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ATX VS MICRO ATX IN GAMING

laushik
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can you use a micro atx in gaming if you only are planning to use one? Would a micro atx mobo affect Overclocking a cpu in any way and are there severe drawbacks to having a micro atx as opposed to a full atx mobo?

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  • CPU
    I7 6700K Overclocked to 4.6 GHz at 1.33v
  • Motherboard
    Asus Z270 PRIME - A
  • RAM
    GSKILL RIPJAWS V DDR4 16GB 3000MHZ
  • GPU
    MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G overclocked to 2063 MHZ and 8900 MHZ memory clock
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    NZXT S340 RED
  • Storage
    WD 1TB BLUE AND SAMSUNG EVO 250GB SSD
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    EVGA 650W GQ
  • Display(s)
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  • Cooling
    CORSAIR H100I GTX
  • Keyboard
    CORSAIR K70
  • Mouse
    LOGITECH G502 PROTEUS SPECTRUM
  • Operating System
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Posted

ATX motherboards usually have more features.  Besides, if you do decide to get another GPU or more RAM you don't have to buy a completely new motherboard.

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There is no performance difference. Overclocking ability depends on the model of motherboard you get. The only drawbacks with micro ATX are less PCI-E and RAM slots because there's less room.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, laushik said:

are there severe drawbacks to having a micro atx as opposed to a full atx mobo?

Yup, it's smaller.

 

And we all know how much size matters ;)

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Posted

Some mATX boards do have 4 RAM slots, though.

All in all, still, the form factor won't grant per se any feature/lack thereof.

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No actual performance difference. But you lose some features that might be built into a bigger board and some expansion oppurtunities for the future.

i5 6600k and GTX 1070 but I play 1600-900. 1440p BABY!

Still, don't put too much faith in my buying decisions. xD 

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2 minutes ago, UL_42L said:

There is no performance difference. Overclocking ability depends on the model of motherboard you get. The only drawbacks with micro ATX are less PCI-E and RAM slots because there's less room.

there is almost nothing to add to this tbh, its just a smaller version, with less expantion slots, it might be a bit more because its not an as common form factor but it would only be a few dollars probably, overclocking depends on brand, quality and all that not the formfactor

I spent $2500 on building my PC and all i do with it is play no games atm & watch anime at 1080p(finally) watch YT and write essays...  nothing, it just sits there collecting dust...

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1 hour ago, UL_42L said:

There is no performance difference. Overclocking ability depends on the model of motherboard you get. The only drawbacks with micro ATX are less PCI-E and RAM slots because there's less room.

M-ATX board has four RAM slots just like regular ATX board. If you are talking about less RAM slots, it is M-itx.

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I have a mATX board with four RAM slots, three PCIe slots (although you'd have to be using low profile cards to fill more than two of them) and enough room to house a Cryorig H5 Ultimate. Plenty of mATX cases are capable of liquid cooling.

 

TBQH, now that GPUs are starting to get away from three or four-way SLI/CF, I expect the mATX case to become standard for gaming over the next few years.

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4 minutes ago, Deli said:

M-ATX board has four RAM slots just like regular ATX board. If you are talking about less RAM slots, it is M-itx.

There are mATX boards with 2 and with 4 RAM slots, it's model-specific.

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I asked myself the same question a few months ago when I built my rig and I have to say the extra features on my full ATX, are what I really needed for my setup. The main thing is what your future plans are for your PC. Having the extra slots and M.2 on mine let me know someday I can beastify my rig some more. ;) But if you have a set function that wont be changing anytime soon. maybe a micro ATX is your thing. 

 

Linus made a vid on what motherboard to get and stated that they have little to no difference in performance, finding the right one is all about the expand-ability and features your looking for. 

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59 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

There are mATX boards with 2 and with 4 RAM slots, it's model-specific.

Most M-ATX boards have four slots. Usually only the cheaper non-z chip set boards may have only two slots.

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1 minute ago, Deli said:

Most M-ATX boards have four slots.

A quick search gave 155 mobos with 2 slots, 155 with 4 slots, and 2 with 8 (although those used server chipsets). There were also 13 ATX mobos with 2 slots. But that may just be the retailer I checked.

In any case, whatever the statistics may be, it's model-specific.

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58 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

A quick search gave 155 mobos with 2 slots, 155 with 4 slots, and 2 with 8 (although those used server chipsets). There were also 13 ATX mobos with 2 slots. But that may just be the retailer I checked.

In any case, whatever the statistics may be, it's model-specific.

OP needs a board for overclocking. Any board doesn't support overclocking is out. Do you take that in to consideration?

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1 minute ago, Deli said:

OP needs a board for overclocking. Any board doesn't support overclocking is out. Do you take that in to consideration?

Overclocking capabilities, just like the number of RAM slots, is model-specific, not form-factor specific.

So, if OP wants X slots for RAM, Y overclocking features, he should just check for X and Y, not the form factor, which is the whole point here.

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1 minute ago, AlexTheRose said:

µATX pls, mATX is Mini ATX which is a completely different form factor

Probably due to font encoding issues using mu, mATX is widely used for micro-ATX. 

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59 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Overclocking capabilities, just like the number of RAM slots, is model-specific, not form-factor specific.

So, if OP wants X slots for RAM, Y overclocking features, he should just check for X and Y, not the form factor, which is the whole point here.

Where are we now? I never imply there there is difference for overclocking in term of form factor. Someone replied M-ATX only has two RAM slots. Which as you know is incorrect. I only try to correct that.

 

 

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Just now, AlexTheRose said:

The majority of the web uses UTF-8, and sites that don’t will more than likely use some other variant of Unicode anyway. It’s even supported with the Windows-1252 “ANSI” encoding as well.

Then it must be due to something else :P 

But, for example, the retailer I checked earlier had no mu, ony mATX (even though it's German and they have mu in their keyboard!)

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38 minutes ago, UL_42L said:

There is no performance difference. Overclocking ability depends on the model of motherboard you get. The only drawbacks with micro ATX are less PCI-E and RAM slots because there's less room.

 

35 minutes ago, YedZed said:

No actual performance difference. But you lose some features that might be built into a bigger board and some expansion oppurtunities for the future.

 

It's actually dependent on the model whether or not "more performance" is available, and whether or not the overclocking ability is better/worse.  For instance, the M-ATX Z170 OC Formula will overclock memory better than any ATX board on the market, due to the fact that it's smaller and has 2 memory slots, rather than 4. Putting less strain on the IMC and having a shorter signal path to the IMC.

 

18 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Overclocking capabilities, just like the number of RAM slots, is model-specific, not form-factor specific.

So, if OP wants X slots for RAM, Y overclocking features, he should just check for X and Y, not the form factor, which is the whole point here.

 

Yes indeed, the best memory overclocking DDR4 motherboard on the market right now is an M-ATX board with only 2 RAM slots.  However, as we all know, memory overclocks do almost nothing to performance.

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Onboard sound on my MSI Godlike board was noticeably better to my ears than my Titanium HD soundcard (well the mobo has a built in 600 ohm headphone amp). Such a board saves needing a high end soundcard and amplifier, and I don't think you can get that sound quality on a m-ATX board.

 

Also being E-ATX, it has enough for dual triple slot GPUs with 2 gap spacing between them which is great for SLI users wanting good cooling.

 

Also I just got some audiophile grade headphones (Aurvana Platinum for cheap), and getting my replacememt godlike board tomorrow. I can't wait for the audio combination.

Linus is my fetish.

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3 minutes ago, Bhav said:

Onboard sound on my MSI Godlike board was noticeably better to my ears than my Titanium HD soundcard (well the mobo has a built in 600 ohm headphone amp). Such a board saves needing a high end soundcard and amplifier, and I don't think you can get that sound quality on a m-ATX board.

 

Yes, you can.

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1 minute ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Yes, you can.

Oh nvm then. But still it can't take SLI triple slot cards with a gap in between them.

Linus is my fetish.

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