mATX board with two usable PCI slots

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doveman
Posts: 870
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:30 am
Location: London

mATX board with two usable PCI slots

Post by doveman » Wed Jun 02, 2010 10:42 am

I'm looking for a mATX DDR2 board, to go with an AMD X2 250, which will have two usable PCI slots when a S1 modded graphics card is fitted, has two PS/2 sockets so that I can use my PS/2 KVM and IGP with DVI or HDMI, so that I can use it until I get a graphics card, or if the graphics card dies and needs replacing.

The ZOTAC GeForce 8200 and 8300 fit the bill, but they have very strange placement of the ATX power connector and the SATA connectors may be obscured by a long graphics card, although I'm unlikely to fit one of those and I only need to use 2-3 SATA ports. I've never heard of ZOTAC before either, which also puts me off. Their website doesn't exactly instill confidence http://pden.zotac.com/index.php?page=sh ... t&Itemid=1

There's the Asus M2N68-AM+, http://motherboards-reviews.com/ASUS/so ... eview.html but it doesn't support PCI-E 2.0, which I'm concerned would be a problem if I wanted to use a HD5450 or HD5670. I'm also concerned the heatsink might clash with the S1rev2.

The Biostar TA785G3 HD Ver. 5.x, http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/int ... p?S_ID=458 would be ideal, except that it's DDR3 and no-one seems to be selling it in the UK at the moment anyway.

If I have to, I'll get an ATX board but I thought I'd ask if anyone knows of any mATX boards that fit the bill first.

Mats
Posts: 3044
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2003 6:54 am
Location: Sweden

Post by Mats » Wed Jun 02, 2010 6:50 pm

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/con ... p?S_ID=375

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Produc ... 20&LanID=0

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Produc ... 20&LanID=0

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?M ... isplayPort

I'm not saying they fit all your needs, I'm just showing you where to start looking.
They might as well not be what you need, and if that's the case you don't have to explain why. :wink:

doveman
Posts: 870
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:30 am
Location: London

Post by doveman » Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:24 pm

Thanks for the leads.

I'm thinking I should perhaps get an ATX board after all, so that I'll have a spare usable PCI-E x1 slot should I ever need it. I can't think that I ever will but maybe one day everything will shift to PCI-E and I'll be kicking myself if I haven't got a slot. The main reason I was thinking of going mATX is because that allows space in my ATX case for the hard drive to sit on the floor of the case underneath the mobo. However, as I'm only using one PCI card at present, I think I could probably just move that up a slot and then there'd still be space for the hard drive adjacent to the bottom slot.

I like the Biostar boards but they seem really hard to find here in the UK. I've found a TA790GXBE for £60 but I was also looking for a price on the TA790GXE 128M, as it's got right-angled SATA sockets, which I'd quite like as it will help keep my cabling tidy, but I can't find it anywhere. :?

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