What's the best "regular" motherboard to use for: P4 cpu

**multiplexor** · 04-27-2004, 01:21 PM

Hey guys,

I'm looking at these mini boards and noticed how expensive they are in CDN dollars... So i'm thinking of getting a regular motherboard... Just a regular sized board with audio and video built in. This can be using a regular amd cpu
or a P4 cpu... I don't need the latest, i only want to do like the rest here.. play movies, mp3's tv, .mov files, and FM stereo...

I quickly read something about the big power requirements of bigger boards. Is this true? What's different? Can't I (for example) simply plug my home computer into my car? (with a dc to dc adapter kinda thing? replace the tower's power supply with a smaller one)

or?

I don't mind a large motherboard, aslong as it's not rising too high

hehe

Thanks for the help guys.

Frank

**Lebult** · 04-27-2004, 11:47 PM

I've been looking into this too, but from what I've found out so far, it's more expensive to get a seperate mobo and cpu than getting a mini-itx one that are designed (more or less) for Car PCs, but you do get more power. (Specifically an Intel Micro-ATX board with a P4 2.4)
It WILL use more power, but you'll get improved performance.
A lot of people use inverters, but I've heard of some people using different methods of power delivery.

**wizardPC** · 04-28-2004, 12:08 AM

it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that you will be able to power a P4 with a DC-DC power supply. The chips alone take more power than most DC PSU's can put out.

**Sinorm** · 04-28-2004, 09:54 PM

If you want to use a larger, less expensive board, get an Athlon micro ATX board, they should be fairly inexpensive. Then, buy one of the moble athlon XP processors, they fit in the same slot as the standard Athlons, but use far less power. This will help keep your power use in check. As for powering your computer, there are several options, and you need to spend a lot more time on these forums researching them. Its not as simple/inexpensive as you think.