
If the Asus microATX is anyware near as good as the A8N-E it will be awesome. It probably won't be though because it's not the NF4 Ultra, just the standard NF4. Still, it's the best S939 microATX to date in all likelihood!
Last edited by StormPC; 27-08-2005 at 05:06 PM.
Small ATX case
Another option to consider if you have not yet ordered anything is the Lan-Li PC-V800. It is a case that takes a full size ATX bord, but by clever placement of the PSU (A full size one BTW), it is much smaller than normal. There was a review on techreport.com back in april.
I have not looked up the numbers, but I think you will find that it is the same depth as the Siverstone SG01, and about two inches wider. Obvously it is larger again than a shuttle, but still worth conidering, and it would enable you to have an SLI system with a good choce of boards to choose from.
The case is marketed as for a home theatre system, but appart from being a destop rather than a tower layout, it is a normal case. I would consider it for my next system.
As far as I can tell the A8NE-FM is an OEM for Fujitsu-Siemens, if you can work out which machine(S) it's in you can find out
mesh use the asus matx board as well
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