mATX vs ATX
 

So was just wondering as at some point in the future I will finally replace my 7 year old rig, but what are the advantages/disadvantages of mATX over ATX motherboards? All I really know about it is that mATX is smaller...

Thanks for your help!

Smaller boards and usually don't overclock as well.

As a general rule, a full sized board is going to have a few more higher end features (especially when it comes to overclocking) as well as higher end components and better thermal properties.

There is no absolute answer to this however as there are a few motherboard manufacturers who've put out high end chipset, full featured mATX motherboards in the last year.

Not to mention there are some pretty sweet acrylic mATX cases for sale on the forums...:whistle:

And a very sweet P5Q-EM motherboard for same also in that section... :ph34r:

Alright cool thanks for that. So there really isn't any difference at all except features? Is there any impact on gaming performance?

It depends on whether or not you intend to overclock, or want to run sli/crossfire.

Well if I overclock anything it'll only be my CPU and I don't plan on uber-OCing it and I am only gonna go with one GPU. Hopefully these ATI 58** cards go down in price by the time X-mas rolls by =)

I run mATX boards almost exclusively now, and I really don't notice a difference in performance or lack of features vs ATX.

Alright. So really no difference other than size. Great news for me! So should I probably get a case made for mATX or can I just use whatever case I feel like getting?