GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2HP AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Great board for my HTPC, had what I wanted mainly the HDMI. Setup was a breeze, read the manual for HDMI usage.

Cons: Had some trouble with VMC 64 bit and HDMI audio for DVD playback. After reading the manual and updating the bios for HDMI the sound worked beautifully for windows but nothing for VMC DVD playback. I spent probably 10 hours trying to figure it out. It all came down to opening the HDMI device manager and UNCHECKING the box saying "Allow other programs to control this device." (Not the exact words but it's in the advanced settings.)

Overall Review: I don't think the problem I had, had anything to do with the motherboard. Maybe just the way the drivers and worked. Anyways I hope this helps anyone trying to set up a HTPC with this mother board using HDMI.

Pros: Small board with a nice layout. Easy to install and most of it was plug and play. You could update the bios either before or after installing a OS. (Did mines after) 7.1 channel sound works great to.

Cons: North and South bridge does get hot, but its no need to worry about.

Overall Review: I highly recommend this board to anyone looking for a nice cheap build or even a mid end machine. Works beautifuly and looks nice to. my build (Athlon 64 X2 6000+. 4 gig Kingston 1.8v ram, 300w power supply, 500 gig WD hard drive, HP 1060i 20x DVD burner, Windows Vista home Premium 64 bit.)

Pros: Great motherboard for my first build. Easy to hook up and the software that came with it worked the first time. All drivers, video card, and sound card works great.

Cons: NONE

Overall Review: I hear a bunch of people complaining about warped boards and it didn't come with screws etc. My was not warped and as for the screws, use the ones that came with your case or drive your @!$ to the hardware store and get some.

Pros: Price, features, Kapersky antivirus free on motherboard disc, all drivers supplied and easy to install. This was my first time building a PC and it was very easy. You can upgrade the CPU and memory to make your PC last.

Cons: One IDE controller, but it doesn't matter because IDE cabling is ugly and almost obsolete.

Overall Review: You will need a 3 pin fan just for the northbridge, and the system fan is a 4 pin fan. Motherboard manual states its necessary to utilize the northbridge fan because the northbridge can overheat and damage the northbridge and CPU. Kapersky antivirus is free on the motherboard disc. I'm glad I noticed this as I literally was about to buy it. The only thing you'll want to update is the bios and the NIC driver as every other driver is current. However, the latest NIC driver didn't seem to work so I rolled it back to the supplied driver. After rolling back the driver I still needed to reboot the system to get the NIC working again. Hopefully this motherboard wont die in one year like my ASUS did. Thanks ASUS! Hope you know I wont be buying your junk anymore!

Pros: - no express gate nonsense to deal with, Thank goodness there is no express gate type junk on here. simple effective video setup allows 512 mb through bios. - works great with alien arena and urban terror. - posted first time around with 4 gb ram 2 gigs a piece from *skill.

Cons: - no display port, but I am sure gigabyte will have display port soon considering it is a new feature, not really a con at all though.

Overall Review: - if you are using ubuntu or another GNU/linux build turn off compiz (advanced desktop effects for flicker free video and gaming.)

Pros: Colorful. Got here fast. Turned on and didn't die.

Cons: Dual channel didn't work with 4GB G.SKILL DDR2 800 RAM or 4GB OCZ DDR2 1066 RAM. Tested each 2GB stick individually in each of the 4 ports and they tested with no errors. Add another stick (same brand of course, dual channel or not) in any port and it throws errors almost immediately in testing program. BIOS is configured correctly and updated to latest version; no help. RMAing now, better luck next time I guess.

Overall Review: I like the yellow SATA cables this board comes with.

Pros: Very nice layed out board and stable. Meets all of my needs. Great price!

Cons: 1) Had a very hard time setting up RAID. Now I know the bios steps to configure RAID, next time will be easier. The manual concerning the RAID configuration procedure sucks! 2) I installed Kingston HyperX 2GB x2 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500). System sees and want to config at 800. Still working out the issues. 3) Over clocking should be easier as well.

Overall Review: This is my second Gigabyte board I bought in the past year. The first one is a MA69MN board. Very stable board. No issues but some of the bios config on both boards I think should be smoother and flow during the install. I like to over clock and use on board RAID. The manaul needs to be improved on.

Pros: Great board, nice and stable. Integrated graphics are good. I suggest using and only using KINGSTON MEMORY. Such as this memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104012

Cons: I originally set this board up with CORSAIR Memory. The board did not POST with the CORSAIR Memory. Kingston Memory is on the approved memory list supplied by Gigabyte. Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) memory worked perfectly. It took an extra day to set up the system while I was trouble shooting the memory problem.

Overall Review: I bought my Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) from NewEgg for $11.00 a stick. One week later it is $22 a stick. Not sure why the price of the memory doubled in one week.... I really like Gigabyte boards as they are the most stable boards out there and work well with AMD processors. I would give this board 5 stars if it was not so picky about the memory.