Why is Micro ATX so much cheaper

[emperor76]

Hi, my brother is building is first computer soon, he is trying to do it cheaply, I originally suggested Intel, as I regret going the AMD route, but he doesn't want to pay the cpu prices, so I looked into a couple of motherboards for him, annoyingly mine is AM3 so supports nothing above my Phenom, which is probably the least of my worries really, but I came across a few AM3+ motherboard backward compatible all the way to the Sempron and Athlon ii x 2, and all the was up to the FX chips, ideal I thought if he can only afford a cheap cpu at the minute leaving his options open to upgrade. This caught my attention MSI 760GM-P23 (FX) AM3+ Socket Motherboard 4719072232252 | eBay I got excited when in the listing it said ATX, but reading further in the specs it says m atx, my heart dropped at this point, and it seems to be the same for all the one's I've looked at, got excited and then seen that, so as the title suggests, is there a reason for this?

 

[ssc456]

Well let me start off by first of all saying there is absolutely nothing wrong with mATX I've done a couple of builds with mATX board and they run like a dream.

Now from my understanding they generally tend to have lower end chipsets on them, most of them will only have 2 slots for RAM though there are definitely still lots with 4 slots.
Potentially fewer USB ports, fewer SATA ports, they are smaller so your CPU / chipsets / RAM / graphics cards etc are all closer together and so are all the cables causing more heat.

I think that's about it, they are generally considered towards the lower end of the market but still very able!

 

[DogSong]

/\ He said it! You may have less availability for addons (like fans and SATA ports) but mATX will fit in any ATX Case or mATX case. Nothing wrong with it!

 

[emperor76]

Thanks, I was wondering as I've never used one. I'm a little afraid of over heating issue's since my issue with the cpu overheating forcing me to change my case to solve it. I'd always probably put cooling pretty high on my list now on pc's, but I'll mention it to him, see if he wants to get micro ATX to save money or not

 

[BK_123]

You can choose to go the normal ATX route with cheap components and not have to use micro ATX. As for going Intel over AMD on a budget then you'd want to either go for an i3 or a 3rd gen CPU as they are cheap. What will we he use it for?

 

[DogSong]

Thanks, I was wondering as I've never used one. I'm a little afraid of over heating issue's since my issue with the cpu overheating forcing me to change my case to solve it. I'd always probably put cooling pretty high on my list now on pc's, but I'll mention it to him, see if he wants to get micro ATX to save money or not

You wouldn't necessarily need to change the case, just add more fans if it overheats

 

[emperor76]

You wouldn't necessarily need to change the case, just add more fans if it overheats

I did consider going for more fans, but the fan support on my old one was poor, it was a Cooler Master Silencio 550, I bought it because it looked nice, it had insulation on the inside to keep it quiet which didn't to the cooling any favours, it had a door on the front further obstructing airflow, I don't remember many vents, although I think I could have got more fans, I didn't think it was worth it, so I got a HAF 922 and haven't had a problem since.

---------- Post added at 08:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:33 AM ----------

You can choose to go the normal ATX route with cheap components and not have to use micro ATX. As for going Intel over AMD on a budget then you'd want to either go for an i3 or a 3rd gen CPU as they are cheap. What will we he use it for?

I do agree with you on the Intel, obviously being left open to upgrade all the way to i7 is a massive bonus, and I wish I had done it, but having said that, I've seen some of the older athlons this supports in the shops second hand for a matter of £'s which would do him until he can afford one better. Although I would like Intel, my Phenom has served me quite well, it's never caused me any problems other than the over heating a while back, for me I know getting a new graphics card would be far more important.

 

[BK_123]

So are you going to down the Intel or AMD road?

 

[emperor76]

So are you going to down the Intel or AMD road?

He seems adamant he doesn't want to pay for Intel, I made the same mistake, but I'm sure it'll run what he wants it to, it'll probably be another week or so before he starts as he's a bit skint so I'm just looking around and doing a little research first, shame I didn't research properly before mine, but I blindly went forth being an AMD fan boy and not giving them both a fair trial.