hello, im looking at putting together an inexpensive shuttle for my room back home. i want to be able to play games such as DoW2 relatively well, as well as keeping it cheap . im unsure on what mATX motherboard to buy so hopefully some one could point me in the right direction. i have a Core 2 6400 from my old system so the board will have to be LGA775, i plan on putting in 2GB of DDR2-6400 RAM an ATI 4830 (PCI-E) for gfx (might consider a 4850 if the PSU could cope) and a 500GB Sata HDD. im looking at putting this in a cheap mATX case which comes with a £15 300w micro PSU which im hoping should just be enough to run this. im looking to spend about £30-40 on the mobo, the less i spend the better . xx
Unfortunately i don't think a cheap 300W micro psu will be up for powering a system with a max load of 250-300W, you'd be better looking at a slightly more expensive quality psu as a cheap one will only cause you problems when stressed anywhere near it's quoted limit (which on cheap psu's is usually the instantaneous max load, not sustained) If you can fit it, the cheap 425W hiper one might be worth a look, decent brand and rated for 425W sustained load should see you through well enough for that system.
i realy hate cheap PSU's but because of the case thats the best i can get because its micro ATX and a regular power supply just wont fit. i used a power calcuator n that should use about 260w which i know is pushing it. i might end up having to opt for a larger case. the case: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EktsMxWej8 edit* did a bit of looking around and found 400w PSU although its still rather cheap http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/200w+to+449w/400W+Micro+ATX+Power+Supply?productId=31126&AID=10503870&PID=2187177&SID=CA7QiEwArhIbJpBPz1aZ8soF6xAYEYh3
Make sure to get 4 gigs of RAM. DDR2 is dirt cheap nowadays (15€ for a 2GB stick!) and you will definitely benefit of 4GB.
Just had a look at that 400W psu and the trouble with it is that it's amperage weighting is towards the 5V rail at 25A yet the 12V rail is only 13A so probably won't support a modern 12 V dominant system like the one you're looking at putting together.
