GIGABYTE GA-M51GM-S2G AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: great layout, DDR2 support, Geforce 6100, north & southbridge setup, software jumpers, great manual and great software. For a cheap no-thrills rocksolid motherboard this one is great. Absolutely no install problems, runs great, and does a better than expected job with games. I love software jumpers. u Rig = Athlon 64 3200+, Crucial Ballistix DDRII 800MHz, Seagate 160Gb HD, Plextor 750 burner, Sony DVD player, YE-data 7 in l (basic rig for a friend)

Cons: none so far.

Overall Review: I had the Asus board that is consistently DOA (ASUS M2NPV-VM). Glad I returned it and got this board.

Pros: It’s a good no frills board, well worth the money. It’s small and easy to install (micro-ATX, of course). Seems well built compared to other Micro AM2 boards. It’s easy to install OSs, great 32 AND 64 bit device driver support, however perhaps BIOS options too simple for some (see “Cons”). Installed XP Pro and XP Pro x64 no problem (needed to update off of MS’s site before x64 sound drivers installed, but that was no biggie. Also, should update the BIOS, but the utility is on the Installation CD so flashing is done in Windows making the process super easy. And yes, it's stable with proper configuration (see “Other thoughts”).

Cons: If you're looking for an inexpensive, easy to install, no frills motherboard then this board will serve you well. That said, if you're looking for an ultra high-end board to max out and OC with top spec frequency CPU and RAM, then buy a more expensive board. Besides, the BIOS is somewhat limited for the Over Clocking Power User anyway. I’ve never OCed and never will. Also, watch component specifications VERY CLOSELY. (see “Other Thoughts”). Anyway, I initially opted for the fastest CPU & RAM, started with Athlon 64 FX 62 and 4 GBs of Corsair DDR2 800s (PC2 6400). You just have to read a couple of the more recent reviews to understand the problems. These reviews exactly describe the reboots and blue screens during the install and how components didn’t always load at startup after the OSs were installed. This board seemed very unstable. I came back here to read the reviews and decided that perhaps at least two things were happening which I explain in the “Other Thoughts” sectio

Overall Review: I figured the problems occurring with my initial configuration stemmed perhaps from at least two areas: 1) since these issues were occurring so recently then Gigabyte had a batch of bad boards on the market, or 2) the availability of the more high end and faster components had final reach levels where people were starting to install them on this board and were hitting the leading edge envelope. I decided to return the components (thanks Newegg) and try this board again, but dial back the components used. I opted for an Athlon 64 4600 X2 and 4GBs of Patriot DDR2 667 (PC2 5300). OS installed fine. I’m running XP Pro x64 and it’s very stable. Side note, after further research on the original RAM I discovered it was 2.2 volt and this board’s specs call for 1.8 volt. That might have had something to do with the problem too. It’s always wise to verify that your components are compatible. Of course, the original CPU and RAM could’ve been fine and just been a bad motherboard. ;-)

Pros: This MicroATX form factor board is is great for building a semi-mobile computer. It has proven to be very stable (running Windows 2000 Pro and SuSE 10.1 x64), and it is Easy to update bios with @bios utility. Also very easy to install system drivers. The CMOS setup is detailed an easy to work with, AFTER you press CTRL+F1 to unhide the advance options like Advance Chipset features.

Cons: My biggest complaint with this mobo is with it's auto-recognition of RAM. It recognized My GEIL DDR2-800 (GX21GB6400UDC) as DDR2-667, and had all the Latenties wrong. Also, while minor to me, may be important to others, this board will NOT overclock with Easy Tune 5.

Overall Review: Unless you are trying to build a small computer, I would recommend stepping up to the full size ATX model GA-M55plus-S3G, as it does support EasyTune overclocking. Just as "other thoughts": The onboard ethernet did not work with SuSE, only windows. Also, it seems like the Motherboard should have fans on the heatsinks, as the bridges run rather warm, (around 111*F)

Pros: Solid Board. If you do not plan on overclocking and want a well made, dependable board, this is a good option. Has Ran Constant in a Workstation for over a Month now with no Problems.

Cons: You can hit Ctrl+F1 for advanced options in BIOS, but you still do not have alot of options in the way for overclocking. Was only able to get a 3800+ 2.4 Ghz overclocked to 2.5 with Stability. But if you do not plan on overclocking, then it's a quality board.

Overall Review: I used this Board in a Workstation that i built for a company, So not being able to overclock it alot was not a big deal, as i was more concerned about Long Term Stability. Depending on who i am building for will alot of times depend on how aggressive i will try to overclock. In my own Experiences, i have found Gigabyte Boards to be Solid, Dependable Boards. But i have had much greater Success Overclocking with Asus Boards, so i tend to favor them.

Pros: Very stable board at an economical price. Ideal for those using desktop or micro-type cases. Only two PCI slots, but who needs more? Power socket comes with option to use either 20 or 24 pin adaptor. Using in conjunction with XFX GeForce 7300 PCI-16 and AMD AM2 2.4GHz. Comes with temperature and fan-speed monitoring software. Overclocking is done using GUI instead of BIOS.

Cons: none....

Pros: Compatible with all of my components. Nice software supplied for tuning MB.

Cons: None so far.

Pros: I have bought two of these, and one has run perfectly well for about 3 months now. Good value, pretty good specs, nice and small.

Cons: On the other one, the GPU failed for no apparent reason after about a month. With a PCI express video card it still runs fine, but it's a bit annoying.

Overall Review: Pretty good all in all, but next time I will go with a different mobo with the hope that it's a bit more durable.

Pros: Great motherboard, many features in the BIOS. CTRL+F1 gives advanced options. Onboard video card is 256MB.

Cons: Comes with flimsy back I/O panel. It's not metal like the computer case is, the I/O panel is plastic, but it holds in place and does it's job

Overall Review: Using it with GeIL 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 DDR2 800, and MOBO recognized it as DDR2 800MHZ, with the right timing, no problems as other users have had.