Features and Specs

Micro ATX

What is the micro-ATX standard anyway? Unlike most specification for computer standards, the micro-ATX one is pretty short/small. There's only a few specifications that a board has to have to be deemed "micro-ATX".

The main specification is obviously going to be its physical size. To be micro-ATX, it can be 9.6" x 9.6" maximum. Since the MX3L is a Socket-370 board, it is able to be smaller than a similarly configured slot-1 motherboard. The MX3L measured in at about 9.6" x 8.6", which puts it at a pretty comfortable spot to stick to the form factor. Another of the requirements for micro-ATX is the number of expansion slots, which is limited to 4. This means that the typical micro-ATX board is going to have 1 AGP slot, 2 PCI's, and 1 shared PCI/ISA. Most micro-ATX boards have this configuration, as it gives a bit of versatility to the limited expansion.

Here's what the MX3L has:

AOpen MX3L
CPU interface	PPGA Socket-370
Form factor	Micro ATX
Chipset	Intel 440LX
Memory	3 DIMMS (168-pin), 384 MB max
Expansion slots	2 serial, 1 parallel, 1 floppy, 2 IDE, 2 USB
BIOS	Award plug and play, ACPI support for Win98
Headers	Wake on LAN, Zero Voltage Wake on Modem, Wake on RTC Timer, Wake on Keyboard/Mouse
Bus speeds supported	66, 75, 83