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Micro ATX a Mistake?

tuberolector
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I am about to order parts for a new moderately high end (IMHO) rig. I plan to take this to college (USA) with me in the fall, so I wanted it to be relatively compact, so I am planing on doing a Micro ATX build. Is this a mistake in terms of future expansion? I am going to be putting in an i5-4690k (unless I can find another $100 for the 4790k) and a Radeon 7950, just in case you wanted to know. 

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Why not go full ATX? Unless space matters. Better cooling.

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It depends on the board you have chosen, a cheap one will limit upgrades as it will have the minimum amount of PCIe slots while a good one will have at least two PCIe x16 slots and most likely some additional PCIe x1 slots. If you're just gaming there's few conceivable scenarios where a good mATX board would be a limiting factor.

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Why not go full ATX? Unless space matters. Better cooling.

It is going to be in a dorm room, where I'm not really sure how much space I will have. Because of this, a mATX case would be much better on top of my desk if I don't have room elsewhere. 

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Not really...the only difference is that you can only have 2 gpus and nothing else...but in all honesty, it really doesn't matter. mATX boards can do anything ATX can.

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It depends on the board you have chosen, a cheap one will limit upgrades as it will have the minimum amount of PCIe slots while a good one will have at least two PCIe x16 slots and most likely some additional PCIe x1 slots. If you're just gaming there's few conceivable scenarios where a good mATX board would be a limiting factor.

 

 

It just depends on your usage... If you're just putting a GPU and a Wireless card you won't have problems... also there are mATX boards with 4 RAM slots...

 

This is the board I am probably going to end up getting. 

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most Z97 boards have a lot of features like the ATX brothers

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz97mxgaming5

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z97mpro4

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-maximusviigene

 

you choice is not limited

 

only your budget limits your build

Budget? Uses? Currency? Location? Operating System? Peripherals? Monitor? Use PCPartPicker wherever possible. 

Quote whom you're replying to, and set option to follow your topics. Or Else we can't see your reply.

 

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This is the board I am probably going to end up getting. 

As I said, if you're just gaming then that board is fine as you have plenty of slots and SLI/Xfire support. It would only be an issue if you try to run SLI/xfire and another expansion card such as a raid card or soundcard but seeing as it's supposed to be a portable PC I doubt you would be running raid anything.

-The Bellerophon- Obsidian 550D-i5-3570k@4.5Ghz -Asus Sabertooth Z77-16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866Mhz-x2 EVGA GTX 760 Dual FTW 4GB-Creative Sound Blaster XF-i Titanium-OCZ Vertex Plus 120GB-Seagate Barracuda 2TB- https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/60154-the-not-really-a-build-log-build-log/ Twofold http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/121043-twofold-a-dual-itx-system/ How great is EVGA? http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/110662-evga-how-great-are-they/#entry1478299

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M-ATX is not a mistake its just as functional as any ATX board except there is less space for PCI slots so unless you need a ton of expansion cards or are running multiple GPUs theres no reason why you cant go with M-ATX. Personally i like M-ATX better because its compact and sometimes cheaper.

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This is the board I am probably going to end up getting. 

i say go for that board if you like it

 

http://www.gigabyte.sg/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4968#ov

Budget? Uses? Currency? Location? Operating System? Peripherals? Monitor? Use PCPartPicker wherever possible. 

Quote whom you're replying to, and set option to follow your topics. Or Else we can't see your reply.

 

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