GIGABYTE GA-73PVM-S2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: 7100 + 630i chipset is great. Drivers installed without a hitch in XP Pro with SP2. The ability to unlink the memory speed from the FSB makes overclocking a snap. Having 3 video connectors (analog, digital, HDMI) makes this micro-ATX board a good choice for an HTPC build. Azalia HD audio sounds great. The 630i southbridge SATA hard drive throughput is faster than the Intel ICH9 southbridge.

Cons: No chipset or memory voltage overclocks in the BIOS (and yes I pressed ctrl-F1 to get the extended settings)! This keeps it from getting a 5 rating. Only CPU voltage setting is available.

Overall Review: There are plenty of memory timing settings in the BIOS but without a memory voltage setting this severely limits overclocking. I used OCZ DDR2 800 ram that runs stock at 1.8v but needs 2.1v to seriuously overclock properly. I used an Intel E2180 and was able to get 2.8 GHz so that wasn't too bad but could've gone higher if I had a voltage control to raise the memory voltage as OCZ requires. Maybe Gigabyte will release a new BIOS to add this feature, then I can rave about this board and even replace my own Asrock 939-Dual SATA system.

Pros: This is a very stable motherboard being Gigabyte's S2 version. Never had a hangup when I was configuring and messing around in the bios. Speaking of bios, there is also a nice array of features available, yet the bios is not cluttered as to be confusing. Note for performance enthusiasts: when in the bios, press Ctrl+F1 to get more features in the categories. This is not mentioned in the manual! One of the added features allows you to tweak mem timings. Unlike some users, I like the fact that IDE and floppy ports are still included. For one, if you didn't have a floppy drive, you can't load the SATA AHCI driver on Win XP install. You would have to go the confusing route of installing it later and hope windows doesn't BSOD you. I do however like that COM and parallel ports are add-ons but still supported. With all the nice connections this MOBO has, there would be not room for those big things anyway. Connector layout is great. Solid caps!

Cons: Have not fully tested this MOBO, but... no dual channel mem support and can't adjust mem voltage. Note: This board ONLY accepts 1.8V mem! Max 4GB mem. Cannot use DVI and HDMI in dual monitor config. Some capacitors are really close to mem slots (may interfere with some mem's heat spreaders). And that's is! Not really much to gripe about for a $80 MOBO with all these features.

Overall Review: I run this MOBO in a water cooled tower. Note for water cooling enthusiasts: this MOBO accepts the Swiftech Storm and MCW-30 Northbridge blocks nicely. Running E6300 + 4GB Mushkin PC2 6400 mem (P/N 996557) <-- this mem ROCKS. Get it. Used MIT to get accurate mem timings. Stock everything the CPU is 28 deg C idle and 35 full load. The northbridge is at 32 idle and 42 full load. CPU OCd to 2GHz and it is only a few degrees warmer. You should download all drivers from NVidia website and not Gigabyte's. So far everything is working great, but Vista sees the AHCI SATA driver as a major change and thus requires revalidation. Went back to XP x64.

Pros: Great for a media pc/server, I put this in a mid tower case, pentium D, 1 gb Corsair RAM, WD 250 and a High point RAID card with 4 WD GP 750s RAID 5. Its been 5 months no problems what so ever I use the HDMI to my 46" Aquos runs at 1920 res and the movies look great and no jittering. Xgene wireless keyboard and your good to go bust out the popcorn Stargate marathon LOL. Also i have attached a WD 1 TB GP External with eSATA and a 400gb firewire to the onboard connections and both worked flawlessly.

Cons: None that i can see

Overall Review: I like Toast.....mmm let it sink in.

Pros: The mobo works as I had expected. Stress tested with Oblivion and Command and Conquer 3. For best performance, had all shader-type stuff set to low / non-existant. I'm not really partial to onboard graphics, but that's what the PCIe is for. Have had no probs with heat nor with noise (using after market cooler - noted in other thoughts) even here in FL without an air conditioner. I like the added ports and such in the situation that I wish to add in other things later. No use for them (yet). Unit is running on a 350 watt power supply. Mobo is also compatible for 20 or 24 pin power supplies (using a hybrid in there right now). Overall, it runs like a champ. It looks like there is some nice overclocking capability available in the BIOS as well. Manual is really descriptive. Compatible with older hardware as well as much newer stuff (has IDE and SATA, PS2 and USB, eSata, Gb LAN, VGA and HDMI and DVI). Gives a lot to play with.

Cons: There's only 1 IDE. Oblivion's textures (sort of expected) are wacked at times - but still playable. This is probably because the 7100 forgoes many of the eye-candy available in the later (expensive) models. In order to get everything setup for proper function, I had to play with drivers and the BIOS. Note to those that have never messed with a dual-core before - the pins are on the motherboard and not on the chip. The installation of the chip will be a tight-fit but make sure it is lined up properly before applying any pressure using the levers and covers and junk. Additionally, the instruction manual notes how to install the heat sink by turning the locks but it does not mention to push them down after turning! It just says "Turn until to hear a click". There's a click alright, but it's not the right one. You need to push them locks down until you hear a pop. Had the heatsink fall off once because of that.

Overall Review: The situation was that I had an emachines comp that got fried. I bought another power supply for it just to make sure it was dead. It was. Figured that I had a case and a power supply (350W) I should get an ATX mobo that handles a core 2 Duo and an onboard video (I'm cheap). This fit the bill. Got it, installed it, loaded XP on it, and after getting my hands dirty, I'm running screen savers twice as fast as before. Though this might not be a "gamer" machine, I have virtually no problems running games (without eye-candy). Final setup: (links are Newegg pages) This Mobo StarTech (?) 350w PS (not part of purchase) eMach T2240 case (ditto) Memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184 Fan / HeatSink http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134 CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052 HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262 All for about $400.

Pros: Works as expected, right out of the box. No BIOS updates or fiddling around with newer drivers was needed. HDMI works as expected Firewire ESata Upgradable to future CPU's for greater speed

Cons: Could have more PCI slots for a nice HTPC computer It would be nice to have more memory slots too slighly cramped m/B

Overall Review: Installed back in February for my daughter w/WinXP Pro. I used Corsair http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034 with 2.1 volts and it worked fine. Plugged in her HDMI Spectre 23" monitor with HDMI worked right away. No problems like some have had. Don't believe all of the inexperienced builders. I've got 4 or 5 Gigabyte M/B and they have performed the best of all the M/B's I've purchased over the last 3+ years.

Pros: Tons of features on this small board: 1394, e-sata, S/PDIF. Good FSB options - this was my first overclocking venture beyond stock voltages (E2140, from 1.6 Ghz to 2.66 Ghz, +0.03v, YMMV). Fun and easy. On-board video beats the heck out of my old 945GC. Slackware Linux recognizes everything out of the box (don't know about Ethernet but I promise there's a driver out there) and NVIDIA drivers are easily fetched from the latter's website. I didn't have to disable anything in the BIOS to get DVI video to work. Comes with 2 SATA cables - apparently they noticed SATA has become somewhat popular.

Cons: Can't adjust RAM voltages. It's annoying, not because I want to overclock the RAM, but because a lot of RAM nowadays just doesn't run stock at 1.84v. Even budget RAM. Maybe underclock? idk.... Buy RAM rated at 1.8v just to be safe. Also, some of the on-board connectors are located at the back of the board. HTPC cases may be a gamble vis-a-vis front ports (my IN-WIN IWBT610T doesn't reach for USB).

Overall Review: OC'd Intel E2140 w/ stock heatsink, 120GB SATA HD, IDE DVD burner, 1GB Patriot DDR2 667 (from previous build), 1 case fan, 300W PSU.

Pros: great little mobo, nvidia integrated graphics much better than intel. runs vista's areo just fine i installed 4 gb of ram in this thing and it is very snappy 3 internal USB headers is really rare and great

Cons: only one case fan connector??? whats with that? 2 seems like the minimum

Overall Review: this is a very small mobo, good for a quiet pc, maybe home theater, HDMI port is a plus

Pros: Everything worked great for me right out of the box. No placement issues that I remember and had it up and running in about 2 hours. Screaming fast desktop for my folks

Cons: Not PCIE x 16 2.0 - Not a big deal though as this machine is not used for gaming anyway

Overall Review: It's a mid-range board at a great price. It seems Gigabyte has some quality control issues at times, but this one was an effortless and enjoyable build. Able to run a E5200 at 3.5 GHz