ATI/Nvidia/mobo makers - some suggestions

[RonaldoGomez]

I'm looking for what I would classify as a satisfactory mATX motherboard. But I can't seem to find one, no matter how hard I try. So, I hereby propose a list of features that I'd like to see. Most people won't agree with my suggestions... but I think there's a growing market for mATX with the whole HTPC thing and I have no idea why chipset/mobo companies aren't putting more effort into this area. Big fat boxes are a thing of the past. Look at what happened with portable CD players - they started huge and worked their way down to the size of a CD itself. (I actually don't want a HTPC but just a small, good computer.)

Obviously I don't understand the economics of this market - otherwise these things would have been done already. But I fail to see why people are asking for, and are satisfied with, outdated gear, yet don't want the latest and greatest.

I also fully understand that I have no idea as to the practicality of these suggestions in terms of hardware compatibility/standards but what the heck?

What I want

mATX layout

socket AM2 or 775

2 x DDR2 DIMMs

1 x GigE network adapter

8 x USB

2 x IEEE 1394 (b is possible but this is too forward thinking I fear)

8 x SATA II

1 x PCI-E 16x

2 x PCI

5 x fan headers

switch to reset BIOS - no jumpers

a passive heatsink on the chipset

What I don't want

onboard graphics

onboard audio

floppy port

PATA ports

serial port

parallel port

game port

Say what?

- 2 DIMMs only? - You must be mad. How many of you use all four slots? I never have. Still, I'd accept four slots, even though they never seem to work properly (i.e. 2 always seem to be the 'good' slots and 2 seem to be the 'bad' ones).

- no floppy? - Come on people, we're no longer in the 1980s... or 90s... hell, we're over half-way thru the naughties and this blight is still on 'high-end' motherboards. Why? The loss would cause some non-GUI ultra-geeks a few tearful days, or perhaps months, but the time has come. We've had CD, DVD, USB and we're now up to HD-DVD and the floppy still reigns supreme. If you really need one for your 1337 practices pick up a USB version. How many nanoseconds of HD content would 1.44MB hold anyway?

- no parallel/serial/game ports? - I don't even know what these things do! (I do really but even in their heyday I never used them.) Again, USB is the way forward.

- no audio? - OK, I'll make a concession here and allow it if it's 192/24. I personally use an M-Audio firewire box and it eats up onboard solutions. But this won't suit everyone of course. So perhaps we can have some decent onboard audio.

- no graphics? - Again, I'll make a concession but only if I get onboard RAM too. What's the PCI-E 16x there for if you have onboard graphics?

- no PATA - I realize there's a dearth of SATA optical devices (why?) but take away the ports and the devices will come, that you can be sure of.

Obviously these things will never happen - I suspect we'll still have the floppy in 2020. But it's what I'd like to see. I'm sure there are others out there who would feel the same way.

This would be a highly 'specialized' board in a sense and as such would have a limited market. On the other hand, taking off all this useless junk would surely save some money. And it's true what they say: Sometimes less is more.

Pedro.

PS: Modular PSUs too please.

[puntoMX]

mATX layout – possible

socket AM2 or 775 - possible

2 x DDR2 DIMMs – possible

1 x GigE network adapter - possible

8 x USB - possible

2 x IEEE 1394 (b is possible but this is too forward thinking I fear) – non of the motherboards I saw had that (or it must be an abnormal mobo)

8 x SATA II – only on ATX, not on uATX

1 x PCI-E 16x - possible

2 x PCI - possible

5 x fan headers – only on server boards so forget that with uATX, buy a drive bay fan controller for that or just connect all directly to the PSU

switch to reset BIOS - no jumpers – There are some motherboard who have this option but hard to find in uATX

a passive heatsink on the chipset – possible

The ASUS M2NPV-VM Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard came close to what you want (nice outputs for a HTPC machine only missing the optical in and outs (optional out is posible)), why did you change your plans? I know it has onboard VGA but the PCI-E sloth will take any thing you throw in it.

For the powersuply look at the Antec´s, even the 400VA version will be enough for your setup .

[puntoMX]

2 x IEEE 1394 (b is possible but this is too forward thinking I fear) – non of the motherboards I saw had that (or it must be an abnormal mobo)

Let me correct that, there are motherboard with a pin-header and a connector at the back so there are boards that support it .

[gdogg]

well

the DFI NF4 SLI-DR

and DFI NF4 Expert

Have most of what you want, cept its more like this

Get a bigger home theatre pc case

4X sata II

4X sata I

4X ide

1xfloppy

2XPCI-E 16X

1X firewire on back, 1 for front of case

6X usb back, 4X usb front

no parrel port

no serial on back (adapater)

no game port

2XGB ethernet ports

3XPCI

setting for some good placed ram slots, and great bios, that make support for 4X512MB ddr 500 2-2-2-5 memory @ 3.5V or higher

5 fan headers too

oh and when AM2 boards come out, expect more of what your looking for from DFI, they also have digital IC things, instead of the capasitors, bring alot more OC potention I figure.

Edited July 14, 2006 by gdogg

[puntoMX]

I thought we were talking about uATX ... And yes DFI rulez

Yes indeed, new High-end motherboards indeed use ICs and MOSFET and no capacitors, giving a very smooth voltage for the CPUs. I’m only wondering if they produce more heat...

[RonaldoGomez]

well

the DFI NF4 SLI-DR

and DFI NF4 Expert

Yeah, but my whole point gdogg is that I want this stuff on smaller boards, i.e. mATX. I, too, have a DFI (an Ultra-D) and they are the only way to go - agreed.

In fact, I think that DFI would be the only company with the balls to release a board such as I suggested. I'm actually surprised they haven't already seeing as they cater very much to the LAN market. Smaller boards would surely be an attractive feature to LAN gamers.

Can't wait for the Core 2 Duo DFI boards to land.

Ronaldo.