Question 1

is this  the motherboard and cpu?

Accepted Answer

Motherboard, CPU and Graphics. All you need to add is a power supply and memory, and you will have a very good little computer. Currently running Windows 7 x64, no issues, and nice and fast. I am not a gamer.

Question 2

is it compatabile with linux os?

Accepted Answer

It certainly seems to be.  No problems booting puppy derivatives.  Installed Manjaro on a crappy standard SATA hard drive that always had problems.  Not the fault of the OS or Mainboard.  Ultimately, will get a SSD for this unit.  My only disappointment is that no memory suppliers that I am aware of, make 2X16 GIG DDR3 (I GOT THE POWER!) modules to max out the memory capacity.  With one case fan, this thing is super quiet and 16 GIGs still work well.

Question 3

my cooler master case needs a motherboard 6x7 and  6x7 is this mobo 6x7 and 6x7?

Accepted Answer

Not sure what you mean by "6x7 and 6x7"... but if it helps, using the image as a frame of reference, the screw posts are 6.0" front to back and 6.1" left to right.  The board overhangs the screw posts in the front by .42", on the left and right by .25", and in the rear by .20".  It is 1.46" from bottom of the board to top of the audio connectors, which is slightly taller than the heatsink fan (but you need a little room above the fan for airflow)

In short, its pretty much the same as any other mini-itx board.

Question 4

How does one get to the bios menu on this motherboard? What key is held down?

Accepted Answer

Conrol alt delete all at the same time while booting.Always work, but you have to hold it until it change the background image.

Although you really don't need to change anything, because the factory settings are set to the optimum level.  Unless your an expert in programming. Then yeah go ahead and make some changes on the settings.

Question 5

what side power supply I need to run this ?????

Accepted Answer

I am using an older 350 watt power supply cannibalized from an older build with this board.  I maxed out the memory at 16 Gigs.  I have had no problems, running Linux, BTW.  If you plan on installing a powerful video card, you need to take that into account.  This is a fantastic unit and I am very pleased with it.  While I have not benchmarked anything related to it it has been trouble free since I have had it--late 2014, I think.

Question 6

What memory did everybody go with? I'm having a heck of a time finding exact matches from the tested list on their site.

I want to run 2 qty 4gb sticks

Accepted Answer

G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR

Worked flawlessly for me.

I later ended switching to two low profile Kingston RAM sticks because I needed more room in my case. Any standard desktop DDR3 sticks should work fine.

Question 7

Would this motherboard fit in a HP 325c tower and be able to use it's power suppy? Or would it be able to fit into a HP slim and use it's power suppy in that I'm trying to find a upgrade that can handle 32GBs of ram without having to send another computer to the junk yard?

Accepted Answer

I would say there is no doubt that this mobo will fit, since it is a MiniITX, which is much smaller than the uATX mobo that I believe is in your computer.  Your mobo has four slots (one AGP and 4 PCI), while this one only has one PCI slot.  You may have to move mounting posts around, but I would be surprised if the right post configuration wasn't available in your case.  Just for the record, you should be able to use any "uATX"/microATX mobo in your case, as long as it has an ATX power connector.

This mobo can use a standard ATX PSU, like the 325c uses.  Your current mobo uses the 20 pin connector, plus a separate 4 pin connector while this mobo uses a full 24 pin configuration (all together).  I don''t know if you can align your two connectors together to fit, but you can always buy a simple adapter to group all 24 pins together.  Some other reviewers said that they had a mechanical problem with connecting a two-piece PSU connector to this mobo (which they solved with the adapter), but I did not have that problem (on my PSU the 20-pin and 4-pin connectors snap together and went right into the board without issue).

Good luck.

Question 8

What size power supply do I need for this board?

Accepted Answer

Any size will work, I think. I'm running mine with an HDD and an SSD. Power usage I tested at 33 watts playing a 1080p video from YouTube on Ubuntu in Firefox. That was the most I could get the system to pull. I have mine on a ten year old thermaltake 350w, but you could, I'm sure, get away with something much smaller.

Question 9

Does this have a telephone jack connector?

Accepted Answer

No,  this does not have a modem (Telephone connector).  This is actually a great little board. Works great for basic web surfing and minor computing.  Like Office applications and so forth.  Runs cool and very quiet.  Very happy with this inexpensive board.

Question 10

Does this product has capable of Running FreeNAS without any compatibility issues?

Accepted Answer

Yes. My own use for this board is to run FreeNAS on 8GB RAM, 3x RAIDZ 4TB HDD, 240GB SSD for cache, and a 8GB USB2 for boot. The setup was trouble free and performance with the on-board GbEthernet is stellar.

Questions & Answers