ZOTAC GF9300-D-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300 HDMI Wi-Fi Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Size, Wifi, Quality onboard graphics, HDMI, great board for a small build

Cons: The board doesn't fit real well into the case or the magnetic shielding that comes with the board. You really have to force it to make it work.

The first one I got had a missing pin on the chipset, but Newegg came through as always!

Other Thoughts: Thanks Newegg!

Pros: started fine runs great works with a Pentium D 820 and Patriot DDR2 800 Extreme performance

Cons: the plug in for the VGA and DVI seem a bit wobbly, runs a bit hot but that is to be expected

Other Thoughts: Zotac 9300 Mini ITX wifi
Intel Pentium D 820 2.8GHz
2X2GB Patriot DDR2 800
silverstone SG06-B Mini ITX Case Black
Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB
Toshiba Slim laptop IDE DVD/ CD Burner Drive
300W stock PSU

Pros: Everything basically worked - set up time was a little long - but this was my first build since the Intel 8088 days.

Cons: 1. Driver disk included with motherboard had the wrong chipset drivers - had to download new drivers from ZOTAC site
2. Before you install, record the serial number and PCB number - they are on the bottom of the board - you will need the PCB number to upgrade the BIOS
3. The included motherboard instructions show capabilities that the BIOS doesn't have (like "power on" via keyboard) - I could have used that capability!

Pros: Mini ITX with plenty of features. Basically taking aspects of laptop and desktop (performance vs portability) hardware and putting it together on one board. The hardware used certainly allows for good performance in Media Center functionality, and even allows for some light gaming.

Cons: The video processor onboard is just a tad bit too weak for me to feel this board is perfect. It does great handling HD content, so if you just need it for a system that is purely for media, then it's right where you need it. On the other hand, I was surprised at how many lightweight games had to have graphics settings set relatively low.

Other Thoughts: The wifi on this guy has okay, at best, drivers for vista/win 7. The transfer speeds I clocked while moving files across my wireless network were nowhere near what they should have been, and I had all the involved devices within 10 feet of one another. Under the same conditions, I had terribly slow speeds downloading youtube videos and streaming netflix, which was absolutely astounding. Definitely plan on having this guy on a wired connection, it'll save you a lot of headache.

Pros: Small, Fast Cool,

Cons: None that I can think of on hand.

Other Thoughts: perfect with a Silverstone SG06. Mine runs a 5750. Smallest most powerful gamer rig I've ever built. It runs cool and fast with Windows 7. Simply Awesome.

Pros: have had this running in an apex mini itx case.with an e7200 core 2, 3 gig of ram, dvd and 1 hdd it idles at 40 watts. under load playing dvd at 1080p with the onboard gpu pulls 68 watts. using a pico itx 150 watt psu. perfect for playing movies and web surfing. even plays bf 2142 well at 1600X1050.all around winner in my book.

Cons: none really. a little pricey but you gotta pay for the coolness factor of having such a feature full mini itx board.

Other Thoughts: even the provided wifi works great. i'm very pleased with the onboard graphics. plays movies great and onboard hi def audio works killer but only 5.1

Pros: Excellent well built motherboard this includes good onboard graphics (HDMI/DVI) and wifi connections plus pci-e slot. This is the second board I purchase because I liked the first board so well.

Cons: I don't believe this is a negitve feature but I would have like memory speed one step higher.

Other Thoughts: I also have a Zotac GeForce GTS 250 video card with no performance issues.

Pros: Small, PCI-E, nVidia 9400, Newegg service.

Cons: no IDE port, Dead ethernet port

Other Thoughts: I had hoped it would make a great little HTPC system. Not having an IDE port was an inconvenience, but not a show stopper. The non-functional onboard ethernet port was. And no, it wasn't drivers or cabling. And there was no way I was moving large media files over wireless here. Newegg service was exemplary, refunding without question. Not thrilled with the $twenty restock fee for a defective part though.

Pros: Compact, HDMI port. If it works as advertised.

Cons: Bought board in July, stopped working in October. The system would lock up in vista at first. Then the system would not post. Have 2 x 2GB G Skill pc2 6400 ram in it. Took 1 stick out of slot 2 and system booted back into windows. Ran firmware update. The zotax site has 2 versions of the firmware. To find out the version of board I had to remove the board and look at the numbers printed on the bottom of the board. Ridiculous. Need less to say I had the 1st version of the board. The update runs in windows and completed fine with no errors. The firmware update did nothing for my problem. I tried 2 sticks of 1 gb ram and the system still would not post. Only runs when I have a stick in slot 1. Ran memtest86 on all chips and everything tests ok.

Other Thoughts: So I call Zotac Tech Support and the guy asks me all these questions. He wants me to do a clear cmos on the board to see if that resolves the issue. I told him I already tried the optimal and default setting in the bios. He said to Rma the board, I would need to register on their site and it could take upto 1 month after they received the board. I told him that was unacceptable and that I would rather buy another board. Definitely not a Zotac. To be without a computer for a month is unacceptable.

Pros: Okay, this should be a great HTPC board.

Cons: The mount for the wireless is kinda scary, I don't like the metal on the motherboard like that, why I dinged this an egg. The chipset cooler is passive, and doesn't work very well, be careful in your stock HSF positioning, if the cable is pushing on the chipset heatsing, it'll overheat and shut down. The BIOS doesn't show the case fan speed. The chipset really should at least support mounting a 40mm fan.

Other Thoughts: May consider an aftermarket cooker for the chipset, I really think at this price, a copper cooler, with more fins for the chipset would be more appropriate. I'm going without the wireless because of mounting concerns.