Recos. on micro-ATX mobo for mobile Athlon XP-M

geologygeology Near Philadelphia, PA
edited August 2004 in Hardware
I'm interested in building a micro-ATX system using one of the 35-watt Athlon XP-M chips. I'm not interested in overclocking; my objective is to have a reasonably-small PC that doesn't make a lot of heat and thus also doesn't need a lot of fan noise to cool it. (I currently have a standard-ATX sized Athlon XP 1900 system - the performance is fine, but it's too tall (17") for where I want to put it, can be heard down the hall, and will warm my room up a few degrees after an hour or two.)

I read through the XP-M thread in the overclocking forum, and the motherboards mentioned there that I followed up on were all standard ATX size. So if anyone has recommendations on micro-ATX mobos that work well with the XP-M, or any boards to avoid, I would certainly appreciate it.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    Chaintech 7NIL2
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited August 2004
    I've heard good things about Chaintech's mATX nForce2 boards...
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    Chaintech, for that format motherboard. They are quickly becoming a Niche Leader for AMD micro-ATX motherboards. Some of the Shuttle boards are not bad, but Chaintech is getting better reviews. I agree with Thrax on this one, as to specific motherboard.
  • geologygeology Near Philadelphia, PA
    edited August 2004
    I downloaded and read through the manual for the 7NIL2 and did not see any jumpers or BIOS settings to control the CPU multiplier. (I also saw comments elsewhere on the web indicating the same.) From what I read over in the Mobile Barton thread in the overclocking forum, the XP-M chips will run at a 6x multiplier (resulting in 800MHz) unless told to do otherwise. So does this board recognize the XP-M and automatically set the multiplier correctly, or would I get a significantly underclocked system (that would certainly keep the heat down), or am I missing something important here? (I have always bought CPU/motherboard combos or entire systems, so I have never had to configure FSB or multiplier speeds, although I did try to educate myself by reading the Mobile Barton thread.)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    All nForce2 boards are jumperless in design. You control the multiplier and the FSB from the BIOS.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited August 2004
    If the board doesn't have a multiplier control menu in the BIOS, you can hard code the multiplier by either pinmodding the cpu, the socket, or the back of the motherboard. Or you can go to www.strattoncomputer.com and pick up an Upgradeware XP-TMC, which does the same thing with far less hassle.
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