LGA 1336 mATX mobos?

E

epblash

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Sep 5, 2007
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Right now I'm a college student with a 680i SLI mobo and a 8800 Ultra and am starting to look around at the possibility of upgrading, not now obviously - I still love my machine, but maybe a year or a year and half from now.

The computer mentioned above is in a Antec 900 case, I bought the case for the phenomenal airflow but ended up hating it as a very install-unfriendly case. In order to get my Antec 900 case to college, I put it in it's original Styrofoam packaging, in the original box, and had UPS ship it - and it came with the heatsink snapped off the processor. And of course, in order to properly fix it, I'd have to take everything out of the case, put everything back in, and classes were starting.... so I did the best I could and ended up having the Antec 900 lay flat on my desk in a cramped dorm room. It was a massive headache, but I kinda got past it.

For my next build, I really want to avoid these kinds of issues with shipping while still having an expandable desktop machine. Besides schlepping the computer back and forth from college, I also plan to do some study abroad work, and I can't see myself without a gaming computer for 6 months at a time. This means at least at first glance that I'm looking at a mATX mobo in a case that can fit easily in carry-on luggage.

However, I haven't seen any X58 chipset mobos work their way down to the mATX spot yet nor anything with even DDR3 memory - and I don't want to upgrade merely in size. Does anyone know when Core i7 stuff is going to work its way down to smaller form-factors? I mostly just play EVE and CSS, so I don't need something uber-powerful, but I like my machines to 1) last, 2) be stabler than rock, and 3) be able to well-perform the occasional high-powered game that catches my interest (which, this season happened to be Far Cry 2), so I prefer components with a bit of speed behind them anyways.
 
btw its 1366.. a far cry from 1337

"stabler than rock" lmfao
 
I'm actually in the process of building a case from the ground up with that exact purpose in mind: carryon luggage.

I've had luggage literally disappear, go to the wrong airport, thrown 4-5yds of distance in front of my eyes, and generally abused enough that I don't allow ANYTHING valuable into there anymore.

All mATX cases that I have seen so far are still too big for carryon. FYI, the size limit for carryon for most airlines is 22"x14"x9". If you're able to build one yourself, that's probably the best solution. If not, I'd recommend a Shuttle. They run loud, hot, but are small, and about as capable as the bigger-size ATX stuff. They don't have any x58 models yet, though.
 
Well I started thinking of 2 non-conventional ideas:

1) Slap the mATX case in one of these: http://www.geargrip.com/details_microlt.php?UID=165717265496030da09c67 and call it the "personal item" (instead of the requisite purse or laptop bag) that goes alongside the normal carry-on suitcase. Wrap the suitcase in left-over padding before slipping on the harness if needed for peace of mind.

2) Grab a test-bed platform case (like the one in the recent P6T6 WS video followup), put the mobo with the video cards, memory, and processor installed in 1 large anti-static bag, wrap it in a bit of bubble wrap and see if it fits in a carry-on luggage bag (problem would be height-wise I think), then put the hard drives, PSU, cooling all individually-wrapped in bubble wrap off to the sides in the carry-on bag (I have no problem throwing in my cheap keyboard in with my checked luggage, mouse, Ratpadz, headset go in my personal-item bag).

What do you think? I really want to avoid getting a laptop - gaming laptops are too expensive for the low-amount of power that they provide IMO.
 
wow i might have to use that dfi in my next build. Although watercooling and matx is rather tough...
 
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