cricket, i'm planning on getting a biostar M7NCG-400 (dont slate it cuz its biostar; its by far the best M-ATX board around).. i intend to initially run it in an old ATX case i already have, but in the future (when i can get a decent M-ATX PSU), use it as a HTPC in an m-ATX case.. the heatsink is 44mm high and each fan is 25mm.. so if i had a fan and a gutted ducting fan then thats 94mm high to the top of the fan; the case is only as wide as it needs to be for the PCI slot so thats about 10cm from the motherboard (min of about 6mm clearance)... with only 1 fan would leave me a min of about 3cm between the fan and the case.. would that be enough?
tin, could u have a look
here .. there is one capacitor which looks like a potential problem [just left of the top corner of the socket], and also the northbridge heat-sink?
i am not sure how 'high' it goes before it sticks out so it may go above the capacitor/ heatsink
things look good though [edit: newegg review] 'Overall the board runs ... cool with a Thermalright 900A.' i think this was an old review which may have been of an older revision of the board.. with a smaller heatsink on the northbridge (i guess it rules out the capacitor however?
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i suppose if worst comes to worst then i can always relplace the northbridge heatsink, but i dont really want to do this unless i have to. mayswell just go for it and hope for the best i guess?