Why is ATX more Common/Mainstream than mATX?

[Princess Luna]

Serious discussion time!

 

This never gets out of my mind, with the greatest majority of PC users be it for gaming or office and even content creation purposes not using more than one card (Video Card) on their PCI-e slot as SLI is becoming less and less popular and more and more boards are coming with built in WiFi eliminating the need for dedicated cards for it, actual PCI-e slot SSD is a rarity as M.2 spreads, sound cards are for an extremely niche market, capture cards are hardly needed nowadays and so on.

 

The greatest majority of the newest builds I seen being made from high end i9 9900K workstations to Ryzen 3 2200G entry systems all on ATX boards with the bottom pretty much empty, cases are getting gigantic and to fit.... nothing, just empty space.

 

Why is ATX the mainstream standard then?

 

I have always built Micro-ATX, from low end to high end systems, they always worked flawlessly, beautiful, compact, good use of available space, good air flow just the same, mATX occupies less space and (I know it's subjective) looks prettier and cleaner and cooler with the whole motherboard being actually used besides mATX boards can still pack enough VRM and Power Phases for high end chips while still costing less.

 

So what gives with ATX being the mainstream go-to? Is your PC motherboard ATX? If so; Do you use what it has to offer, mainly on PCI-e slots or is it also 'filled' with emptiness?

[Kitsan]

7 minutes ago, Princess Luna said:

Serious discussion time!

 

This never gets out of my mind, with the greatest majority of PC users be it for gaming or office and even content creation purposes not using more than one card (Video Card) on their PCI-e slot as SLI is becoming less and less popular and more and more boards are coming with built in WiFi eliminating the need for dedicated cards for it, actual PCI-e slot SSD is a rarity as M.2 spreads, sound cards are for an extremely niche market, capture cards are hardly needed nowadays and so on.

 

The greatest majority of the newest builds I seen being made from high end i9 9900K workstations to Ryzen 3 2200G entry systems all on ATX boards with the bottom pretty much empty, cases are getting gigantic and to fit.... nothing, just empty space.

 

Why is ATX the mainstream standard then?

 

I have always built Micro-ATX, from low end to high end systems, they always worked flawlessly, beautiful, compact, good use of available space, good air flow just the same, mATX occupies less space and (I know it's subjective) looks prettier and cleaner and cooler with the whole motherboard being actually used besides mATX boards can still pack enough VRM and Power Phases for high end chips while still costing less.

 

So what gives with ATX being the mainstream go-to? Is your PC motherboard ATX? If so; Do you use what it has to offer, mainly on PCI-e slots or is it also 'filled' with emptiness?

It's simply about real estate, there are only so much you can fit on the mATX form factor (and ATX for that matter), this extends to power stages too for CPUs like the 9900K as I can only think of two that are suitable for OC.

 

Also I wouldn't agree that matx cases get "just the same" airflow as an ATX sized enclosure.

 

I also disagree that matx look better than atx overall.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I'd argue the ATX form factor being common is true only for the DIY market. I've found many system builders, at least "mainstream" ones like Dell, HP, etc., use mATX form factors.

 

And the only reason why I think ATX is popular is likely because of the value proposition. People think if you're paying $150 for a board, you may as well get as much stuff as possible on it.

[porina]

It might be chicken and egg situation. Not so good microATX support, so not enough people buy it, so they don't make it, so people can't buy it... I've seen other complaints on the forum about not having high end microATX choices available.

 

"most" of my systems are ATX, although I do have some microATX (and ITX) too. On that note, it isn't a single size, as I have boards that are almost as big as ATX, and others almost as small as ITX.

 

If you argue you only need one slot, why not ITX everything? Ok, space becomes a premium there. You might lose two DIMM slots, but how many ever use 4 and some ATX only have two anyway. Maybe the VRM needs to be downscaled a bit... but still adequate for non-overclockers.

 

2 minutes ago, remus243 said:

It's simply about real estate, there are only so much you can fit on the mATX form factor (and ATX for that matter), this extends to power stages too for CPUs like the 9900K as I can only think of two that are suitable for OC.

microATX allows the same board width as ATX, the saving is more on the other axis where you lose some expansion slots. The VRMs and what have you can be exactly the same as ATX.

[RollinLower]

6 minutes ago, remus243 said:

It's simply about real estate, there are only so much you can fit on the mATX form factor (and ATX for that matter), this extends to power stages too for CPUs like the 9900K as I can only think of two that are suitable for OC.

in theory this is a valid comment, though not really in practice. most board manufacturers don;t even utilize the space they have on the ATX boards.

i have a TR4 mATX board that in my opinion is one of the few fully utilized mATX boards in the consumer space. the thing is, this board has more stuff on it than most ATX boards. 

[SupaKomputa]

Illusion of abundance.

Many thinks that using ATX would get them futureproof.

When in reality they will only use 1 pcie for the gpu for the lifetime of the system.

Everything you need is onboard, sound, lan, usb3, raid etc.

In my oppinion ATX is a complete waste of real estate.

It was relevant in the 90's when you need a card for each peripherals.

Micro ATX is just enough, airflow wise, even an ITX case can have good airflow if set perfectly.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

I think part of it is the, dare I say it, "future proofing" aspect of a build. In other words, having the convenience of being able to upgrade with the extra PCI-e slot/lanes. 

 

It might be also the fact that ATX was the first standard size so over time, manufacturers used it as the baseline while treating mATX, EATX, and mITX as a niche market.

[TempestCatto]

For me, it's only because I thought it would be funny to have a full size tower (Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra) in an area where it barely fits. But it's a huge pain in the ass, as empty the case weighs in at like, 40lbs. Fill it up and it's at least twice that. It sucks to move around when I need to get inside. Other than that, I chose my motherboard because it has built in 10gb which I'll be using with a NAS in the future (AsRock x470 Taichi Ultimate).

 

I guess one could argue that you get better powerphasing and better VRM cooling with a larger board, as there's more area for it to take up. That and one could also argue two vs four RAM slots (though no one needs four sticks with a mainstream CPU). (these are not my arguments, just suggested ones)

 

I don't think one looks better than the other, it all depends on what the room is like and what aesthetic you're going for. But I do love me a good, small, clean setup.

 

EDIT: I just had a thought, it bugs me that there aren't more USB ports on a motherboard's rear IO (let alone internal ones) as it always looks like they could shove tons on there. I never have enough USB ports personally, so the ability to add multiple PCIe USB cards is essential to me.

[PlayStation 2]

ATX is arguably more appealing to some than Micro-ATX, especially when you're spending, 2, 3, 400 dollars on a motherboard. Most people just aren't in the market for a medium-sized but very flashy rig that's many thousands of dollars.

 

Personally, I wished that we could get nicer boards that just aren't flashy, like an upgraded ASRock AB350M but it's an X370 board or whatever it was that's the high end on 1st or 2nd generation Ryzen. I'm not in the market for a flashy rig. I'm in the market for a rig I can use all of its potential out of, kinda like a sports car or sports sedan you can use the entirety of its potential, and not necessarily something you can flex on other people with.

[NineEyeRon]

I built an ITX gaming rig in a Define Nano S case due to never using the slots on my old ATX board and hating the huge ATX case. 

 

Very happy so far and not missing the space or MoBo features.

 

mAtx would have at least allowed 3 slot coolers though but TBH I’m sure 2 slot coolers will be fine for my use case. 

[trevb0t]

In a few examples on the budget end, you're looking at losing RAM slots. So there's that.

(And I'll grant you it's unlikely those extra two will be used, but hey!)

 

I just personally like the look of an ATX Mid case. It's how computers have looked to me for a long time and they look sexy.

[JB780]

Better margins for case makers on larger cases? It seems like the bigger cases get the most sku's & marketing. 

Consumers see them as easier to build in? 

[Lathlaer]

I choose the case first and then the motherboard accordingly. I wanted to get a huge tempered glass tower with fully custom LC and so I did. Thus comes the E-ATX board which fits there perfectly. Also happened to be one of the best x99 boards so there is that.

 

If my vision was to build something small that would fit on my desk, I'd get that. But I kinda like the way my PC is a centerpiece in the room.

[Mira Yurizaki]

To add something to my last post, I like to think the opposite: how much of that $150 did I spend am I effectively using? If I'm using most of the board, I think I'll be getting my money's worth.

 

2 minutes ago, JB780 said:

Better margins for case makers on larger cases? It seems like the bigger cases get the most sku's & marketing. 

I've found this largely doesn't matter. I've paid premium prices for cases small and large. If anything, smaller cases would see better margins on the principle of needing less material and you can pack more in a given space.

 

[SupaKomputa]

Just now, comander said:

Greater expandability and the user base values that more than compactness. 

Okay what expand-ability you can think of (SLI is out of the case)?

Pre 2010, i build all my system with ATX, but everytime i decided to upgrade, i looked a the empty slots and ask myself why.

Been a matx guy since. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Okay what expand-ability you can think of (SLI is out of the case)?

Pre 2010, i build all my system with ATX, but everytime i decided to upgrade, i looked a the empty slots and ask myself why.

Been a matx guy since. 

I do like the aestethics of a midi case filled with nothing but air.
With the ever increasing needs for bandwith i would say for the occasion more is less
Not sure how the temperatures fit in. With a close range setup your bound to have to use more effort then with a long range setup with plenty of space that makes use of the temperature distribution in the case

   

[jiyeon]

I personally chose an ATX board because I had a feeling I would get to use a majority of the PCIe slots for something.

 

I'm now here with an ATX board, and 2 of my PCIe x1 slots are filled by my Wi-Fi card and soundcard, so I'm thankful for that expandability in components with the ATX form factor.

[SupaKomputa]

1 minute ago, comander said:

As stated, the community values it. I'm not saying that value is rational, however. 

Some use case for additional slots - PCI-e based storage (e.g. Optane) or storage cards (think RAID 10 NVME drives in a PCI-e 16x expansion card); 10Gbe - admittedly, there are cards which combine 10gbe + nvme.

Okay, in rare cases people need the extra slots.

But i would argue that most only need 3 slots max, which is still available in matx.

Some matx even have 5 slots.

[VIVO-US]

ATX cases are the most universal for fitting parts inside, so most cases made for custom building are in this size range.  Also, when the latest and greatest chipsets and CPUs go into distribution, I've noticed they tend to go into high end ATX boards first, so those wanting to build a PC with the latest tech end up with an ATX board because an equivalent micro simply isn't available yet.  This isn't always the reason of course.

 

I'm one of those weirdos who still uses expansion cards beyond the graphics card, so I need the expandability of ATX for my home PC.  My work PC is a Micro ATX though.

[jiyeon]

2 minutes ago, comander said:

In terms of WiFI performance, two APs set up as uplinks, with one connected to your ethernet port, generally works MUCH better in terms of performance and reliability. This requires 0 PCI-e ports and is expandable with a switch. It's admittedly not as easy to set up. 

I don't need any fancy config like that, I'm fine with using a PCIe slot, after all, that's what an ATX form factor is for.

 

2 minutes ago, comander said:

At this time, most onboard audio is a fair bit better than is actually needed. For those with high end gear, most good audio set ups use USB connected DACs. This has the advantage of getting the gear away from the motherboard (reduces EM interference). 

I didn't buy mine for the audio quality, I bought it for the equalizer software to go along with my ATH-M50x headphones. I just wanted to get away from stock onboard audio and tune audio how I wanted.

[aezakmi]

I have 2 cards so ATX is my way to go

[Giganthrax]

ATX has more stuff on it.

 

This includes support for more hard drives, pci-e expansions if needed, more front USB ports, more everything. This is especially useful if you intend to use the motherboard for many years.

 

They also visually look more impressive. 

[LogicalDrm]

If we just think why, then its about demand. For the longest time, bigger has been better. GPUs have been 2-3 slots wide and insanely long. Non-modular PSUs were standard thing until recently (or ~10 years). More space to show off what you have and so on. Smaller cases were for OEMs and likes, usually stuffed with cables. Not very appealing when one wants to build good looking rig.

 

I think we are slowly moving towards smaller rigs. AIOs and smaller performance aircoolers are more common, SSDs have gone smaller, and you really only need 1-2 HDDs. ODDs are almost extinct. Even GPUs are only 2 slots wide and usually not that long. So why have the extra space anymore? It will take years still to move towards smaller cases, and it might need tech-tubers some balls to not take moneys from be Quiet! or Fractal to promote their bigger cases. But we are getting there.

 

I, for example, have already decided that my next rig will be mATX at most. My brother already moved to mATX system.

[Monkey Dust]

Strangely I was thinking about this last week at work. I think a big reason is that not many people build mATX systems because the choice of mATX Mobos and cases are pretty limited, and they are limited because people don't buy them. I have an mATX system and when I was building it the choice of motherboard was particularly restricted.

 

 

[jiyeon]

8 minutes ago, comander said:

My principle argument would be that the additional PCI-e slots aren't much of a particular value add in your case. I recognize that I am being hyper analytical and a dash pedantic - I hope you do not feel disrespected. 

But it is, because I bought things to fill them in, that's enough proof of worth to me and my own slots.

 

9 minutes ago, comander said:

With respect to wireless - USB Wireless adapters also exist... and, assuming you have a powered cable the ability to position the device is useful.

I hate USB adapters, one yank and it's out. I wanted something permanent and an internal card did just that, with Bluetooth 5.0 to boot.