ATX? Micro ATX?? Slim ATX?? SFF??? ............

[Dooin' it]

Just pondering the form factor debate. I definitely wish my computers were as small as Shuttles, but they're not. I'm a mid-tower guy, but these smaller form factors are becoming more & more attractive the older I get.

Shuttle's SFF isn't at the price point I'd like, but there seems to be more & more Micro ATX stuff coming out that works/looks as good as the regular ATX stuff. Obivously we lose bays, slots & room for our knuckles & such but I'm more a single HD, dual CD & "that's all folks" kinda' guy.

Anybody got thoughts on some of this smaller stuff?

[Jeordiewhite]

The cases and the board's themselves are nowhere near as expandable as a midsize case.
They don't fit a lot of peoples needs, for example.
This doesn't suit my needs because I run 6 hd's in one of my computers and am going to get 2 more for another one to run on serial raid.
Expansion pci cards are a must for me, the limmited capacity of the micro atx cases aren't enough for quite a bit of users.

If you can live with the hard to upgrade factor of these, or need something for oh say a lan party or just a small simple computer that is just for a few simple tasks. Then sure it would be perfect, especially if you had a bunch of other computers to do other tasks. They would be great for a little workspace computer, like a family shared one.

However, the midsize tower works perfectly for me. I'm not into the looks of a computer, just the functionality and expandibility.
I've once had a mini atx case from hp that was just a worse night mare for me, I never wanted a pos like it again, it could only fit one hd and a cd-rom.
with just 3 expansion slots and an agp slot.

[sm8000]

I've been happily running on a micro-ATX case for four years now. You have to keep in mind that you can't aim very high, the number one reason being that mATX power supply units rarely exceed 230 watts depending on what kind of mATX they are (if the fan is on the top or at the back). But for a low-end, general light use mATX is just fine.

[Xeroid]

You know, they have some real nice mATX boards around now. Nforce2 chipsets, Gforce 4 MX onboard video, 6-channel sound, onboard LAN, Onboard Firewire, USB 2, An 8x AGP slot for future video upgrade, etc. Some really nice stuff for an economical build.
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=m7ncg or http://www.us.shuttle.com/specs.asp?pro_id=250

The only thing I got tired of was the cramped space. On the last build for someone I got tired of removing the HD cage to upgrade the RAM or access the IDE plugs.

If you don't mind the extra cost on a mATX case take a look at the Enlight 76020B1 case. It has much more room than a normal mATX case and is the only one I've seen with a 300watt PS.

[Dooin' it]

I hear you both. You see, for me, my only limitation for a shuttle-type is the single CD drive issue. The rest is no sweat! When I can buy a 200g HD for $150 I don't need 6 drives anymore. I used to think that was useful but.......like I said.......the older I get, the more of a pain in my @r$e it is to manage a half-dozen drives. Once DVDRW's get up around 20X & higher maybe the one drive will work just fine?? Heck, even an external unit would be the answer for a shuttle-type app. Once you've got a multi-format burner, then you're basically done. Heck, they'll have to find another format drive for us to lust after!

Standard mid-towers are a no-brainer, I'm just wondering if there aren't better things to come w/ micro atx and/or shuttles in the very near future................like shuttles w/ detachable laptops.........(c;

[Jeordiewhite]

There is a new format to lust after http://news.com.com/2100-1040-984520.html
http://www.blu-ray.com/
I hated my hp, having to really do some work just to get to the memory, I had to remove a bunch of wires from the board to get to it by pulling out the mobo. Only good thing about it was that the motherboard was on a removeable mount which came out the back.
I wouldn't mind a mATX case with an nforce 2 chipset, the features of those two list above are impressive. With a decent video onboard, which isn't the ideal gaming card, but it's upgradeable, and an 8x agp port. I can't help but wonder, does this use onboard ram for video and how much does it use? Maybe it would be best to get dual 400mhz ram for the bios start
I would atleast have room for it in my spot where my case should be in my computer desk would be and could game on it while I have the other ones taking the server tasks and others things I do.