How to identify an ATX motherboard?

[amanoffewwords]

Guys and Girls,

I'm having a bit of a brain-fade (must be the heat :eek: ) but how does one identify an ATX board versus a mini-ATX one, without opening the case?

Is it by the number of slots at the back? i.e. 3 = mini-ATX, 5 or more ATX?

Or if anyone owns (by some misfortune) a Tiny Computer Entertainment Vision PC - same question applies.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Charles

[Saab Dastard]

Suggest you google "motherboard form factor".

The best way to identify an ATX motherboard without opening the case is to look at the back of the PC.

All of the expansion cards plug perpendicularly into the motherboard, not into a riser card as with the LPX or NLX motherboards. The other clue is that the I/O ports are in a double row at the end opposite the expansion slots.

The full list of ATX MoBo types - Excluding LPX / NLX and BTX:

Form factor Length Width

ATX 12.0" (30.5 cm) 9.6" (24.4 cm)
Mini ATX 11.2" (28.4 cm) 8.2" (20.8 cm)
Flex ATX 9.0" (22.9 cm) 7.5" (19.1 cm)
Micro ATX 9.6" (24.4 cm) 9.6" (24.4 cm)

ITX 8.5" (21.5 cm) 7.5" (19.1 cm)
Mini-ITX 6.7" (17 cm) 6.7" (17 cm)
Nano-ITX 4.7" (12 cm) 4.7" (12 cm)

[DBTL]

If you're talking about the standard office desktop case and mobo, not any of the recent "entertainment PC" solutions, there's no way to tell this, unless some of the cards on a standard ATX mobo happen to have been installed in some of the furthest slots, which are not present in the short micro-ATX mobo format.
The other way would be to hit the Pause/Break key at the very first bootup screen, freezing it, and see if any pieces of useful information re the mobo type are shown on the screen and go googling on those bits of info.
What were you aiming at btw?

[amanoffewwords]

I've got a client who has an old PC made by "Tiny Computers" - it needs a new motherboard because:

1. the hard-disk recently failed and is unusable - I have recovered some of the data of it but it doesn't want to boot, doesn't FDISK etc.

2. I have a new hard-disk but can't recover the original operating system because Tiny provide a recovery disk which relies on the Windows XP files stored in a hidden partition on the broken hard-disk

3. I need a new motherboard because Tiny changed the BIOS to force it to look for the hidden partition while booting - hence if you change the HDU and add a new OS on to it the boot will process will fail

4. Tiny Computers went out of business a while back hence 0% support from them

5. The issue needs to be resolved by Saturday 22nd as the computer user is returning to university.

The back of the PC should look something like the image below. (I'm getting the client to confirm) [I would check myself but can't afford the time to treck all the way there only to return later in the week].


http://www.ecusb.net/smf/screenshots/tiny.jpg

To me it looks like an ATX but it's a long time since I've done things like this - the PC is four years old so I think I'm correct but you never know.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers
Charles

[OpsSix]

OK....

Re the old hard drive, theres not much you can do about that. At least some of the data has been salvaged.

The Windows XP serial should be on a sticker on the side of the case. Use your own XP CD with that code. You may have to ring Microsoft in the activation process but just tell them that you are using the CD that was supplied with the PC. Some quick thinking may be required... (been there done that)

Depending on what the spec of the PC was, you may struggle to find the required components due to age. When I deal with an old PC that requires replacement parts, I always tell the owner that I don't think it's wise to spend money on old technology and I price up an upgrade. In some instances the price difference between old and new isn't much.

That PC looks like m/atx to me. The height isn't much going by the size of the PSU and the 80mm fan duct.
Shop built PC's don't usually come with full size ATX boards anyway.

Hope this helps.

[DBTL]

Yes, you definitely have a micro-atx board you'll want here. My wholesale place still carries a selection of new mobos for the Duron/Athlon SocketA, and the Intel 478 socket for Celeron/P4, so I'd think those are not particularly hard to come by.

[amanoffewwords]

Thanks for your replies. I did think about using another Windows XP CD but I haven't got one - still happily using WIN2K here (if it ain't broke don't fix it) + there's the problem with the BIOS that may have been tampered with - did a Google on it and found loads and loads of site/people complaining less that politely about it.

With the new mboard there will be a new CPU/RAM and a fresh copy of Windows XP - cust is happy to go down that route + salvage what we can from the old PC.

I got an actual picture of the back of the PC:

http://www.ecusb.net/smf/screenshots/tiny1.jpg

On closer inspection I agree that it looks like a mini-ATX - glad I asked!

Novatech carries a couple of examples so I'll direct the customer to them.

Cheers guys,

Charles

[OpsSix]

I'd say get a better case with a better PSU as that one will be awful. Antec are good. I normally use the SLK1650B in customer builds.

Asrock (branch of Asus) S754 m/atx board, AMD Sempron, SATA2 hard drive, 512mb or 1Gb RAM, OEM Win XP CD.
You're looking at apx £250 for that lot ex the case.

That motherboard has got onboard graphics so as long as hes not a gamer it'll be fine.