MIcro ATX in ATX case?

[delmer_1]

my mom asked me to upgrade her computer, my question is can i use a Micro ATX motherboard in an ATX case? She basically needs a machine that can run Word and some greeting card software, plus a few games that my little sister has.( blues clues...stuff like that) they run on the computer she has now, but the hard drive crashed the other day. She asked me to fix it, but then decided maybe she wanted to upgrade it.

she currently is using an IBM Aptiva:
AMD K6 233MHz
96MB pc100 sdram
3GB maxtor hard drive
voodoo 3 16MB PCI video
integrated audio
3com 10/100 nic (used to access a shared dial up connection on my brothers PC)

She wants me to make this as inexpensive as possible, but wants a PC she can actually do something with. here is what i came up with:

>Biostar M7VIQ motherboard
-integrated audio (AC'97)
-integrated video (S3 Savage 4)
-integrated 10/100 ethernet
>AMD Athlon XP 1700+/266fsb retail
>KINGSTON 512MB DDR PC2100 (KVR266X64C25/512)
>IBM 20GB 7200rpm Ultra ATA100 hard drive
>300w AMD approved power supply

plan on using her old case, CDrom, and floppy drive.

that puts me to $346 shipped, which is $46 over mytarget price.

I could get 256MB of ram instead of 512MB, which would get me under the target price, but do you think that will be enough? she will be runnig WIndows XP.


I would like to order from newegg.com because i have nothing but good experiences with them. I initially planned on going with PC133 SDRAM, but was unable to find an affordable motherboard. I want one with integrated ethernet, audio, and video, but i need one with an AGP slot, so i can upgrade video at a later date.

[NooNoo]

512mb ram is preferable in WinXP

Personally I would not go for a board with onboard video and the onboard sound I would choose the cmedia 8738, simply because of little sister's games... if they are dos, you need something that will do a good sb16 emulation.

[Outcoded]

Case should be fine, but get a different mobo.

[DocPC]

Case and PSU may be proprietary. Better check the backplate on the case, and check for any extra/odd plugs to the MB from the PSU.

uATX boards will be fit fine in a normal full size case.

[delmer_1]

update:

my boss said he had an ATX case at home that he is not using that i can have. it should work fine.

i went with a different motherboard. I was talking to my friend/former boss about this project and he told me to check out the specials on newegg.com. i skipped the main page earlier when i started pricing this stuff. i found this:

ASUS NFORCE A7N266 for $71.99

micro ATX
integrated GeForce 2 graphics
integrated 5.1 sound
integrated 10/100 ethernet
1x AGP, 3x PCI

overall i think it is a much better board. I only got the 256MB of ram for right now, i am sure it will be more than enough for her. I can always add more later. She eventually wants a CD burner installed also. But like i said, price was a huge factor here. grand total for the motherboard, CPU, Ram, Hard drive, and power supply came to $302.99 shipped. So i was very close to her target price. like i said, the case was free, but if not, i could have got one for $20 that would have done the job. Overall, i feel that this was a pretty good deal. And she will be thrilled with it. It will blow away her 233MHz, she won't know how to act. and yes, i know 512MB would be reccomended for XP, but you have to remember, she was using XP on her old machine, with only 96MB. (she was sick of 98 crashing all the time, so we put XP on it...it was slow, but stable.)