Pros: Super low power for the capability - see OTHER for power numbers and hardware config. Easy install, there were no driver updates on their website (use included CD). Running W7Ux32 so I can run Beyond TV backend (old copy of BeyondTV). Also set up with Kodi 14, K-Lite mega codecs (HW decode), and plays HD MP4's fine even with 2 SD TV shows recording. Has legacy PCI slot as well as a large and a 1x PCIe slots. Used PCI for an old Hauppauge ATSC video capture card, and the PCIe 1x slot for a Haupauge Colossus HD card.

Plays HD movies in Kodi fine using hardware decoding. Did not try software decoding as that offloads onto the CPU. If you need more CPU power, get an Intel system. For video: AMD.

I am very pleased with this HTPC system. A NUC might have lower power, but does not have PCI/PCIe slots. Would also fair well as a file server (not sure what network speed you would get though), and it would make a decent entry level / basic desktop machine. Not a machine for power users.

Cons: - It was a bear to get Beyond TV going due to problems with Windows Media Center being installed (my goof). Who knew that would be a problem.
- Video capture cards would fail after only a few minutes. It turned out to be "No snooping" and low data charge in PCI settings on bios. Disable No Snoop and crank up the data charge level to 4096 bytes.

Other Thoughts: HW config (all from Newegg):
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AM1MHP with Athlon 5350 CPU
4G 1600 G.Skill RAM (discontinued)
SeaSonic 80Plus Gold 360W PSU SSR-360GP (big part of making this low power)
Samsung 850 EVO 256G for boot drive
WD Red 4TB for video recording
Haupauge 500M PCI dual video capture
Haupauge Colossus PCIe single HD video capture


Since I am using this as an HTPC, it stays on continuously. With just the main board running W7Ux32, it idles at 18.6W at the plug using a Rosewill power meter! That means with on all year round, is only uses about ~$26 of electricity including air-conditioning power adder. With the video cards and WD Red drive added, it idles around 27-29W. Woohoo! The AMD 780 system this replaced would idle at 132W.

I might get another one and try MythTV ...

Pros: The board worked. Windows 8.1 detected all drivers. Windows 7 did not, but their driver CD scans your computer and determines the drivers needed so all you have to do is click install.

Cons: None really.

Pros: It turned on.

Cons: SATA ports were completely dead. Have to pay $11 to return this worthless paperweight to Newegg for an exchange, which completely destroys its value proposition. Wish I'd spent a few dollars more to get a better quality product in the first place.

Other Thoughts: Buy something better.

Pros: This was the only AM1 board that had PCI slot and a HDMI port (HD video out), there is only one other AM1 board that has a PCI slot but it doesn't have DVI or HDMI out.. so this was the only option as i needed a PCI slot for a old DVR card and as well needed hd video out.. not fun when you don't have options.

Cons: well the first board that came, was dead right out the box and i had to place another order as i had a sharp sharp dead line and i already missed it by getting a d.o.a board so now i will ship the dead one back and wait up to 10 days to get a refund.

Other Thoughts: it runs nice and smooth, the whole AM1 setup is very sharp and zippy fast for the price and what it really is.. it's a amazing deal!

Pros: Cheap...has a pci slot which is apparently rare on micro atx boards

Cons: kinda slow

Other Thoughts: had to settle for this board because it was the only micro atx board i could find with a pci slot for the sound card i wanted.

Paired this board with a AMD Athlon 5350 Kabini Quad-Core 2.05GHz CPU. The pair epically fail in comparison to what i replaced. ( ASRock Q1900M with a built in quad core cele )

Pros: cost effective

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: My earlier review reporting failure was in error. The board was replaced by the manufacturer but proved to not be the cause of malfunction

Pros: Easiest and most flexible board to underclock and undervolt for most maximum energy savings (even exceeds E1-2100 iTX boards). Also one of the only few AM1 boards (after Asus) that you can disable cores and reduce power consumption at the greatest.

Cons: No power failure protection available. If you do something wrong or undervolt too much, it won't boot, and you would need to remove the battery to reset the BIOS.

Other Thoughts: Runs as low as 2W-5W TDP on average when under-clocking the speed at 900 MHz quad-core and 0.76250 V settings (minimum efficiency speed/stability requirement) with a Sempron 3850 processor. Any lower speed you won't save too much on voltage setting. It also can go as low as 800 MHz slowest speed available (solo-core after three-cores disabled) at 0.71875V, equivalent performance with a Celeron D 325 2.53 GHz Prescott. Because it uses so frugal amount of power at that setting and runs too cold all the time, I successfully removed the CPU fan and power supply internal fan (80+ only) to make it a completely fanless mATX PC, plus a solid-state drive, and now it runs at room temperature. Never runs warm or hot. Still runs fairly decent, and CPU benchmark score is 1166 at 900 MHz quad-core, and 259 at 800 MHz solo-core with three-cores disabled.

Pros: Small, cheap, low power

CPU & Fan fits where old Athlon CPU & Fan did

Cons: None for my application. Could do with digital audio out.

Other Thoughts: I bought this to replace a dead motherboard/CPU from my MSI Media Live DVR. This lacks many of the connectors but met my minimum requirements which are 1)HDMI 2)PCI slot 3)Onboard graphics. Other requirements are fairly standard things. I was a little worried that the APU processor would be underpowered but it has been performing fine so far. This interface (MythTV) does seem a tad more sluggish (Though I had to upgrade a couple of versions so it's not apples to apples) but video plays no problem.

The board does not have an IDE connector which would be required for the slot-loading low-profile CD drive in the MSI case but that was a low quality drive and only rarely used in any case.

Some users might lament the lack of S/PDIF but it was not needed for my use case.

My MythTV install worked with minimal fuss. No problems with the HD driver. Had to uninstall the NVidia driver and install the ATI (I went with the ones in the repo). Then I had to change the audio device in the interface. Also took the opportunity to upgrade the OS a couple of versions.

Pros: Cheap
Fast memory speed
Looks great!
USB 3.0

Cons: Only two SATA ports
Manual is somewhat hard to read

Other Thoughts: The power connector (the 24 pin) took a lot of effort to get on, not sure if it was the PSU or my specific board though.

Pros: has everything you need, sata6GB, USB3, legacy PCI, supports directX11, pci express 2.0, runs cool and quite.

Cons: not an overclocking option if that is your goal
no usb3 header on MB for cases.

only 2 sata ports. at first didn't really matter but then i wanted to use an older 1.5TB WD green as DVR drive for windows media center. Opened the case after about 3 months of using it and found that i have to make a choice between using DVD drive or using 2nd hard drive.
not really anyone's fault but my own for not thinking ahead, but you've been warned!

Other Thoughts: if it weren't for wanting a 2nd drive specific to DVRing this would be perfect unit. i paired it with amd 5150 1.6ghz processor and it runs everything i throw at it just fine.

as another reviewer said i compared this to the j1900 boards too. this offers more flexibility in a slightly bigger package. the amd 5150 and 5350 are both equal to or better than the j1900 in terms of benchmarks, etc...