GIGABYTE GA-G33M-S2H LGA 775 Intel G33 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: 1080p HDMI/DVI output, SFF, quiet, ideal for HTPC

Cons: only 3 internal SATA ports and 1 esata. Should replace a PCI slot with more SATA slots, and Raid 5 would be a nice addition. With these changes the motherboard would be perfect for a combination media server/HTPC, which is what i want. Even without it's excellent as a SATA PCI card can be added easily enough.

Other Thoughts: In my previous comments i said that it didn't recognize the 1Tb WD hard drive, this has now been fixed with bios version F3. I have not tried the audio though HDMI yet.

Pros: HDMI + VGA output work great. Easy setup. Excellent for media pc - apart from the cons.

Cons: 1Tb WD10EACS hard drive is only recognized as 33Mb. No bios update yet to support this capacity, but they S2 and S2L both have bios updates. No response from Gigabyte on when a bios will be released to fix the problem.

Other Thoughts: I would prefer more SATA and PCI express sockets - remove old PCI socket and 2 ram sticks to support it.

I heard from someone that it doesn't play well with blu rays, but i haven't tried it myself yet.

Pros: Works great after drivers installed. Onboard video can drive 2 monitors.

Cons: The sound driver was a bit wacky, but I got that fixed in about an hour. Also, the onboard video won't play many games, but that should be expected.

Pros: Intel G33 chipset so ready for next gen, 45nm CPUs. 4 memory sockets up to 1333 speed ram. Low profile solid state caps near the CPU socket so no problems installing a Titan heatpipe cooler. 3 video outputs and HD sound are great. BIOS has all 3 major voltage settings: CPU, memory, and chipset. Enabling the Intel Dual Core halt state function is great for conserving CPU power when Windows is mostly idling.

Cons: BIOS way too limited on ram divisor settings for overclocking. The parallel port header is next to the floppy drive conector so if you need it you will need to find a very long parallel port cable (good luck on that). No extra USB brackets for utilizing all 10 USB ports.

Other Thoughts: I used an E4500 CPU and got 3.0 GHZ speed with OCZ DDR2 800 but couldn't lower the memory speed enough to overclock further. With 11x multiplier on the E4500 an FSB of 273 = 3003 MHz core speed but with limited memory divisor (auto, 3.33, or 4.00 choices only), at 3.33 setting this gave me a 455 MHz memory overclock. My OCZ DDR2 800 memory handled this perfectly after I set it's voltage to 2.1v and to the BIOS' credit it auto adjusted the memory timing correctly to work at the higher speed.

Pros: This motherboard worked better then expected. I use the direct HDMI and it works great. I have it hooked up to a Sony KDL-46XBR4 - 46" LCD TV 1080p (FullHD) with Windows Vista Ultimate and the sound & picture is amazing. I played a DVD movie through the system and the other people watching it didn’t even know its coming from a PC.

Cons: The HD sound and video is a little different to setup then normal but it only took about 15mins to get them both working

Other Thoughts: This is a great product and the onboard HDMI Video card performance is awesome.

Pros: A very good shot at consolidating several add-on components. If everything worked as intended it would be great, but then everything concerning computers is "in theory".

Cons: Keep in mind that all installs are not created equal. After about 8 hours into the mobo the integrated lan simply disappeared, even from the bios. I have tried to get a new/complete install on (2) different HD (EIDE & SATA) with (3) different OS's (Win2k, XP Home & XP Pro). None of which where easy installs. Not all of the included drivers would install correctly. It took some monkeying around with drivers from the various web sites to complete the HDMI audio. There seems to be no easy way to control the overscan in both HDMI & DVI without third party software, which leave me to the VGA which puts me back to square one on this project. I wanted fully integrated HDMI for my HT. Also, the (2) expansion slots are dangerously close together. If your add-on cards with whatever cables attached are as wide as your finger, be very carefull installing them or you may create some other issues.

Other Thoughts: Overall this seems to be a good mobo from a known manufacturerer. I will be returning mine as defective but I will try again. Hopefully Intel will come out with better drivers for the HDMI-vis to correct the overscan that all DVI/HDMI computer graphics produce (why can't they correct this in the first place?) I use a Foxconn case, 600w PS, (7) internal HD (2.5TB), (3) external USB HD (1.2TB), (2) internal DVD drives, 4GB ram and output all to a Samsung 46" LCD with a Yamaha 6.1 DTS audio so, yess I do push the technology. (By the way I got into this "game" just as DOS 3.3 came out)

Pros: Easy OC, nice bios setup.
my primary usage is not gaming, just HTPC/media center.
my config: E6550 + DDR2 800 + Antec 2480
could be easily overclocked to 2.8GHz ~ 3.0GHz. Full load with cpu temp @40c, cup to memory ratio 1:1

Cons: I played one dvd, I could get HDMI and audio to my HDTV. However, the audio carried is not 5.1 ETS or Dolby. Could not figure out why.

I saw previous view that HDMI could not be used with SP/DIF. In my case, I could use both at same time. But still, with Alc889-a, the digital audio is not 5.1.

Other Thoughts: Overall a good board for HTPC.

Pros: The small size is nice, and I like the numerous outputs. The onboard HD audio is a nice feature as well.

Cons: I had trouble getting the onboard video to work right using the HDMI out. To be fair though I didn't spend too long with it (probably only a couple hours). So, take this with a grain of salt, as additional tweaking might get it working properly.

Other Thoughts: Be careful in what parts you choose to go with this board, as clearance between part of the board and things like CPU coolers, video cards, and RAM can be an issue if you're not careful. Proper planning will take care of this though.

Pros: This board does everything I need for my HTPC. Plenty of A/V functionality.

Cons: I had some trouble with HDMI output until I updated the intel video drivers.

Other Thoughts: Excellent performance for HDTV (Beyond TV PVR) with on-board video.

Pros: Definitely love the HDMI ouput, Easy to over-clock, Great on board graphics for a HTPC.

Cons: This board would have been a 5 stars rating, not until I found out that using HDMI output will disable all the audio output in the rear panel (including analog signal and SPDIF output). My goal was to used the HDMI output and SPDIF output simultaneoulsy. Only 3 sata on board not including eSata. PCI express 16 only runs at X4.

Other Thoughts: I would recommend this board if using for a HTPC. Also keep audio connection in mind.