Computers & Tablets

[aznlilboi1987]

if i just wanna stick with single gpu

would you guys recommend to go with ATX or micro atx?

i've been using micro atx for a while now with Intel Core 2 Duo 8400 with 4gb ddr2 800 with 8800 gts. I can run left4dead, cod4, cod5, age of empire, need for speed shift, perfectly.

however im trying to get rid of my computer but no luck selling it.

I had a ATX with 8800 SLI with an antec 900 case Intel core 2 duo 8400 with 2gb ddr800 that sold beautifully  and made a $300 profit off it. do people just prefer full atx?

[Entropy]

Most likely you just got lucky found someone seriously brain-deficient if you were able to make a $300 profit on a PC.

Most people don't care about the mobo form factor, just the specs, but as I said, $300 profit margin on a PC means you found a real sucker, or you did some serious customization/casemodding beyond the stock case, or some of your parts "fell off the back of a truck".

I'd be happy to take a $300 LOSS on any PC I had owned for more than 6-12 months.

[aznlilboi1987]

haha it was an

evga 750i (atx) sli lga775 $130

intel core 2 duo e8400 $110

2 gb ddr2 1333mhz (not ddr2 800 my bad) $40

two 8800gt oc SLI (my bad not sli) $200

320gb sata hard drive $40

antec 900 case $80

all of them were prices after mail in rebates and instant savings

total cost: $600, sold it for $900

i told him an alienware, velocity micro at best buy, dell xps, gateway fx at best buy with this config can easily go over 1400 at that time. so he was willing to pay 900 for it

also comes with a highly rated xigmatek s1283 cpu cooling

i showed him a couple Tomshardwareguide.com showing that at the time e8400 out performed a lot of intel quad cores on gaming and s1283 was one of the fan based cooling for cpus and also 8800gt oc sli 512 mb is one of the best sli combination at that time, it beats a lot of gts260 (when they first game out)

[Entropy]

In short, you found a sucker who had not the slightest clue how to build their own system and no friends willing to do it for a reasonable cost, who did however have plenty of money to spend.

Such people are rare.  90% of gamers shop around and would've figured out they could've saved $300 off your price.

[aznlilboi1987]

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Entropy wrote:

In short, you found a sucker who had not the slightest clue how to build their own system and no friends willing to do it for a reasonable cost, who did however have plenty of money to spend.

Such people are rare.  90% of gamers shop around and would've figured out they could've saved $300 off your price.

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that's what best buy is for :-)

a same dell computer i can build it for half the price.

[mrmazo]

Getting back to your question, ATX seems to be the more popular form supported by most mobo manufacturers nowadays. A full tower case is recomended, however if only for better air circulation. Most PSU manufacturers cater to this form as well because of this. 

[Agent9216]

Yes ATX is totally the norm, but there is a place for micro-ATX as well. As others have stated, form factor usually isn't at the heart of the decision-making process.

I personally am a big fan of ASUS motherboards and the ASUS Rampage II is what I am using in my gaming rig.

Also, on a side note, I know someone mentioned something about being able to build PCs for cheaper than retail but I think this is becoming only true in the gaming space. In the consumer-grade desktops, the price gap between building and buying is becoming slimmer and slimmer. These manufacturers are getting parts so cheap and knocking prices so low to stay competitive (and boost sales) that it is tough to build for much less. And when the manufacturers can warranty their products as well....it's tough for systems builders to compete.

[Drew-Intel]

although it sounds like a ridiculous comment when speaking to the PC realm, the board form factor is pretty closely related to future expandability.

while there are a handful of "immediate" considerations to be made initially - # of memory slots, # of GPUs, # of SATA devices - the option of adding more of anything down the road is pretty dependent on what sort of runway you left yourself when you bought the motherboard.

personally, i often find a good case first (airflow/thermals, cable management, # of 3.5" drives it can hold), then start catering my motherboard form factor off of that. given that i'm pretty much a single GPU/modest amount of RAM/single add-in card sort of guy, my methodology has served me well.

[Ach3r0n]

The form factor itself is completely irrelevant to performance.  As mentioned above though, an ATX board will give you more room for expandability if that's something you might be interested in.  As far as brands go, we all have our preferences.  I am partial to Gigabyte.  Asus would likely be my 2nd choice.  There are plenty of other performance motherboard makers but their reputations generally fall far below those 2.  If you want stability above all else, it's hard to beat Intel-made boards, though their BIOS are extremely limited by comparison.

[Triangulum]

hahahahah oh wow

when you're making a gaming PC and you don't exactly care about how big your case is, get a ATX or bigger (EATX?). mATX is for smaller PCs. they do make some good mATX mobos (mainly look to Asus for this) but a lot of them are crap for gaming