Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

[signa]

I was considering for my next project building a micro-atx style system. Probably 2 systems - one to replace the file server on my lan, and maybe one as a new gaming rig. the file server one is no biggie -ill probably transplant a cpu and drives. but for a gaming rig what are the pro's and cons?

are micro's more expensive?
is heat an issue?
are there decent qualilty mobo's availible?
opinions on sli in a micro setup...

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

Any reason you prefer Micro for you gaming rig? I"m not aware of any MAtx SLI boards. Pretty sure singly GPU is all that is supported.

[sackynut]

Re: Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

umm heat is kinda an issue, depending on the parts. here are my fav micro cases:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144161

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=M&Category_Code=HornetBarebones

(the hornet case is really really nice for MATX, because it can fit SLi)

http://www.falcon-nw.com/

(go to desktops, then the fragbox then find the link for the barebones case. so you can get the fragbox case by itself)

I wouldnt recoomend going Sli MATX because of heat and space. I would just get one good card.
some good mobos:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138264

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188007

^ SLI!!!!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813170147

this mobo is no MATX, but is very very small (i have it) so it is possible it can fit into an MATX case, at least the monarch one or the aspire one, and it is Si too.
socket am2:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138027

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128009

as for the other stuff you know. MATX seems cool and I was actually going to build one, but returned the items and just decided to fix my laptop. I would DEFINITLY put my current rig into MATX if it would all fit =(

[signa]

Re: Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

Any reason you prefer Micro for you gaming rig? I"m not aware of any MAtx SLI boards. Pretty sure singly GPU is all that is supported.

no reason, I just thought it would be something interesting/different to build, and wondered if anyone here had built one.

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2749&p=2

Falcon northwest has at least one out, so the hardware is out there.

Motherboard: EVGA 131-K8-NF44-AX NF4 SLI (NVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset) Micro-ATX
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 FX-60
Heatsink: Zalman CNPS7000 Cu
RAM: 2x1024MB Corsair TwinX 3500LL Pro 2-3-2-7-1T
Graphics Cards: 2 x BFG GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB OC -or- 2 x BFG 7800 GT 256MB OC
Hard Drive(s): 2 x Western Digital 150GB 16MB 10K RPM Raptor Drives configured in RAID 0
Optical Drive: Plextor PX-740A 16x DVD+/-RW
Floppy Drive: Mitsumi 3.5 Floppy plus 7-in-1 USB Card Reader
Audio: RealTek AC'97 7.1 (ALC850) -or- Creative X-Fi ExtermeMusic
Power Suply: SilverStone 600W Modular PSU
Drivers: NVIDIA nForce4 6.70 NVIDIA ForceWare 84.43
Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2 with Updates

http://www.falcon-nw.com/
(go to desktops, then the fragbox then find the link for the barebones case. so you can get the fragbox case by itself)

ya the falcon is sweet, but I thought $500 for a case + psu was a little much. :shock:
thanks for the links, ill be checking them out.

[Sir. MatDef]

Re: Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

I'm building one, just not sure whether its gonna be conroe or am2. For a matx board the only thing you have to worry about is heat. If I were to buy one today, I'd get a aspire qpack with a enermax liberty psu (its short) with a lite on optical drive (its also short, space is a big issue on these things).

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

Oh, your talking about a Small Form fatcotr PC. You didn't really make that clear in your OP. I assumed you wanted a Matx board for a regular case.

[sackynut]

Re: Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

just so ya know (incase you didnt) i posted an MATX Sli motherboard from evga. it looks really good and could fit into the qpack, the only issue is a PSU.

[Sir. MatDef]

Re: Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

just so ya know (incase you didnt) i posted an MATX Sli motherboard from evga. it looks really good and could fit into the qpack, the only issue is a PSU.

Enermax Liberty. Good psu, and it's one of the smallest around.

[TheHairyYeti]

Re: Anyone built a micro-atx rig?

My setup is a matx board right now. Its an old compaq that I "overhauled" with a new sound card, speakers, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and Radeon x850 pro. It plays the game at med-high, heat is not usually a problem. the board is the terrible compaq board the system came with, but it gets the job done.