The Unofficial List of Good mATX Motherboards (Overclocking and Not)

Dillusion said:
wtf is pcpartner
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Hmm.. Could they be a technology partner of ATI? Using ATI's matx reference board for the RS400 Socket 775 and P4 as MSI did with the RS480 sucket 939 and K8?

I have a board in route from Taiwan to try out. Could be promising. They appear to be a spin off from VTech. They are a consumer products manufacturing company - kids toys, phones, etc. They've been around for ever. It looks like a new division for them.

Thx,
Thomas
 
the new DFI coming out with feature the Nvidia C51 series chipsets...

From a DFI tech:
"Yes, we will have new series using Nvidia new C51 series all in one chipset for 939 mATX and it is targeting for Q3 availability.

DFI"
 
Steeeeve said:
the new DFI coming out with feature the Nvidia C51 series chipsets...

From a DFI tech:
"Yes, we will have new series using Nvidia new C51 series all in one chipset for 939 mATX and it is targeting for Q3 availability.

DFI"
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But its not a Black PCB/UV series board. Its going to be a value board in the brown PCB with nothing special, i asusme.
 
Dillusion said:
But its not a Black PCB/UV series board. Its going to be a value board in the brown PCB with nothing special, i asusme.
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WHy do you say that?
 
Thing is, why would DFI or any company for that matter make a MOBO thats equal in performance and features of a full size ATX board. The only thing that a matx mobo can't do (reasonably) is SLI. You can put a mATX mobo in a full/mid tower but u cant put a full ATX mobo in a SFF. I'd love for a mobo company to just make a matx mobo thats as good as the full size one and just charge the same ammount for it, because I would still pay that ammount. Instead most companies release mATX mobos as value/cheap alternatives to full size ATX mobos and ignoring the demand for SFF users.

I do believe though that in next couple of months there will be a really good mATX mobo.... but right now mATX mobos are concentrated on the value board market.
 
Steeeeve said:
WHy do you say that?
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ALl of DFI's mATX boards are part of their 'General' line...

toxikneedle said:
Thing is, why would DFI or any company for that matter make a MOBO thats equal in performance and features of a full size ATX board. The only thing that a matx mobo can't do (reasonably) is SLI. You can put a mATX mobo in a full/mid tower but u cant put a full ATX mobo in a SFF. I'd love for a mobo company to just make a matx mobo thats as good as the full size one and just charge the same ammount for it, because I would still pay that ammount. Instead most companies release mATX mobos as value/cheap alternatives to full size ATX mobos and ignoring the demand for SFF users.

I do believe though that in next couple of months there will be a really good mATX mobo.... but right now mATX mobos are concentrated on the value board market.
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Actually, eVGA is coming out with mATX SLI mobos.
 
Dillusion said:
Actually, eVGA is coming out with mATX SLI mobos.
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Link for a news bite or something...I would like to read about that. :)
 
Tiny said:
Link for a news bite or something...I would like to read about that. :)
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Ya that blasted scavenger hunt never said anything about that. Btw... wtf was #9? :mad:
 
Dillusion said:
Actually, eVGA is coming out with mATX SLI mobos.
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Yeah with what..... 0 PCI slots? Who the hell would want to stuff 2 HOT video cards next to each other in a small freakin box. It kind of defeats the point of SFF.
 
toxikneedle said:
Yeah with what..... 0 PCI slots? Who the hell would want to stuff 2 HOT video cards next to each other in a small freakin box. It kind of defeats the point of SFF.
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How?

And I would.
 
will there be issues if i install 6800gt with a ati xpress200 mobo?
 
swatX said:
will there be issues if i install 6800gt with a ati xpress200 mobo?
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i dont think theres any reason there should be. unless you're thinking that ati will somehow make its chipset not support nvidia cards, well, nvidia doesnt do that w/ their nforce4 (if its even possible?), so im pretty sure ati doesnt either.
 
For addition to the list. I just worked on a Abit LG-81 board and it had a large array of overclocking options. Change the FSB, vcore, vDIMM, lock the PCI bus. The voltages were adjustable for high above stock. I used it in a cheap setup to upgrade later. It had a Celeron 2.66/533 and was able to clock it to 3.8/190 with the stock heatsink no problem, Prime95 stable. The board was rock solid. Love it
 
grams said:
For addition to the list. I just worked on a Abit LG-81 board and it had a large array of overclocking options. Change the FSB, vcore, vDIMM, lock the PCI bus. The voltages were adjustable for high above stock. I used it in a cheap setup to upgrade later. It had a Celeron 2.66/533 and was able to clock it to 3.8/190 with the stock heatsink no problem, Prime95 stable. The board was rock solid. Love it
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yes thats ABIt's softmenu, ill update the list soon. excellent news for p4 matx users.
 
The PcPartner board did turn out to be a WTF. They initially claimed compatbility with the Pentium D family and after the board arrived and it refused to boot, they stated the CPU draws too much power for the board to supply. Beware....

I have Jetway A210GDMS-Pro and the Foxconn 945G7MA-8EKRS2 in route for some dual core competition between a D830 anda x2 3800 .... No synthetic benchmarks here..

thx,
Thomas
 
thomaslfessler said:
The PcPartner board did turn out to be a WTF. They initially claimed compatbility with the Pentium D family and after the board arrived and it refused to boot, they stated the CPU draws too much power for the board to supply. Beware....

I have Jetway A210GDMS-Pro and the Foxconn 945G7MA-8EKRS2 in route for some dual core competition between a D830 anda x2 3800 .... No synthetic benchmarks here..

thx,
Thomas
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The foxconn cant overlcock. The abit LG-81 would have been a better choice IMHO, it includes abit's 'softmenu' in the BIOS.

Tiny said:
Add another to the s939 list?

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Products/Products_GA-K8A480M-9.htm
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And once this shows up on US shelves ill add it, the list is prominently only 'available' boards...
 
Hofy said:
I have seen the ASUS A8NE-FM for sale on the web, but not a whole lot of info on it.
It appears to be the only NForce4 Ultra mATX mobo out there. I have checked Asus' website and it doesnt even exist on there.
Does anyone know the full specs on this? (BTW, Yes I did google)
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I bought this sometime back, and ended up returning it.

1) It is advertised as an nForce4 Ultra chipset, but IT IS NOT. The HTT bus maxes out at 800mhz. That sure ain't no 'Ultra'!

2) It is not an Asus board, anyway. It's Fujitsu-Siemens. Asus has no support of it, no BIOSes, nothing. Fujitsu-Siemens site has very little support for it. There is a BIOS available that allows it to support E-core CPUs, but there is no BIOS for it that allows it to support X2 CPUs....yet. And since Asus isn't supporting it....

3) No overclocking options.

In my search for the 'perfect mATX S939 board' I tried the Asus model, Foxconn model, and the Jetway A210GDMS-Pro. Jetway is the easy winner by a long shot!
 
Just because they have overclock options doesn't make them any damn good. I can pick off several manufacturers in the OP that aren't worth the powder to blow their motherboards to hell. heh. :p
 
Anyone have any experience with the MSI RS480M2-IL not working properly with 6600GT PCI-E video cards? IE: I could run hours after hours of Doom 3 benchmarking, ut2k4 time loop, pc prime, etc. without a crash, but as soon as I started doing something interactive in 3d, it would crash from 15 min - 1 hour. Without the 6600gt in, it works beautifully, and I've tested the same video card in an MSI Neo4 platinum that hasn't yet crashed (got it two weeks ago), so the only thing I can think of is that, since the card isn't officially supported by the mobo, that they're not compatible. Tried new windows install, different drivers, beta drivers, etc. Any ideas?
 
SirKenin said:
Just because they have overclock options doesn't make them any damn good. I can pick off several manufacturers in the OP that aren't worth the powder to blow their motherboards to hell. heh. :p
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Been running it a couple weeks now 24/7 operations.

2.2 ghz AMD Athlon64 X2 CPU at 2.5ghz, 1ghz htt, DDR500 ram. Using the integrated NIC and Azalia HD audio.

Not a problem to be seen. No crashes, lock-ups, or any kind of instability. No 'bulging caps' on the mobo. No evidence of any problems at all.

In my experience, most problems people have with a new motherboard is the result of swapping out mobos without doing a clean install of WinXP (which MUST be done when changing mobos between chipsets, and is usually a good idea even within the same chipset), or doing it incorrectly.

I stand by my recommendation of the Jetway A210GMDS-Pro.
 
dderidex said:
Been running it a couple weeks now 24/7 operations.

2.2 ghz AMD Athlon64 X2 CPU at 2.5ghz, 1ghz htt, DDR500 ram. Using the integrated NIC and Azalia HD audio.

Not a problem to be seen. No crashes, lock-ups, or any kind of instability. No 'bulging caps' on the mobo. No evidence of any problems at all.

In my experience, most problems people have with a new motherboard is the result of swapping out mobos without doing a clean install of WinXP (which MUST be done when changing mobos between chipsets, and is usually a good idea even within the same chipset), or doing it incorrectly.

I stand by my recommendation of the Jetway A210GMDS-Pro.
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As I do mine.
 
I looked up the Abit LG-81 (just out of curiosity, don't really want a Prescott) that grams mentioned and it looks promising. Newegg has it for $119. I then looked up other boards at Abit's site and found:

LG-80 (945G chipset)
LG-81 (no Firewire)
LP-80 (945P chipset)
LP-81 (no Firewire)

All these are mATX with Softmenu overclocking support - even says so right on Abit's site. The "1" versions are the same except no Firewire. If I were doing a Prescott system for myself I'd jump all over these... well, except seems like only the LG-81 is currently available.
 
ASUS P5LD2-VM
Intel 945G Micro Atx

All overclocking options available
Vcore, dram voltage available
FSB overclocking, ram dividers

note - seems to have issues over 220mhz FSB (intel 820 overclocked to 3.1GHZ, not an inch over 220mhz fsb)
 
soundmax said:
ASUS P5LD2-VM
Intel 945G Micro Atx

All overclocking options available
Vcore, dram voltage available
FSB overclocking, ram dividers

note - seems to have issues over 220mhz FSB (intel 820 overclocked to 3.1GHZ, not an inch over 220mhz fsb)
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Sounds like a non functioning PCI-E lock. Try setting the PCI-E frequency to auto if not already set there. If it's like most of the 915P chipset boards, the SATA might not work when overclocked either. Could also be the problem. I had exactly the same problem with a 530J that did 3.8 on stock volts in a P5P800 but when I put it in my DFI LanParty 915P-T12 it hit 220fsb and that was it. Moved my os to an IDE hard drive on the same channel as my optical drive (yuk!) and there I was at 255 fsb again. It is like an invisible wall that no amount of voltage would break.
 
Lil Big Mec said:
Sounds like a non functioning PCI-E lock. Try setting the PCI-E frequency to auto if not already set there. If it's like most of the 915P chipset boards, the SATA might not work when overclocked either. Could also be the problem. I had exactly the same problem with a 530J that did 3.8 on stock volts in a P5P800 but when I put it in my DFI LanParty 915P-T12 it hit 220fsb and that was it. Moved my os to an IDE hard drive on the same channel as my optical drive (yuk!) and there I was at 255 fsb again. It is like an invisible wall that no amount of voltage would break.
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Its on Auto already, i have options from 90-150 for PCI-e, im not sure what value to lock it at..

update:

i played with PCIE speed, and you are right it has something to do with it. When i put it at 120, i can basically restart up to 250mhz FSB, but i cant get into windows pass 225mhz FSB. I think its something to do with PCIE speed/onboard SATA.. I hope they update BIOS, as it seems like a BIOS issue.
 
I e-mailed Gigabyte about the availability of the GA-K8NMF-9, the skt 939 mATX mobo. This is the response I got:


Dear Customer,

This model has been available to our OEM partners. However, it will not be availble in the retail market. The new Nvidia mATX 939 and Crossfire model GA-K8AMVP Pro will be introduced in late September to the channel and retail market.

Thank you for choosing Gigabyte products
 
not sure if ne1 else has mentioned this yet, but

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186066

a new foxconn nf4 board has popped up at newegg, Foxconn NF4K8MC-EKRS. on newegg, the only differences i see in a comparison between this and the ERS model is that this has a upgrade fsb, gigabit ethernet, built in audio and lan card, and 4 usb 2.0 instead of 2.

link to comparison:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16813186052,N82E16813186066&SubCategory=22

someone go test it out :)

*edit* ya hopefully no1 mentioned this board already, but its not on the front page in the list of motherboards, so i dont think anyone has.
 
mATX boards have been slow lately. Im waiting for DFI's C19 offering and some intel 945G announcements from various companies.
 
http://www.asrock.com/product/product_939S56-M.htm

This S939 board has 4 DIMM slots and full overclocking options. Its SIS based but reviews seem to indicate speed is on a par with nForce and other offerings. It's on sale NOW and cheap! In UK we cannot get the Jetway at all but we can get the Asrock. I had to return my ECS RS480 as the 2nd DIMM slot was unusable and caused the machine to fail to boot.
 
Methanoid said:
http://www.asrock.com/product/product_939S56-M.htm

This S939 board has 4 DIMM slots and full overclocking options. Its SIS based but reviews seem to indicate speed is on a par with nForce and other offerings. It's on sale NOW and cheap! In UK we cannot get the Jetway at all but we can get the Asrock. I had to return my ECS RS480 as the 2nd DIMM slot was unusable and caused the machine to fail to boot.
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UK must have more demand for MATX boards. I found an Asrock AGP 939 board in the UK that I would love to try as ive got quite a few AGP cards laying around. But I dont trust buying components overseas because of warranty and such.

EDIT**

Actually if anyone can find a price on the ASRock 939A8X-M let me know please. PM me or email me pahick[at]adelphia[dot]net ....thanks.

EDIT**

Found price...lol
 
soundmax said:
Its on Auto already, i have options from 90-150 for PCI-e, im not sure what value to lock it at..

update:

i played with PCIE speed, and you are right it has something to do with it. When i put it at 120, i can basically restart up to 250mhz FSB, but i cant get into windows pass 225mhz FSB. I think its something to do with PCIE speed/onboard SATA.. I hope they update BIOS, as it seems like a BIOS issue.
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Set it to 100 and you can do whatever you want. 100 is the correct pci-e speed, as 33.33 is the correct PCI speed...

EDIT: And i updated the mATX 775 boards
 
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