Picking a MicroATX motherboard

[neilm]

Decided it's time to upgrade my 9 year old desktop... I like the idea of a small compact case, so the mATX might be best for me.

I don't do gaming any longer, but I might try a hand at video/image editing at some point. Designing webpages. Watching movies (blurays).

Have a Gigabyte in my midtower right now, and hasn't failed in the length of time it was running, so naturally went to see what Gigabyte was out there. I seen G1.Sniper M3 (z77), would this be a recommended board? It seems to have the updated BIOS which is good, but only a couple USB3 ports which isn't so good...

Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[SaurusX]

I went with the ASRock Z77 Pro4-M. No complaints so far and it definitely is packed with ports. On sale at Amazon right now for $99, usually $109.

 

[zephyrprime]

Can the ASRock Z77 Pro4-M do dolby or dts encoding out via spdif? I know that not all the older boards have this feature.

 

[SaurusX]

Can the ASRock Z77 Pro4-M do dolby or dts encoding out via spdif? I know that not all the older boards have this feature.

You mean bitstream Dolby and DTS? I don't know for certain, but I would think so. My old Gigabyte 780G board from 4+ years ago in my HTPC does that. I'm probably misunderstanding.

 

[kleinkinstein]

I luv my Asrock Pro4-M too! And only $60 at MC with the bundle deal.

 

[zephyrprime]

You mean bitstream Dolby and DTS? I don't know for certain, but I would think so. My old Gigabyte 780G board from 4+ years ago in my HTPC does that. I'm probably misunderstanding.

No, I don't mean merely bitstream Dolby and DTS over spdif which even the oldest board with spdif can do. I mean actually re-encode every sound into dolby and dts like a sound blaster x-fi can do and some MBs can do. And yes the Gigabyte 780G supports dolby "home theater" which includes "dolby digital live" which is what I'm talking about. Since theses formats are all copyrighted, they have to be licensed and the computer industry can't just figure out their own digital sound signaling format.

 

[SaurusX]

In that case, I very much doubt that the Pro4-M supports dolby digital live. There's no mention of it anywhere in the docs.

 

[kleinkinstein]

It doesn't and that's one of the reasons I have a big boy sound card, the HT Omega Claro+.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Keep in mind that most modern cases come with 2 usb 3.0 ports as well. But apart from that, the big selling point of the Sniper is its very good onboard audio.

If you don't care about that too much I would recommend the Asus P8Z77-M Pro. Using this one myself and pretty satisfied with it. Comes with 4 usb 3.0 ports on the back.

I've noticed it has a bit of a bad rep at Newegg but for me it has been working flawlessly since day one. Apart from the time I did a big cleanup and didn't properly insert the ram again, which gave exactly the symptoms many user reviews on Newegg describe (which makes me wonder how many boards were really defective and how many times it was a pebkac situation).

 

[neilm]

Keep in mind that most modern cases come with 2 usb 3.0 ports as well. But apart from that, the big selling point of the Sniper is its very good onboard audio.

If you don't care about that too much I would recommend the Asus P8Z77-M Pro. Using this one myself and pretty satisfied with it. Comes with 4 usb 3.0 ports on the back.

Thanks. Why would the sniper only have 2 USB3 ports, especially if it is the more recent board? Had a look on newegg (maybe not looking the right places), but there werent many mATX cases with front USB3 ports?

 

[SaurusX]

That Gigabyte board has the 2 USB3 ports in back and headers for an additional 2 ports up front. I know that SilverStone cases usually have the USB3 front ports. The Temjin is what I have.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Thanks. Why would the sniper only have 2 USB3 ports, especially if it is the more recent board? Had a look on newegg (maybe not looking the right places), but there werent many mATX cases with front USB3 ports?

Well, the chipset only offers 4 usb 3.0 ports, 2 on the back and 2 for external ports. So there would need to be an additional controller chip but it seems the audio chips and caps take up a lot of room.

A bit pricey but anyway:

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=546&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=63

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=561&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=63

or (although only 1 usb 3.0 port):

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=58

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=59

Sure you need so many usb 3.0 ports anyway? mouse/keyboard work just fine on 2.0...

 

[zephyrprime]

So to answer my own question about dolby live support, I read on another forum that you have to buy THX Studio pro for $5 to activate dolby live on ASRock Z77 Pro4-M. Somebody else said that Windows 7+ has built in support for it though. Not sure sure either way.

 

[Griffinhart]

Mini-ATX or Mini-ITX?

I just built a new Mini-ITX system using the EVGA Stinger.'http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188125&Tpk=evga%20stinger and an I7 3770K processor.

There are other cheaper m-ITX boards out there, but this one has been great so far.

It has built in Bluetooth, which I find useful, USB3, USB2, ESATA, Gigabit and a full size PCI-E slot if you need one.

Mine is in a cooler master elite 12 case. It's a pretty small case. at 9.4" x 8.2" x 15.8"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119261

That tiny case has a lot in it too:
Core I7 3770K processor (with a 3rd party low profile cooler) The stock cooler fits, but your better off with something more effective.
16GB of RAM (supports up to 32GB)
a Samsung 840 SSD for boot
a 3 TB HD for data
a GTX680 Video board
I can even fit in another hard disk and an optical drive if I wanted to.

If you don't plan to game, you can just use the onboard video, which is pretty decent.

It's a fantastic little machine with plenty of power.