Gigabyte 8SIMLH + YeongYang A101

For those who are looking for Micro ATX motherboard reviews, I can tell you there are not many around. I'm just a different person, I always wanted a compact computer but upgradibility is essential. Finding such a solution is not easy coz most of the time trade off occurs. Either you have to loose upgradaibility for small form factor or vice versa.

One way to achieve this is to get a Mini ATX casing from YeongYang A101, which accomodates Micro ATX motherboard. Most slimline cases would require you to use a low profile PCI card if you want to add components. This is not the case with YeongYang case. You can still use the normal PCI card with this case hence saving you money. The case only measures 32x34x13cm.

Paired with Gigabyte 8SIMLH, this combination makes great mini desktop or tower. (I forgot to mention that YeongYang case can be placed vertically or horizontally :) ).

8SIMLH is surprisingly good motherboard. When I say suprisingly, it's because I have always considered that onboard video will not perform well. This is not the case. After putting everything together, DDR333 memory, Cel 1.7, 40GB WD (8Mb), Liteon CD Burner, I had it running MadOrion 3D test. The results was 1130+- which is very good for an onboard video.

I compare this with another Gigabyte motherboard 8STML with 4x AGP Nvidia MX400, using the rest of the same components. The 3D results were only slightly better scoring 1330+-.

Overall, the performance of 8SIMLH is excellent. Fast response time in MSOffice and Internet. Overclocking utilities are from Gigabyte so it was a good and easy to use utility. Using automatic setting will set the system to optimum configuration, increasing only 3mHz from the actual CPU speed. I have not tried manual overclocking for I don't see a need to it. It's fast anyhow.....

For those who don't like big casing but don't want to loose functionality and upgrades this is one way to go. Good luck.