Intel BOXDQ45EK LGA 775 Intel Q45 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: dont know

Cons: does not come with cpu backplate

Pros: Small form factor, 4 sata ports. On paper it was exactly what I was looking for.

Cons: The board did not last even 2 months.
Intel charges for cross-ship RMA.
Intel informed me that according to the serial number the board was for the Asia market and should not be sold in North America. It would cost me and additional $20 to RMA it.

Pros: Looks pretty

Cons: I have a DOA board. I'm not sure whether they let us edit these, but until I get it replaced, I'll have to let this review stand.

Pros: Able to re-utilize older CPU and RAM, reasonable price, good performance, nice and stable (see Other Thoughts).

Cons: Pin jumper for BIOS set-up, ICH chip gets HOT during operation, CPU heatsink can block areas of the motherboard.
Will not load Win XP in AHCI mode, have to revert to IDE.

Other Thoughts: Picked up the board to re-use a Core 2 E4500 CPU and some DDR2 RAM.
Tried to load Win XP with SATA set to AHCI and using the F6 floppy disk. Right after the Windows files were loaded, the system tried to start configuring Windows and immediately blue-screened.
Setting SATA back to IDE mode and starting over resolved the issue.
After Windows was successfully running, I updated the BIOS to latest version and ran some tests.
You could use this board to make an excellent secondary desktop PC or HTPC.
It is an absolute MUST to get some kind of heatsink for the ICH chip. I believe the early failures listed here are due to not adding additional cooling to that chip.

Pros: Inexpensive. Can use parts from older PC's to build it.

Cons: Windows 7 installs incompatible video driver by default. South Bridge runs hot

Other Thoughts: If you are using the onboard Intel Graphics the work around I found was to re-configure the Win 7 installation and remove the Intel Integrated Graphics driver, then install the driver that came with the board once Windows starts. This can be done a few ways with RT7Lite (free) being the easiest I found.

Pros: Cheap board, decent features. Mine fired right up with 4gb RAM and an E4500 Dual Core.

Cons: Odd hang on Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit after installation. It will load initially and prepare for first use, then check video performance. When it finalizes settings and reboots, it will sit at a black screen with a flashing cursor.

Other Thoughts: If I can figure out why windows hangs i'll post back.

Pros: Bought three of these for SFF digital signage PCs at work. Powered right up with E5800 CPUs out of the box, no BIOS update required.

Automatic resume from standby can be configured in the BIOS on a daily schedule, perfect for automatically turning the signage PCs every morning at 7AM.

Cons: Southbridge chip runs hot as mentioned previously. I attached a 1" heatsink with adhesive thermal tape and it dropped the temps down to ~65-70°C, from ~85°C.

Intel considers all of the above normal temps, though 85 is just too high any way you slice it if you ask me.

Other Thoughts: It's good to see the only 775 option on Newegg is one worth buying.

Pros: Very useful board, did what it said, graphics plenty for HD video.

Cons: This board worked fine for 8 months. I was reading the screen when both monitors went dark, then said 'no input'. Now it won't post, sometimes it spins the CPU fan for less than a second when you apply power. I've replaced the power supply, no fix. Next step is a new MoBo, and it certainly will NOT be an Intel product!

Other Thoughts: If a board is DOA, it's a pain, but you just get another one or a different one and get to work. You were already planning for time to get it going and hopefully left time for setbacks. However, as soon as you get everything installed you expect the thing to run until it's obsolete. Failing after long(ish) usage is the worst possible outcome. I'll find out next week if my backups all work!

Pros: Got Raiped on the return shipping cost. Not even worth returning when ship.

Cons: DOA, None of my 3 CPU's I tried would post. Even the fans would not turn on. LED's on board were lit up. ALso tried 2 power suplies.

Other Thoughts: It would be nice if newegg would not sell DOA product. THis is something I would expect from woot.

Pros: Small ITX form factor! A really great way to reuse 775 socket chips from dead systems. I gave this board a shot, to see what it would do with a 775 Core2Duo E7500. (I think it was, 3MB/1066/2.93GHz, hard to keep track)

Using leftover 2GB DDR2 800 RAM, a 750 WD Green drive that was sent as a replacement from WD, Samsung DVD Burner, and a brand new ITX Inwin case loaded with Windows 7 HP 64Bit Works GREAT!

Cons: Some odd things. When you plug in power, the thing turns on for like 10 secs, then off. And while its off, sometimes it just turns on by itself for 10 secs then off again. Yes, I checked the obvious, but it may be normal behavior, never used this board before, and don't buy very many Intel branded boards.

Has a very high toned post beep. lol I find it annoying, but its not a big deal.

No digital audio out. No HDMI.

Other Thoughts: I plan to use this with a HDMI connected TV. I already have an external USB operated Creative Audio device that can provide the digital signal for surround, since this one doesn't seem to have digital outs, (unless the DVI actually will do digital audio as well, but I doubt it) and I bought a Blu Ray drive for it, more memory and a DVI-HDMI adapter for the white port. Probably some are shaking your head as to why, but eh. Its an experiment! Would have been smarter to buy a board with the HDMI/Digital audio build in, but this was to reuse already owned components, and was the only 775 ITX board available here at the time. I'm only into this box for about 250 bucks at this point, including the new BR drive and 4GB of DDR2 800 which I haven't got yet.

So far it runs great! May post again once its finished.