ASUS AT5IONT-I Intel Atom D525 (1.8GHz, dual-core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

Pros: Mythtv works great at 1080P, but you have to load the NVidea drivers, and also go into settings and set 'performance mode' (low power mode is set by default). What this means, is you can no longer be fanless. You'll have to by a 120mm fan to set on top of the cooler.

Cons: Sadly, most online steaming today is Flash video. Adobe does NOT currently support this video hardware to offload decoding into the video processor. What that means, is anything over 640x480 video will be using 100% CPU usage, and the video will stutter very badly. Non flash video works great though.

Other Thoughts: I wish people would stop using flash to srteam content. It's notoriously a CPU hog.

Pros: Small Form Factor, HDMI out, NVIDA Graphics/Controls. Good Horse Power for a microATX Atom board.

Cons: I wish it could pull a little more memory for the shared video card. But for my needs it works out pretty well.

Other Thoughts: Mostly, I wanted to say that after successfully using the Mushkin 4GB memory for a year. I recently decided to try out the 8GB version of the same memory since the price had come way down. I can confirm that it seems to work perfectly so far. It booted right up, and Windows 7 64bit displayed the full 8gb.

Here's what I ordered.

Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Laptop Memory Model ...

Item #: N82E16820226021

Pros: 1080 video with Linux + XBMC + VDPAU works excellent.

Cons: Cons?

Pros: Works perfectly with Fedora (16) or Ubuntu (11.04). On Fedora I'm using rpmfusion for the Nvidia driver and MythTV packages. Extra bonus: The DVI port is dual-link even though this isn't in the specs. I'm using this board with a dual-link DVI cable and 2560x1440 monitor.

Cons: If you run two monitors simultaneously on the HDMI and DVI ports, the power draw increases by a couple watts and the board temp rises. In my environment (ambient temp 70 F, and refuse to put a fan in the case) this resulted in the board temp gradually rising until thermal shutdown around 200 F. I've never had problems with just one monitor, though.

Other Thoughts: I think this is an awesome board. I have one running Mythbuntu a MythTV combined frontend/backend attached by HDMI to a 1080p projector. (Be sure to configure for "VDPAU High Quality" -- see the VDPAU entry in the MythTV wiki.) My second board is my desktop, which I use all day for work, attached by dual-link DVI cable to the 2560x1440 monitor mentioned earlier.

Pros: Small form factor, no fans=no noise; integrated GPU and CPU so all you need is a case w/power supply, RAM, and a hard drive. Despite what some previous reviews have stated, this mobo CAN play 1080p media, you just need to know what you are doing. I have Windows 7 Ultimate running with XBMC media center, all of my high def files play flawlessly. If you have issues, there is an option in playback settings of XBMC for hardware acceleration that should clear anything up.

Cons: None, this is a perfect motherboard combo unit for a media center PC

Other Thoughts: This isn't going to play Modern Warfare 3, but that isn't what ASUS designed this for. If you are looking for something to play your music and video and browse the web, this motherboard is right up your alley.

Pros: This motherboard is working great since September 2010 for 4-6 hours per day. Fanless design, but I added 80mm fan. I'm using 2 sticks of Kingston 2GB Model KVR800D3S8S6/2G.

Cons: No PWM fan connectors.

Other Thoughts: I installed MB in my old case from HP Pavilion Slimline s7520n (The original MB stopped working due to overheating). It fits very nice. I added 80 mm Noiseblocker multiframe M8-S2 fan and CPU temp. is always below 50 C. I will recommend this motherboard for everybody.

Pros: It has heat pipes that go to the outside above the DVI connector. if it stops responding you can feel it overheat without having to take the cover off.

Cons: Over heats

Other Thoughts: Its more stable when I have a large fan on the FANLESS cpu cooler

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your input and we apologize for the issue you had with the motherboard.

The AT5IONT-I is our fan-less solution that is completely quiet and transfers heat away from critical components. At normal ambient temperature, it does not need a cooling fan. However, at warmer temperatures, a fan may be added to facilitate cooling.

Regards,
Benson
Asus Customer Loyalty

Pros: Easy to install, really no issues with the board.

Cons: The nature of the Atom beast is that its pokey. Sorry to get all technical, but that's just the way it is.

Other Thoughts: I had an old SonicWALL 2440i CDP lying around and put this board in there for my HTPC. I have wireless N to my living room from a Belkin Wireless router and I use Windows 7 with Media Center. It works good: no stutter or pixilation. Oh, two hdhomerun tuners. Because this case has no fans I added some.

Pros: It is fine if all you want to see is home made movies or standard definition movies. It is quiet and actually runs coller than expected. It fits nicely in my entertainment center. The over picture is fine and was fairly easy to set up.

Cons: Where to begin...IT WILL NOT PLAY HD, not even at 720p. After buying this MB I found that HD was out of the question due to the fact that the ATOM D525 is not capable of running HD. A reviewer stated that ASUS does not update the NVidia drivers which is true, but NVidia does not either. I also have several problems with the Internet connection losing the signal.

Other Thoughts: I am going to keep the system and make it my backup computer and not play movies on it. It is too unreliable. DONT Buy!. If you read the other reviews and they are positive it is probably because they are not using HD. PLEASE, check out all the problems with the HD before taking the risk.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issue you had with the motherboard.

Please try using a media player that can take advantage of video hardware acceleration like VLC or Media Player Classic Home Cinema. Using hardware acceleration will offload processing to the GPU instead of the CPU, which will allow to CPU to focus on other tasks.

Regards,
Benson
Asus Customer Loyalty

Pros: I've had this motherboard for 6 months now and it's worked out well for running Ubuntu and MythTV. Driving 1080p display, digital audio over HDMI.

Cons: Runs hot. Be sure you buy a suitable fan to place right on the big heat sink (e.g. 100mm Scythe Kaze Jyu Slim does the job quietly). I tried to run this motherboard with only a case fan but the system was constantly shutting down from overheating (> 95C) even when under-clocking the GPU. Fan on the heat sink made a 25C difference-- that is no joke.