Motherboard doesn't fit case

[Dida]

I am building a computer for a friend, I just realize that the motherboard won't fit the backside of the case,
the case looks like this:

and here is how the motherboard looks like

I just received the case in the mail, but haven't get hold of the motherboard yet, but from the look of it, it looks like they won't fit. did I buy the wrong case for this particular motherboard? But they are both supposed to be ATX.

 

[Speedo]

The panel with the openings for those onboard connectors should pop out, and the motherboard should include a panel that you use with it.

 

[Dida]

I see I see. I guess when I get the mobo, everything will be solved.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Groans is that an all-in-one MB looks like it
I dont think it will come with those acessories. (they tend to be cheap)

 

[Dida]

Most mobo today are all in one, whether they are cheap or expensive.

 

[Speedo]

Er, what exactly are you talking about with the "all-in-one" stuff?

 

[dannyevilcat]

Er, what exactly are you talking about with the "all-in-one" stuff?

Onboard LAN and sound, I'm guessing.

Oh, and FriendlyFire, there's nothing wrong with these features on a motherboard.

 

[Speedo]

I was gonna say... they don't come that much better than my board (Asus A8N SLI-Premium) and it's almost identical to that pic... just have dual NICs, built in firewire and some other additional stuff.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Onboard LAN and sound, I'm guessing.

Oh, and FriendlyFire, there's nothing wrong with these features on a motherboard.

Built-in Videocard and shared ram.
I avoid these like the plague

 

[Dida]

From the look of it, this board clearly do not have built in video, or shared ram. But those boards with built in video or shared ram can be an incredible value.

 

[Speedo]

Built-in Videocard and shared ram.
I avoid these like the plague

Don't know how you can that from that pic. That is a DB9 connector you're seeing, but it's a female DB9, aka a serial port. A VGA connector would be a male DB9, and blue.

Honestly I don't think onboard video is that common except in low-end boards and in systems you get from OEMs. Onboard sound, though, seems to be pretty much a standard feature.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Don't know how you can that from that pic. That is a DB9 connector you're seeing, but it's a female DB9, aka a serial port. A VGA connector would be a male DB9, and blue.

Honestly I don't think onboard video is that common except in low-end boards and in systems you get from OEMs. Onboard sound, though, seems to be pretty much a standard feature.

Ah my bad
All-in=one tend to be crippled when it comes to gaming performance,,
Often come with very few slots for expansion / simm, pci slots
But for those aseembeling a budget pc it is vaule for money

 

[Dida]

Acutally, you only need one slot for the video card, and a good video card is all that matters for gaming. The CPU and RAM also factors in, but CPU and RAM are usually not dependent on the mobo, as long as the technology is up to date. The biggest problem I see with cheap board is the chipset is made of lousy material and can be a drag for the system. But, that isn't a big deal, 5% performance hit at most.
Actually, the real difference between a value board and expensive board comes in when you try to overlock it.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Acutally, you only need one slot for the video card, and a good video card is all that matters for gaming. The CPU and RAM also factors in, but CPU and RAM are usually not dependent on the mobo, as long as the technology is up to date. The biggest problem I see with cheap board is the chipset is made of lousy material and can be a drag for the system. But, that isn't a big deal, 5% performance hit at most.
Actually, the real difference between a value board and expensive board comes in when you try to overlock it.

A lot of good video cards now take up 2 slots and an SLI setup may takes up more. Then it might be a good idea to have a slot between your GPU and your sound card. For gaming ram matters a great deal. Some of the newer games need 2gb to run well and 1gb is standard and thats assuming good memory banwidth. The motherboard determines what ram you can use and how much bandwidth goes throught thoes sticks. For example when I first got my old P4 533FSB the motherboard would allow you to run 400mhz DDR and no dual channel configuration. But the Gigabyte board that allows you to overclock that CPU, use higher bandwidth memory in dual channel configuration, had multiple raid configurations and SATA allowed me to upgrade and run games a lot better then before.

For up date technology a cheap board is really bad for hardcore gaming because they could lack a PCI express slot so you would be stuck with AGP cards or they could only have one so no dual SLI setup. Only the high end boards fully support dual SLI which will probably get better as more cards are released. The better motherboards support ram that runs at higher speeds and thats good because eventually the higher speed ram will be available in lower latencies allowing both AMD and Intel chips to take advantage of them even without overclocking. So aside from what you mentioned the bigges factor would be that cheap boards are less likely to support future technology and that makes them less usefull for upgrades.

 

[Dida]

I understand that memory and hard drive can have an impact on game performance, but that isn't related to the motherboard, as even the cheapest board can support dual channel and SATAII. PCIe slots are common place now, that they can be found on the cheapest boards. SLI is less common on cheap boards, but that only concerns nVidia users.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I understand that memory and hard drive can have an impact on game performance, but that isn't related to the motherboard, as even the cheapest board can support dual channel and SATAII. PCIe slots are common place now, that they can be found on the cheapest boards. SLI is less common on cheap boards, but that only concerns nVidia users.

Well dual channel, Raid and SATA was just for my old example. For new technology my example was to show the cheapest boards don't usually support the new higher speed ram such as 800mhz DDR2 and the future 1066mghz DDR2 with 16gb limit. The cheaper board usually supports 4GB DDR 400/333. Its no big deal until latency comes down and Windows Vista comes out which will support more memory, but thats as soon as next year. So it could be a big deal if you want your system to last through upgrades.

The only reason high end pc boards exist is for gamers and overclockers. Most of them go for midrange hardware with the exception of RAM and motherboard. Even a high end motherboard isn't all that much more expensive and its not really the place a gamer should choose to go economy. My last cheap ASUS board ended up costing the same as the newer high end one after I got the 2 LAN cards.

Then you have to consider that not all PCI-E slots are equal and they aren't just for SLI. You look at a cheap board with 1 PCI-E slot and compare it to a high end board with 2 x PCI Express x16, 2 x PCI Express x1, 1 x PCI Express x4, 2 x PCI, PCI 2.2 and you are comparing a board that can run a single PCI graphics card to one that can run next years graphics cards along with next years sounds cards etc. Non-onbaord sound cards are mainly for gaming and multimedia and the newer ones will use PCI Express. Then there is dual LAN for gaming LAN parties etc which you would have to purchase seperately because a cheaper board would only have one.

Dual PCI won't necessarily only concern Nvidia users in the future as the performance gets even better ATI would have no choice but to make a counterpart. And if you can't afford a good motherboard you definately can't afford a to replace a cheap one whenever a new line of cards comes out. Considering that most boards generally range from $100 to $200 with the exception of some really crappy ones for $60 its could actually save you money as your system would last longer through upgrades instead of replacement.

 

[Speedo]

A lot of good video cards now take up 2 slots and an SLI setup may takes up more.

They are two slots wide but still only require one PCIe slot to connect to.

Some of the newer games need 2gb to run well and 1gb is standard and thats assuming good memory banwidth.

I'd be interested to know what they are.

Then you have to consider that not all PCI-E slots are equal and they aren't just for SLI. You look at a cheap board with 1 PCI-E slot and compare it to a high end board with 2 x PCI Express x16, 2 x PCI Express x1, 1 x PCI Express x4, 2 x PCI, PCI 2.2 and you are comparing a board that can run a single PCI graphics card to one that can run next years graphics cards along with next years sounds cards etc.

One little catch- if you look closely at most SLI boards, when you have dual GPUs in the board (especially if they're two slot cards) then your PCIe x8, x4 and x1 slots are covered up.

Dual PCI won't necessarily only concern Nvidia users in the future as the performance gets even better ATI would have no choice but to make a counterpart.

They already have, and the first cards are on the market now (though they can't be used yet- see below), it's called Crossfire.

Catch is, Crossfire requires a "Crossfire-enabled" motherboard. No SLI motherboard currently on the market supports that, and ATI doesn't have any board out yet. I don't know though if SLI requires an SLI (nForce 4) chipset to run though.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I'd be interested to know what they are.

Off the top of my head I now that 2gb is optimal for BF2, I'm not sure what the handfull of other games are but before BF2 1gb was the sweet spot. Well its still really the sweetspot but its expected that future games will follow the lead of BF2 especially once Vista ships.

I don't know though if SLI requires an SLI (nForce 4) chipset to run though.

I don't either, all the new video cards since SLI came out are giving me a headache especially now with the release a whole new family of ATI cards. X1800 XT.

 

[CruddyLeper]

They already have, and the first cards are on the market now (though they can't be used yet- see below), it's called Crossfire.

Catch is, Crossfire requires a "Crossfire-enabled" motherboard. No SLI motherboard currently on the market supports that, and ATI doesn't have any board out yet. I don't know though if SLI requires an SLI (nForce 4) chipset to run though.

Xfire boards are shipping 3rd week October in the UK. Should be out about (checks watch) now in the US.

Of course SLI requires Nforce - it's a nVidia standard so it HAS to be an nVidia chipset.

They've pretty much abandoned Nforce 3, so nForce 4 it has to be. Until the next chipset up their sleeve appears.

EDIT: On 2nd thoughts all you can do preorder the Xfire and hope they ship before November. And hope the damn thing works when it arrives.

I'll wait until it's nice and mature I think. 18 months minimum (which is about what it took nVidia to get SLI stable and useful).

 

[Speedo]

Of course SLI requires Nforce - it's a nVidia standard so it HAS to be an nVidia chipset.

I've not heard anything mentioned on it. What I'm wondering is, does SLI require some feature(s) of chipset to function, or is it driver based and only requires two PCIe x16 slots?

Essentially, is the nForce4 providing a part of the SLI, or just giving two PCIe slots?