Athlon and mATX, do they go together?

[andreadebiase]

hi, I would like to build a low budget Athlon system for my parents who live in Europe. I built my own Athlon system and it`s great, however since i have to fly the case across the ocean I was thinking to go with a microATX system (no monitor). What I am concerned about is the cooling issue. I have a nice 80mm fan on my tower but most microATX cases don`t, so I was wondering if you would build an Athlon system in a microATX case? maybe a Duron it`s better?
I calculated that I can make a decent performance system (not for gamers though) for as little as $350. There are some good quality micro ATX motherboards out there that are worth to try. My father is still using the old pentium 133Mhz with 1.5G hard drive I gave him 5 years ago so even a Duron 1GHz with 20 Gbyte HD would be a great improvement.
what you think?
thank you

ps
the power supply shouldn`t be a prob since they all come with the 110/220 Volts switch option.



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#!@$*%.....just format the damn C:

[hiredgoonz]

If you put a good hs/fan on the cpu and have decent airflow through the case, you'll be fine...it's not necessary to have a huge fan as long as the air flows thorugh the case.

Lately, I've found that exhaust fans (one or two in addition to the psu fan) at the back of the case are more than sufficient to get good airflow. You don't even need any intake fans at the front...

I would leave the heatsink/fan off the cpu in transit though, the bumping and dropping that can occur could rip the cpu socket right off the mobo...expecially if you have a heavier heatsink...

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