Kiwi1971 said:
Does performance of the AM2 chips get reduced in anyway by being
fitted to a M-ATX board or would I not notice the difference?
Is the difference merely in the fact that there are fewer board slots?
Damon
Yeah, it is just fewer slots. Since the same chipsets are used
on microATX and full sized boards, there shouldn't be an issue
there. The BIOS may not be as full featured on the microATX
(full sized boards tend to have more custom voltage settings
and memory timings). In which case, I always recommend downloading
the PDF version of the manual, for details, before you buy.
Expect, in the best case, to see a picture of each BIOS screen,
but not a lot of detail about what the BIOS settings do. Some
motherboard makers are so cheap, they only tell you there are
five or six main screens of settings, and they don't give detailed
lists. I only buy stuff, where I know what each BIOS screen
contains.
On the one hand, if you aren't an overclocker, you would assume
that you'd never need to touch a BIOS screen. But there can be
situations, where you are using hardware and having stability
problems. The ability to adjust the voltage or change the
memory timing or frequency, can have some diagnostic value.
And if you need the system to continue to run, until you can
get parts to swap in for repair/replacement, then the ability
to keep the PC running, has some value.
There are some microATX boards, that are every bit as good as
a full sized ATX motherboard. But the thing that works against
good full featured boards, is the price factor. MicroATX boards
seem to be focused on a $50 price, which means they will be
cost reduced. If a voltage adjustment costs the manufacturer
$0.50 to add to the board, they would sooner remove it and
leave the voltage value fixed at the nominal value. So the
trick is, to find a "quality" microATX design. When you find
some motherboards for $30, you might suspect they've cut
corners on important things.
MicroATX boards are considered to be the core of "small business
PCs", and that is why they have a low cost target. If they
instead, were intended for enthusiasts or for HTPC usage,
then perhaps the qualities and features would be different.
If you go to the Newegg site, there are customer reviews for
many of the listed products. For the microATX boards, you
can look at those reviews, and spot motherboards that only
last three months. Some boards seem to do better than others,
and so reading those reviews is about the best you can do to
spot products that should be avoided. Some of the brands also
have web forums, and you can get further feedback about BIOS
problems or bad batches of motherboards, in the forums. No
matter what kind of motherboard you get, it takes on average
about 5 BIOS releases, before BIOS design issues are resolved
and the BIOS is fit to use.
There are some hardware differences, but they may not affect
you. In years past, a P4 for LGA775 could draw up to 130W. That
puts a decent load on the Vcore regulator circuit which is located
next to the CPU socket. Motherboards can have, 3, 4, 6, or 8 phase
power circuits. MicroATX boards might have 3 or 4 phase circuits.
Full sized boards, because they span the $50 to $400 range of prices,
can have anywhere from 3 to 8 phases or more. If you are using a
Core2 Duo 65W processor, of which there are a number of models,
the power consumption is so low, that even a cheesy Vcore regulator
is sufficient. The time when you need the eight phases, is when you
are taking a cheap dual core processor, like the Pentium D 805, and
overclocking it to 4GHz. Some of those draw more than 200W from
Vcore at that frequency, and the motherboard gets hot enough to
melt plastic. In that situation, it is reassuring to have an
eight phase regulator. But if you are using a 65W processor, and
not planning to overclock it, even a three phase regulator should
be good enough.
Onec you've spotted a motherboard you think looks like a good
deal, post the URL, and somebody can provide feedback on your
prospective purchase.
Paul
