Intel DG45FC Media Series G45 Mini-ITX DDR2 800 Intel Graphics HDMI+DVI 1333MHz FSB LGA775 Desktop Board - Retail Review

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(More customer reviews)Pros: Nice set up, very small, no old tech PS2 or VGA (of course you can buy an adapter). tons of USB and you can still add more from the MOBO, DDR2 800 up to 4GB, 4 SATAs, RAID support.
Cons: this MOBO is hot, hot, hot!!! Make sure you have a good air circulation in the case. I looked at the temperature in the BIOS and it was worrisome: ICH at 80 C!!!
Space is really tight but that is to be expected for a mini-itx.
Other Thoughts:
1- Drivers (for audio, LAN, and Video) are not out yet for Linux install.
2- I have intel cpu E8500 on it, it works well but the heat sink would bend the MOBO. My advice is to get plastic or metal screws and make your own heat sink screws. Also, don't buy the retention bracket (the X form) to attach FHS underneath the MOBO, there is a chip in the way next to one of the hole.
3- Here is what I have put together and works perfectly with VISTA 64bit: HD Scorpio WD1600BEKT 2.5", Memory G.Skill F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - (2 X 2 Gb), 8x DVD DL/RW Sony NEC Optiarc Slim SATA Model, and PicoPSU-120 with 4pins (very important because the MB will not work without it) from mini box.

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With the growing popularity of user-generated media, peer-to-peer sharing and the uploading and viewing of streaming video, photos and more, it's no secret that the creation and sharing of digital entertainment is on the rise. From tech-savvy hobbyists to professional designers, today's users need hardware that can run the advanced multimedia tools needed to create and enjoy audio, video and more.
Amazon.com Product DescriptionWith the growing popularity of user-generated media, peer-to-peer sharing and the uploading and viewing of streaming video, photos and more, it's no secret that the creation and sharing of digital entertainment is on the rise. From tech-savvy hobbyists to professional designers, today's users need hardware that can run the advanced multimedia tools needed to create and enjoy audio, video and more.Intel® Media Series Desktop Boards Product HighlightIncredibly versatile, Intel® Media Series Desktop Boards are designed to support high-bandwidth interfaces and are ideal for running demanding entertainment, education, and gaming applications. Big, unwieldy media files can quickly overcome mainstream desktop PCs. Intel Media Series Desktop Boards allow users to experience HD videos in surround sound, design school projects or presentations, or upload vacation videos right out of the box, and with superior speed and efficiency.GraphicsIntel® Desktop Media Series Boards offer users an excellent visual experience thanks to the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD with Intel® Clear Video Technology. This built-in support for full 1080p high-definition visuals eliminates the need for an additional graphics card while offering support for today's most popular video outputs including HDMI and DVI. This feature enables incredible visual media capabilities including video and image editing, streaming video viewing, and HD home theater entertainment.Onboard AudioUtilizing the Intel® High Definition audio chipset, the Intel® Media series delivers rich, realistic 360° Dolby Home Theater audio with up to 8-channel, 7.1 surround sound. Included Dolby Control Center software allows you to tweak and adjust your audio experience to meet your exacting requirements. Immerse yourself in sound as you enjoy the latest film in high definition or simply relax with some favorite tunes. Whatever you do, enjoy every decibel coming at you in all directions.Quad-Core CompatibilityWith support for Intel's latest quad-core processors, Intel® Desktop Media Series Boards deliver highly efficient performance for the most demanding entertainment applications. With multiple computing "brains", new multi-core processing systems can run resource intensive games and multimedia applications with phenomenal ease and superior responsiveness.Advanced Technical Specifications
Supported CPU
CPU Socket Type: LGA775
CPU Type: Intel® Core™2 Quad / Intel® Core™2 Duo / Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core / Intel® Celeron® Dual-Core / Intel® Celeron®

Chipsets
North Bridge: Intel® G45 Chipset

Memory
Memory Slots: 2x240-pin
Memory Standard: 677/800 MHz DIMMs
Maximum Supported Memory: 4 GB

Expansion Slots
PCI Express x1 connections: 1

Storage Devices
SATA 3Gb/s: 4

Onboard Graphics
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD with Intel® Clear Video Technology
Integrated HDMI & DVI ports

Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset: Intel® High Definition Audio
Audio Channels: 8-channel (7.1) Dolby Home Theater
S/PDIF Out: 2 digital audio outputs
Audio Ports: 5 analog audio outputs

Onboard LAN
Max LAN Speed: 10/100/1000 Mbits/sec

Onboard USB
Onboard USB: 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 external ports, 6 internal headers)

Onboard IEEE 1394
Onboard IEEE 1394: 2 IEEE1394a ports (1 back panel connector, 1 header)

Physical Spec
Form Factor: mini-ATX, microATX compatible
Dimensions: 9.6 inches x 9.6 inches (243.84 mm x 243.84 mm)

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Zotac GeForce 9300 HDMI Wi-Fi Mini ITX Intel Motherboard GF9300-G-E Review

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(More customer reviews)Built a nice little HTPC using this motherboard and it works well. It handles HDMI output with audio and HD video playback without a struggle. My only complaint is that sometimes the USB port where the wireless keyboard dongle/receiver resides doesn't wake up with the system. It may be a setting in BIOS or just a flaw but I didn't have time to research it. Pulling out the dongle and reinserting it "fixes" it for now.

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Zotac IONITX-A-U Atom N330 Dual Core 90-Watt PSU WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been waiting for this motherboard for a long time; finally a MythTV frontend which can quietly play high definition video and sip electricity while doing so. And one with so many ports on the back: HDMI, DVI and VGA for video; TOSLink Coax, SPDIF optical, HDMI and analog for audio. Gigabit Ethernet. Plenty of USB ports and one eSATA port. A feast of port flexibility.
While people have been talking about the Wake on USB function of recent revisions of this board; I find the Wake on LAN BIOS option more interesting. You can get an iPhone or other smartphone app which can wake the device via WiFi, making it easy to keep the computer in a low power state and only pulling Watts when needed.
My setup:
I've installed the 64-bit version of Mythbuntu 9.10 on a 60 GB Seagate Momentus laptop drive I had lying around.
2GB of PNY brand RAM allow me to allocate half a GB to the video card (BIOS setting); recommended for maximum video performance.
And a small Mini-ITX case complete the very simple hardware assembly.
I also installed XBMC, and that seems responsive and beautiful.
I first used the VGA connector for video, and the coax port for digital audio, but in the end, I ended up using an HDMI switch and getting both audio and video over that port which worked well.
I removed the included WiFi card, as I will be using hard wired Ethernet and would prefer to not include whatever minor Wattage the little card draws in standby.
I would not run this board fanless. I played a 1080i MPEG2 over the air video on it without a case and my infrared thermometer read the GPU temperature at 60°C, which is fairly toasty. Still it should get by with minimal slow fans. There are a large number of suggestions on the Internet to lower the voltage of the included fan via the purchase of a third party fan controller. I was unable to use Linux utilities to monitor the temperature, but the NVDIA control panel does give the temperature of the GPU: when playing 720p video with a fan on, the GPU was at 49°C, which is not bad. When using VDPAU decoding in the GPU, the CPU is showing only about 15% utilization regardless of content.
I measured the electrical usage of the system as a whole with a Kill-A-Watt. Hibernate: 2W, Sleep: 3W, Idle: 25W, playing DVD image: 26W, playing 720p MPEG2 video: 28W, playing 1080i MPEG2 video: 31W.
I have not tried Flash 10.1 yet, but have hopes the hardware acceleration will be there for watching Hulu videos. Also, have not tried Hulu desktop yet.
[Update: Because I was given a comparably spec'd Zotac MAG Intel Atom N330, NVIDIA ION, 2 GB DDR2, 160 GB HD, eSATA, HDMI HD-ND01-U Mini PC - No OS as a HTPC, I repurposed this motherboard in a larger case, MI-008 Tower Black P4 Chassis with 250W Itx Psu+sata Power Supply, as a home server, a function for which it is adequate given a case with room for an optical drive and a large desktop hard drive. With the limitation that the power supply limits you to 3 SATA internal devices;any further storage expansion will have to be done via the one remaining eSATA connector. Also, it would be nice to have a PCI slot of some sort (and no the mini-PCIe slot does not count as it is reputed to only work with the included wireless card). Still even with two fans keeping the case cool, it makes for a reasonably quiet and energy efficient server, certainly more cost efficient than the noisy Pentium 4 desktop it is replacing. I would not have bought this for a server and would have gone with a cheaper board without a power supply. As it is, I had to remove and shelve an unused power supply out of the new case. The new server is now busy recording TV shows (via networked HDHomerun tuners), serving files, hosting a Subversion server, and occasionally serving as a desktop computer when I find myself in the laundry room.
]

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ZOTAC IONITX-A-U Atom N330 1.6GHz Dual-Core 90 Watt PSU Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

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Intel D945GCLF Essential Series Mini-ITX DDR2 667 Intel Graphics Integrated Atom Processor Desktop Board - Retail Review

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(More customer reviews)The Intel D945GCLF motherboard is a great product. This is a super way to start building a computer without the time-consuming complexity of buying many compatible components and assembling them into a working system. So far, I've bought two of these boards and expect to buy more in the future as Intel continues to improve this chip / board product line.
You'll need to add a hard drive, ram memory, a case/power supply, external speakers, keyboard, mouse, monitor, and operating system. But that's all stuff you can pretty easily plug together. You may already have some of these key parts lying around as spares from existing or antiquated computers.
I installed several different versions of operating systems, settling on a copy of Ubuntu for daily use. It's fast, fun, and free.
I have shown this board to a number of very knowledgeable, computer savvy friends who were impressed enough to quickly buy one for their own use. It's cost effective and ruggedly reliable. (I wouldn't recommend a drop-test, but I did drop it off the back of a van and it kept working.)
I've found the processor performance to be quite acceptable for web browsing and basic administrative tasks. The system boots surprisingly quickly. The outstanding energy efficiency is appealing, ideal for any systems that are left on for extended periods of time (e.g. in home servers, security systems, or environmental control devices.)
This product is an exceptional value for a low-cost desktop system. You could also use it as a component in an embedded PC-compatible systems. If nothing else, it's a fun, inexpensive, and powerful way to explore and experiment with new computing technologies.

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Intel Desktop Board D510MO with integrated Intel Atom processor D510 - Motherboard - mini ITX - iNM10 - SATA-300 - Gigabit Ethernet - video - High Definition Audio (6-channel) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have had two Intel iAtom mITX mother boards before this.
(Both are still running fine on someone elses desk)
This is the best yet and I am sure there are even better ones to come.
This one is dual core, has gigabit LAN, and no fan at all is required.
It can use 4GB (2x2GB) of DDR2-800 RAM so it will work well with Windows 7.
I am using it with XP Pro and it does everything I need it to do.
It is stable and fast enough for drafting, word processing, and photo editing.
I wouldn't expect it to be used for editing video except occasionally.
The onboard video looks good to me.
I do wish it had HDMI and/or a DVI connector which it lacks.
It has a flash interface, 4 rear, abd 2 front USB ports which is handy.
For hardware hackers and folks with legacy hardware there are still headers to attach parallel and serial connectors.
That's getting rarer these days.
This is a great little board if you are not a mega-gamer or do a lot of video editing.
It is stable, reliable and relatively inexpensive, and it sips power compared to most rigs.
I have it in an Apex M008 mITX case, with a 320GB WD 3.5" HD, 4GB of OCZ Gold DDR2-800, and a Samsung DVD writer.
The 4GB is not necessary if you are running XP or even Windows 7 for most folks.
2GB is plenty and would use less power. For XP 1GB might be adequate.
I love it!

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