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

I also e-mailed Gigabyte regarding the availability of the GA-K8NMF-9 board in North America (it's currently being sold all over U.K., Germany, and Australia), and I got the (apparently) canned response:

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

-------------------------------------------------------------

So, I suppose what they are saying is that for North America, the board has been sold to OEMs (I wonder who those are), but not in retail. It is also interesting that they do not name the "new Nvidia mATX 939" board by model number, but they do for the Crossfire model. I can only assume for the nVidia board, they are actually referring to the upcoming GA-K8N51GMF-9 board that was shown at the last Computex.

Anyway, from what I've researched, it seems many of the mainboard companies have been biding their time, as far as 939 mATX boards are concerned, and will release them as C51 chipset boards. Rumors are that MSI, Gigabyte, DFI, Biostar, Foxconn, ECS, etc. will all be releasing C51 boards in late September/early October, right around the expected official announcement of C51. Whether or not these are released as retail items (MSI - maybe not, Gigabyte and DFI - seems to be confirmed for retail), remains to be seen.

I can't wait - the existing 939 mATX boards are scarce, and I am not satisfied with the choice between the MSI RS480 and Foxconn boards.
 
Why is everyone expecting C51 to be the cat's meow?

It's not like there is anything inherently *limiting* about the nForce4 Ultra or nForce4 SLI as it is. The mobo makers just don't care to put features in mATX form-factor boards.

C51 isn't going to change that. We'll just have boards with the same lack of tweaking options as any MSI or Foxconn board right now....only with ~GeForce 6200 integrated graphics.

Big whoop!

What we are WAITING for is an "enthusiast" mATX board - SLI or Crossfire - with buckets of voltage and tweaking options.

I fear we are going to be waiting for an awfully long damn time.
 
QFT.

Lets keep an eye on Gigabyte's crossfire mATX board, as two cards in an SG01 or a QPACK would be sweet.
 
dderidex said:
Why is everyone expecting C51 to be the cat's meow?

It's not like there is anything inherently *limiting* about the nForce4 Ultra or nForce4 SLI as it is. The mobo makers just don't care to put features in mATX form-factor boards.

C51 isn't going to change that. We'll just have boards with the same lack of tweaking options as any MSI or Foxconn board right now....only with ~GeForce 6200 integrated graphics.

Big whoop!

What we are WAITING for is an "enthusiast" mATX board - SLI or Crossfire - with buckets of voltage and tweaking options.

I fear we are going to be waiting for an awfully long damn time.
Click to expand...

A bit bitter, now, are we? You need to relax...

The mobo companies don't see the market for an enthusiast mATX board - yet. Most of the market for mATX boards are HTPC setups or value OEM systems - both of whom don't care so much about pure 3D graphics power - so the manufactuers are not jumping up and down to create full-on mATX overclocking boards. Besides, there are heat problems to deal with in such small form factors, and I don't think they feel it is worth the trouble to support - say if you fry their mATX board because your SG01 couldn't handle the heat from an overclocked SLI setup.

I don't care about C51 as an integrated chipset per se, but rather many manufactuers appear to be willing to release C51 mATX boards with decent features (SATA II, HD audio, gigabyte ethernet, etc.). I mean, look at the 939 mATX choices now - there are really only two semi-decent boards in the North American market, both of which I find faults with that I am not willing to compromise on. That is not acceptable. If the C51 is the catalyst that pushes the manufacturers to release more boards, then so be it. I'll buy one from a Tier 1 manufactuer, slap in a GeForce 7800 GT, and be done with it.

The fact that Gigabyte claims a Crossfire mATX board is on the way should be proof that the times they-are-a-changin' so the wait for an "enthusiast mATX" board may be closer than we think.

One can only hope...
 
Dillusion

U still need 2 update the first post to include Asrock 939S56 (SIS based S939 board).

Mine arrived yesterday and its a great overclocker. FSB goes to 300 in BIOS and managed 280+ for me. Full multiplier, voltage, HTT, ram timings, ram voltage etc adjustments. You name it and it has it, except for onboard VGA which isn't a great loss!
 
I chose to 86 all the SiS chipsets but this one seems to be a good overclocker. If you can provide me with screenies of CPU-Z showing your OC/Temps I will post the board up.
 
Dillusion said:
I chose to 86 all the SiS chipsets but this one seems to be a good overclocker.
Click to expand...
Why?

OCW review

Max FSB/HTT was 285, probably limited by lack of a 3xHTT setting, as 4x285=1.14GHz.

This board seems to have reasonable performance (then again, what s939 board doesn't) and OC abilities. Not too hardcore, but it does have minor voltages and such.
 
Thanks for the reco on the Aopen. It's somewhere early in the thread. :)
It was a nice mobo unfortunately I later found out it was the ram I had issues with. I had a pair of Geil Ultras which require 3.1v and therefore couldn't OC much. Good mobo though. Thinking of using for htpc.

Thanks
 
Just bought a P4S800-mx. It has my celeron d 340 [email protected], but i didn't skimp on the cooling too.

The thing about the pci locks is this:

133/33
134/33
135/33
136/34
137/34
...
158/40
159/40
160/33
161/33

that's fsb/pci speeds. It raises the pci once for every few mhz increase in fsb but never goes over 40; instead it resets back to 33. You can set dram to 133,166,200, etc or to auto so it clocks with the fsb.

BTW i found this board for $40. Pretty good for the price if you ask me.
 
is the Biostar Tforce mobo mATX? its on the front page @ hardocp.com .
 
swatX said:
is the Biostar Tforce mobo mATX? its on the front page @ hardocp.com .
Click to expand...

Yes it definitely is. Steve is a little off about the specs though, it has 2 PCI and 1 PCIe x1, not 3 PCI slots (as clearly visible in the pic). Shame about the lack of DVI for the onboard video.
 
Looks like the C51 is finally pulling through. Now lets see it hit the US market.
 
Well, if I understand the TForce line (according to Biostar's website), they are intended as true overclocking enthusiast mainboards. The drool factor on the site is enhanced by the pictures posted for the 6100-939 and 6100 boards on their TForce product page. There are no details about them yet, but you can check out the full ATX TForce version. It gives some tantalizing clues regarding what we can expect from the mATX boards. It gives full voltage adjustments and BIOS recovery features. From what I can tell, this will be a good choice for those out there who have been holding out for an enthusiast mATX board.

And I'm one of them! I Hope the companies are smart enough to release these to the North American market, and I also hope this bodes well for what we can expect from C51 boards.

Check out the recent nVidia presentation regarding their integrated GPU mainboard strategy at http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/PlatformUpdate

The last page showing the participating manufacturers is very exciting!
 
read the anandtech;s reveiw on the board. they listed some features that you can adjust on the boards bios
 
Did anyone get the ABIT IS-10 to work with the Modded BIOS? I flashed it in, but didnt see any new options in the bios. There might even have been a couple less. I have a P4 2.26 that might just run 3.4 (tested it in another board) but need the options to do so.
 
chadt said:
Well, if I understand the TForce line (according to Biostar's website), they are intended as true overclocking enthusiast mainboards.
Click to expand...
Biostar made probably the most overclocker friendly mATX socket A board, the M7NCG-400. Only thing I don't like about Biostar is their warranty handling. They basically say "get warranty through your reseller, or pay us $30." What if your reseller is like 95% of the online etailers who only give a 30 day DOA warranty, or even say manufacturer's warranty only?
 
PC CHIPS A21G (V1.0) Socket 939 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813185066
just found this board on the egg
anyone know anything else about this mobo? its an AGP mobo for $55us

also found this one
ASUS A8V-MX Socket 939 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131558
another AGP mobo, $65us

are any of these mobos any good? at least the asus?
was a bit surprised to find them, never heard of them before
 
Im not even gonna bother putting PC Chips on the list. their quality is horrible. I and many others will take an asrock or biostar over them, its that bad.

Thw k8m800 chipset has no PCi locks and the onboard video cant even run CS1.6
 
Yea you can tell by the price that they are low qual mobos but they still exist :)
so i was just wondering about the list lol
 
Is it just me or is Foxconn really into matx? First their 3 boards with the nf4 chipsets now these two: (Not currently available for sale)

6150K8MA-8EKRS

6100K8MA-RS

With the lack of serious overclocking support coming from Foxconn boards, these will probably appeal more to those not wanting to overclock, yet still wishing for a value board laden with features. From a Froogle search on the 6150 model, I see stores will begin offering it from 90-100 dollars. Gigabit lan, sata II, firewire, 7.1 channel sound, 4 x 184 pin dimm slots for up to 4gb of ram, and great onboard graphics capability.

As a non-overclocker, this board is currently my pick for an x-qpack or aria build.

Blorg

(This is my first post, be gentle ) :(
 
microatx is growing and there is a lot of potential to make money in this area :)
HTPCs and LAN PCs are becoming more popular
also there are a lot of crazy enthusiasts like me who want good stuff for micro atx :)
we are waiting for the rest of the Tforce mobos from DFI,MSI,ASUS etc.
they should be coming out soon
The ASUS mobos are on back order on ZZF already.

For non OCers, stability is what matters and most mobos are stable so they just have to choose a mobo based on what features they need/want.
For OCers, the choice is a lot harder as we want stability as well as a lot of bios/OCing options. Hopefully the Tforce mobos will ease up this stress for us
 
for a socket A, best bet is to go atx because no makes really took matx socket A seriously... hence the non existant overclocking features in all the boards.

for socket 478, the only nice offerings are from ASUS: the P4P800-VM and the P4C800-MX (the latter being the best), of course both of these mobos run prescotts... that means gettings a super cool 2.4 celeron D and doing abot 3.0Ghz on stock cooler: the stock cooler is super silent...(you have SSE3, therefore you can make a nice htpc, or if you are daring you could install mac os x86)

there seems to be less and less manufacturers making oc'able motherboard as they all tend to put cheap chipsets (VIA) or an intel chipset and do not put overclocking options due to stability.

GIGABYTE MAKE SOME GOOD HIGH END MATX BOARDS (but only the expensive ones have nice options)

BIOSTAR seems to be a special player as their boards are relatively cheap and some have nice ocing options.

MSI, EPOX, ECS, JETWAY, FOXCONN and CHAINTECH are all garbage when it comes to ocing. avoid them like the plague.

I have yet to try a shuttle board but a recent search on ther website shows that they are reluctant to selling individual mobo, u have to buyem in a case... too bad i hear they are great.

O and of course the matx pro is AOPEN, most of their board overclock well and are made for such small factors: they are the best at matx motherboards if you ask me. one model of theirs that is untouchable is the one for socket 479 (the centrino mobo is outstanding)

i have yet to try a DFI board and can't say much...
 
o and a lil note avoid VIA chipsets like th plague: they are terrible, spend the extra 20bucks and get a respectable intel or nvidia chipset. Some chipsets made by SiS are not bad at all but you have to dig for them.

The ati chipset is not good for overclocking but has the best onboard video to be found, you can run half life 2 on their onboard (i have used it at 1024*768 on high, but hl2 tends to be heavy processor dependant up to 1024*768). the 9100 is ok, the 9100 pro is the one to get. again they do not overclock well but woudl be great with a northwood 2.8. (preshotts!!!! exept maybe the celeron D but that one is only ok if overclocked)
 
^ Not opinionated at all, I swear... :rolleyes: :D

Just wanted to say, max OC on the Jetway is 291fsb. Setting the bios anywhere above that automatically lowers it to 291. This is using a SCSI drive so I don't know when SATA becomes a problem. Edit: Max I got it to was 291 and it was running okay there, but since that test, board has issues booting between 250-260 and barely boots at all above that. Sorry, to mislead anyone.

Overall, I'd say the Biostar TForce seems to be on top, right now, with the latest bios.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
^ Not opinionated at all, I swear... :rolleyes: :D

Just wanted to say, max OC on the Jetway is 291fsb. Setting the bios anywhere above that automatically lowers it to 291. This is using a SCSI drive so I don't know when SATA becomes a problem.

Overall, I'd say the Biostar TForce seems to be on top, right now, with the latest bios.
Click to expand...

heh it wont be soon.

Asus has two models that it will releasing soon. The product is already on ZZF except its says Backordered

DFI - listed as launch partner but no clue on their upcoming mATX

Gigabyte - has two models

Foxconn - Already released the Nforce 430 version and the current bios supports a max FSB to 300

Albratron - Made a press release on their upcoming board. dont know about the features that it consists..

overall i cant wait till December when most of these boards will be on sale... :D
 
The Gigabyte 6100/430 GA-K8N51GMF-9 is now available on Newegg for $79. Don't know when the 6150/430 option (GA-K8N51PVMT-9) will be, but I'm sure you'll be able to find it soon. Looks like the only difference is the integrated video.

Anyone know if you can use integrated and non-integrated video at the same time on these newer boards? I'd like to have the option of a second video out.
 
The time has finally come!!! I have been waiting for this board forever, I could care less if it has the 6150, as long as it has the 430 and not the 400. That means that it actually has 4 sata ports! And the only difference between the 6150 and 6100 is a higher clock speed on the integrated graphics.
 
PC-HAngover said:
The time has finally come!!! I have been waiting for this board forever, I could care less if it has the 6150, as long as it has the 430 and not the 400. That means that it actually has 4 sata ports! And the only difference between the 6150 and 6100 is a higher clock speed on the integrated graphics.
Click to expand...

So you're volunteering to be Guinea Pig then right? ;)
 
Umm, we were talking about the difference between the two Gigabyte boards. They both only have 1 16x slot, and 1 1x slot. Thanks for tracking that down though!
 
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