Whats a Good Micro ATX board.

[mr krinkle]

I am in the market for a good Micro atx MOBO,Any recommendations? Something around 900MHz with or without onboard video..Doing a cheap build for a client..

[mr krinkle]

My bad,should have put this thread elsewhere...Its Monday!:)

[Floppyman]

What does the client prefer, Intel or AMD?

[mr krinkle]

It matters not in this case floppyman, Just need a reliable mobo with a fair amount of power.

[glc]

Asus P4S533-MX with a P4 Celeron of your choice.

Asus A7N266-VM with an Athlon of your choice.

They both have onboard video, audio, and lan - and take DDR ram - and have an AGP slot for an upgrade.

[mr krinkle]

Thanks glc,I have checked around for prices on that bundle and the vm looks like a winner to me.<p>I have heard some good things about the Biostar M7VKQ,Which is cheaper and has no agp slot,any feedback on that board?

[glc]

The Biostar is an old Via KLE133 chipset, which is pretty stable. However, it uses SDRAM which is actually more costly than DDR now, and a DDR board will perform a lot better. The onboard NForce video and audio on the Asus is head and shoulders above the Via too. I'd say that the small premium for the Asus will pay you back overall, and Asus quality is historically better than Biostar.

[videobruce]

Contradiction of terms..........."good" and "Micro ATX"!

Can't a full size ATX fit? If not, new cases can be had for less than $30.

[glc]

For a cheap build that's just going to be a general use machine, there's nothing wrong with a micro. The only disadvantage is it doesn't have as many PCI slots, and some don't have an AGP slot. Some people don't want to make room for a full size case. The only thing I would caution you about on this build is make sure the micro case has an adequate power supply and ventilation. Enlight has a nice micro tower (7602) that uses a standard size 300 watt ATX power supply and comes with a rear mounted 80mm exhaust fan. It even has front USB ports and a cutout for a front 80mm fan.

[mr krinkle]

OK thanks for the advice glc,Its not very often I run into micro towers anymore but this one was bought cheap and has new CD and floppy drives,A 300 watt power supply and a cooling fan in the front.<p> So it just makes sense to me to recycle the tower and stick a decent board in it,,Most people who I deal with are not power users like many here and can easily get by with 8 megs of video ram and such..anyway thanks again glc..