Mini tower and motherboard size - help!

[rocknrollstar]

Hi, My uncle's motherboard has gone, and he wants to replace and upgrade. He's given me the specs of his current machine as:

• Evesham Vale
  
• Ax1528000902 kit axis xtr (???)
   
  
• Mini tower case (352x180x365)
   
  
• AMD sempron 64 bit 3000 + sktam2
  
• 1gb ddr2 ram 667mhz
  
• 160gb sata 8mb cache
  
• Geforce 6100 (on board)
  
• Vista
  

 

I came across this: Novatech : MBB-634G Novatech Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - 4GB DDR2 800Mhz - Intel G31 Motherboard : novatech.co.uk : which looked like a good deal, but my question is will the motherboard fit in a mini tower case? I believe so, but would like confirmation from the experts!

 

Will any micro atx fit MB fit in a mini tower case?

 

Thanks.

[Michael]

What you've linked should be fine. The clue is mATX or Micro ATX which is smaller than a standard ATX motherboard.

 

So long as the power supply is at the top of the case, the probability is it will be mATX and not the world's most pointless newer standard BTX.

[rocknrollstar]

Great, thanks Michael. So in general a Micro ATX MB will fit a mini tower case?

[Michael]

Yes, that's correct.

[synaesthesia]

holy hell - that bundle is rather expensive!

stuff hasn't gone up THAT much has it?

 

edit: appears it has my apologies!

the e6300, although being a very good chip, being the first batch of core2duo hardware released was discontinued an absolute age ago. I'd be worried that it wouldn't be new - any leftover stock should have been gotten rid of ages ago, they haven't been manufactured for, at a guess, 2 years. So just an air of caution there.

Edited January 2, 2010 by synaesthesia

[rocknrollstar]

I'm not sure- certainly more than when I built a PC 8 yrs ago. Do you know of a cheaper site?

[synaesthesia]

Don't worry too much, looking around that's not as bad as I first thought. And to reply to my own edit above, seems quite a few sites appear to still be selling the e6300. Seems strange to me :/

[Michael]

holy hell - that bundle is rather expensive!

stuff hasn't gone up THAT much has it?

 

As I'm sure you're aware global recessions can have all kinds of negative influences. The cost of raw materials has gone up and manufacturers and retailers are shifting far less units. The end result is all prices will go up. In the UK VAT has now gone up back to 17.5% which will just add to the burden!

[synaesthesia]

Aye indeed, that happened yesterday :|

The actual reason for the shock at the price was having put together 3 mini ATX based systems at a whopping £135 each with 2gb RAM and c2d 7400s - and this was a few days into December!

RAM pricing is rising sharply also, not helping.

Ah well, the way of the world

 

We have been REALLY spoiled this year though: fastest consumer level 1TB hdd's for under £60, 4gb of decent quality ram for £35, stupendously quick graphics cards for under £100. They could never hold out that sort of pricing for long.

[powdarrmonkey]

Hmm, just to stick my oar in I would be building i5 systems now, since they're getting closer in price and you can drop an i7 hyperthreading processor in at a later date (and they'll generally take DDR3 too, which is also worth planning for).

 

That said, the G31 is a good chipset if that's the way you're going to go. That motherboard will fit a micro-ATX case, yes.

Edited January 2, 2010 by powdarrmonkey