Definition of MicroATX

[LetsOlympics]

What exactly does MicroATX imply?

Wikipedia's telling me it just refers to the physical size of the board. So is it safe to assume that micro boards are just as powerful as their non-micro counterparts or will there be a drop in speed?

They are much cheaper so there has be a catch. I can't find a benchmark chart or anything comparing a mobo to its Micro.

 

[nna2]

ATX=7 expansion slots
mATX=4 expansion slots, and they usually dont support as many fans and such

 

[inzone]

A Micro motherboard has a limited numger of Pci-e slots and usually no pci slots.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130227
This is a micro board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130574
This is a regular atx motherboard.
Notice the number of pci-e and pci slots.
You are not restircted in any way except for the amount of slots and you can put the same amount of ram and the same cpu and run it at the same speeds. They basicly just chop off the bottom 3 inches.

 

[LetsOlympics]

oh jeez. I forgot to take into account how many fans these board can support. Are these plugged into the PCI slots?

apologies while I try and familiarize myself with these abbreviations.

 

[inzone]

The fans are not pluged into the pci slots they are the three pin connectors on the motherboard , the slots are for addon cards , video , sound and network cards.

 

[LetsOlympics]

I'm trying to walk through each of the stats and make sure it's checking out with the rest of my build. Just today I changed my mind and decided to get the Z68 instead of the H61 and I was worried some of my already-puchased pieces are incompatible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157270

I only have one HDD and one SSD so the two 6gb SATAs will be fine, right? I can't find any numbers talking about fans but I'm just going to assume it fits accomodates three fans.

I was worried about the power supply as it was 20+4pin but it turns out that means it can be either 20 or 24 pins so that's nice. The RAM is fine and i can only assume the graphics card is too. Is there anything else I should verify as far as compatibility goes?

 

[inzone]

If you were to list the components so we can see exactly what it is you are buying that would be helpful , also what the budget is you are working with.With one hdd and one SSD the two sata3 ports will be fine. There are three fan connectors on the motherboard , one cpu fan and two other fan connectors. I can't say about the graphics card because you didn't list it. But you only have one Pci-e slot so getting another graphics card for SLI/Crossfire is out of the question.
Please list the cpu , psu (watts) , grapgics card , ram , hdd and SSD.

 

[LetsOlympics]

Best answer selected by LetsOlympics.

 

[LetsOlympics]

I won't bore you by listing them but I thank you for your help. The build is exactly the same as hardware-revolution's except for the mobo. I just wanted to learn some of the lingo associated with motherboards and I'm happy to learn that there isn't much of a difference.

 

[inzone]

Ok , well good luck with your build.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr