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Manufacturer Warranty
Beyond any applicable Newegg return policy, this item is warranted independently by the product's Manufacturer. Below is a summary provided for convenience only and may not be accurate or current.
Use this link for full details.
- Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (parts): 3 years
- Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (labor): 3 years
Manufacturer Contact Info
Return Policies
This item is covered by Newegg.com's Standard Return Policy.
- Return for refund within: 30 days
- Return for replacement within: 30 days
- Restocking Fee: Yes
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An HTPC should run as quietly and efficiently as possible to minimize noise and distraction from the movie, video or music. The GA-EG43M-S2H motherboard from Gigabyte has advanced technologies to do just that. The board has dynamic 4 gear power switching, so when your system needs more power it gets it . . . and when the power load goes down, so does the supplied power. Less power means less heat and then the fans don't have to work as hard.
Integrated into the system are an Intel GMA x4500HD graphics sub-system with support for DX10, Intel Clear Video and full hardware HD decoding. Video outputs through your choice of a DVI or HDMI port. Sound is not forgotten with a Realtek 8 channel audio chipset.
Just because it is an HTPC doesn't mean that durability and security are unimportant. Gigabyte's DualBIOS system has a second BIOS chip on the motherboard for quick and painless recovery from crashes and viruses. They also built the motherboard with conductive polymer aluminum solid capacitors for increased longevity and power efficiency. An Ultra TPM module keeps your data as safe as your system.
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- 5
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- 40%
- 4
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- 17%
- 3
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- 13%
- 2
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- 4%
- 1
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- 26%
| Product Rating: |
 
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| Total Reviews: |
23 |
Supported in bleeding-edge Linux distros
- Pros: This board works well in Linux, considering how new the board is. However, you can make everything work with a little bit of work.
There are lots of great connectors, most notably DVI, which can be used to do dual-head with the VGA port. You can also get a cheap SDVO card to add other graphics ports (to support two DVI monitors simultaneously, for example).
The G43 is supported by Intel, and you don't need any binary drivers! If you aren't a gamer, I would highly recommend getting one of these instead of some motherboard where you would have to get a separate graphics card. Intel has much better support for 2D graphics (dual-head, on the fly resizing and rotation, kernel modesetting, etc.) than any other manufacturer, and the 3D support is more than good enough for me.
- Cons: It's definitely bleeding edge. Some things aren't supported out of the box in Linux. The G43 graphics card is only supported with the 2.4.0 version of the Intel driver, which isn't yet in most Linux distributions. The network driver has a bug and doesn't work well with the 2.6.25 driver, although apparently people are working on fixing the problem. For now I'm just using a PCI card. When Fedora 10 comes out, this shouldn't be a problem.
I noticed in the manual that the memory slows down to DDR2 667 if there are four modules, but it goes at DDR2 800 if there are only two modules. Weird.
- Other Thoughts: In Fedora 9, I had to do the following to get the graphics supported:
yum --enablerepo=rawhide kernel xorg-x11-server-Xorg xorg-x11-drv-i810 libdrm
(I might have installed a few more packages in addition to these). I then set 'Driver "intel"' in xorg.conf. It's a new board, so this is completely understandable.
Great HTPC board
- Pros: HDMI, 1080p, Dolby Digitial 5.1, DTS, Plenty of SATA & USB. Works great with my 65" DLP (Overscan adjustments were perfect).
- Cons: You have to change the speaker setup to 2.0 to allow for 2-channel PCM audio stream. No RAID (but you can get the G45 model for that).
| Model | GA-EG43M-S2H |
| CPU Socket Type | LGA 775 |
| CPU Type | Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo |
| FSB | 1333/1066MHz |
| North Bridge | Intel G43 |
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- 5
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- 40%
- 4
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- 17%
- 3
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- 13%
- 2
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- 4%
- 1
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- 26%
| Product Rating: |
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| Total Reviews: |
23 |
So far, so good
- Pros: No real issues with the board so far, audio over HDMI makes things easy (with a TV as the primary monitor)
- Cons: None really. If I weren't using the built in HDMI video maybe the PCIe x4 may be an issue. If I were using an IDE optical drive, the IDE connector being on the right edge of the board may be an issue.
- Other Thoughts: Bought an open-box board so was missing the CD of drivers and utilities. Everything was available from the Gigabyte website. This will be the basis for a WHS setup, and the 5 SATA ports should make this a good board for it.
Gigabyte GA-EG43M-S2H
Intel E7300
ZEROTherm BTF95
ASUS DRW-22B1LT
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB
WD WD10EADS 1TB
RMAed replacement works great
- Pros: Low power draw and lots of features at a great price. Perfect board for a Lightroom/Photoshop/Office machine. Handles lots of drives and dual independent monitors (although only one can be DVI or HDMI, the other is analog VGA).
- Cons: First board (see my prior post) would not post. It turns out that one of my two Corsair memory sticks was also bad. But with the replacement board, at least is was able to post with one of the sticks, unlike the original.
DOA with undocumented beep sequence
- Pros: Lots of features, low power draw (I'm about to start living and traveling in an RV fulltime and will often rely on solar). Inexpensive, but I would have been happy to pay more for a low power Intel board with higher ratings.
- Cons: Would not post, no beeps, blank screen. Either memory stick in slot 1 with other 3 slots empty resulted in 12 one-second beeps followed by a half-seond beep - undocumented post error. Put the same memory in slot 3 or slots 1 and 3 resulted in no beeps.
RMA request submitted - I really do want a low power board for photography, not games.
- Other Thoughts: The HTPC folks are still having problems with all the Intel boards based on the newer integrated graphics chips first shipped in 2008. But I wasn't looking for HDTV, or great audio support - just basic 2D image editing with a fast CPU and low power draw. Sigh.
| Model |
| Brand |
GIGABYTE |
| Model |
GA-EG43M-S2H |
| Supported CPU |
| CPU Socket Type |
LGA 775 |
| CPU Type |
Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo |
| FSB |
1333/1066MHz |
| Chipsets |
| North Bridge |
Intel G43 |
| South Bridge |
Intel ICH10 |
| Memory |
| Number of Memory Slots |
4×240pin |
| Memory Standard |
DDR2 800 |
| Maximum Memory Supported |
8GB |
| Channel Supported |
Dual Channel |
| Expansion Slots |
| PCI Express x4 |
1 |
| PCI Express x1 |
1 |
| PCI Slots |
2 |
| Storage Devices |
| PATA |
1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max |
| SATA 3Gb/s |
5 |
| Onboard Video |
| Onboard Video Chipset |
Intel GMA 4500 |
| Onboard Audio |
| Audio Chipset |
Realtek ALC888 |
| Audio Channels |
8 Channels |
| Onboard LAN |
| LAN Chipset |
Realtek 8111C |
| Max LAN Speed |
10/100/1000Mbps |
| Rear Panel Ports |
| PS/2 |
1 |
| Video Ports |
D-Sub + DVI |
| HDMI |
1 x HDMI |
| USB 1.1/2.0 |
6 x USB 2.0 |
| IEEE 1394 |
1 x IEEE 1394a |
| eSATA |
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s |
| S/PDIF Out |
1 x Optical |
| Audio Ports |
6 Ports |
| Onboard USB |
| Onboard USB |
3 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers |
| Onboard 1394 |
| Onboard 1394 |
1x 1394a |
| Physical Spec |
| Form Factor |
Micro ATX |
| Dimensions |
9.6" x 9.6" |
| Power Pin |
24 Pin |
| Packaging |
| Package Contents |
GA-EG43M-S2H
Driver Disk
User Manual
Rear I/O Panel Shield
IDE/PATA Cable
FDD Cable
SATA Cable |
| Manufacturer Warranty |
| Parts |
3 years limited |
| Labor |
3 years limited |
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Reviewed By: amcnabb on 8/19/2008
Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
