ZOTAC GF9300-A-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Board runs fine after I finally got Windows XP installed. Decode was <10% for h.264 content recorded on a Hauppauge HDPVR and <20% for MPEG2 OTA recordings using an E5200.

Cons: The BIOS ignores the boot order you set in the BIOS. I tried every combination. I even set ALL THREE boot devices to the CD-ROM and it would go directly to the HD instead. It took a couple of days to realize that pressing ESC during post would bring up the actual boot menu. I could not boot from the DVD drive AT ALL until I figured this one out. You can see the message if you disable all the splash screens and enable the long system check. That way, it stays on the post screen long enough to see the prompt to press ESC. Scroll down and select the CD-ROM. I read that this same menu comes up with F12 on the Gigabyte board.

Overall Review: None

Pros: If I could get it to load windows it would be nice.

Cons: Error code AO. Will not boot from cdrom even when all three boot sequences are directed to cdrom. Even pulled a hdd from another computer and it just hangs at the starting windows screen.

Overall Review: Never again am I going to buy an off brand motherboard. The last two in a row have been bad XFX and Zotac socket 775.