ZOTAC GF9300-A-E Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

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Have had this board for more than a week. paired it with a was bumed out the gigabyte 9400 board was discontinued and had waitwd for a replacement which was in no way released so ijumped on this one particularutilized a core2duoʂ.8 ghz(not oced) and 2gb of ramthis board is working amazing. have it in my htpc. operates amazing supports 5.1 and 7.1 dolby digital and dts . has native hdmi help. i plugged this machine to my receiver through hdmi prior to i loaded win7 and i was in a position to view my bios off the bat on my projector. i extremely suggest it. so far everythimg is great. i can stream my 1080p stuff flawlessly wished it had the 9400 gphx

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High finish onboard video, lifetime warranty, pretty great layout with one exception (see cons). There is only one particular chassis fan connector on this board, and it's on the front edge. If your case has a fan on the back, you will most likely have issues connecting it. The fan on my customer's case had a common length (about 6") cable. I cut the wires off of a non-working fan, and connected and soldered the "extension" onto the current fan to be able to connect it. I utilised this board along w/ 4GB of G.Skill PC2 6400 RAM and an E7600 CPU for a nice upgrade for his old HP Pavilion.

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HD-performance IGP with extremely versatile outputs: VGA / DVI-I / HDMI. 4 memory slots. Not the newest and best, but this was really an benefit to me, given that I wanted to incorporate some left-over DDR2 memory I have some difficult output wants (analog-currently, digital-tomorrow) although the other components of my five-year-old household theater configuration is in transition. Not that uncomplicated to uncover a Mobo that would meet my combined objectives, but this one particular did. My first choice in Mobo was the Intel G45 with X4500HD IGP, but it was essentially too-digitally-advanced to meet the short-term analog demands. Mated the Zotac GeForce 9300 Mobo with a Pentium Dual Core E6500 CPU, and the result performs favorably (based on the average WEI scores) to a newer Core i3-based make (especially for the cost). One of the bonus characteristics for my purposes turned out to be the four memory slots, which let me get to a total of 4GB even though re-employing some left-over1 GB sticks of DDR2 memory. The Mobo documentation lent itself to a smooth create in a NMEDIAPC HTPC case.

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Bought this board to upgrade a very customized MythTV HTPC from an Abit an7m2-hd 7050PV based board which was operating a k8 x2 two.1ghz @ Ӯ.5ghz. Slapped a celeron e3400 in right here with some pqi ddr2 800. Initially I was able to run unlinked stable at 1033fsb묽 memory bus, but I've decided to run linked at 933묽. I suspect general efficiency will be similar, and the celeron processor is more than rapid enough for regular HTPC use. Reasons to knock an egg off:Whilst tweaking for stable overclock settings if you push it too far it merely beeps annoyingly at you upon reboot and you have to clear the bios and start off over. I'm receiving spoiled by newer boards that automatically reset to the last identified good configuration.No vcore adjustment in bios. I purchased the SilenX EFZ-80HA2 for the processor (which needed a small bit of sheet metal function to make fit) and the processor runs at 37C at idle or immediately after running full load for two hours. I really feel like I could probably run linked fiveǚ if I had a little bit of vcore to play with.Has the identical issue my 7050 board had with regards to booting from an SATA optical drive. A bios update fixed the problem on the Abit board, but this board shipped with the newest bios accessible. I'm operating 6 sata devices (OS SSD, optical BD Drive, 4x2TB drives in ZFS raidz for media storage and backups) and 1 IDE drive 鴺gb 7200rpm drive for tv recordings). Every little thing works fine (the guy additional beneath who says sata ports five and 6 only operate in raid mode was most likely operating in IDE mode). PS - in the bios the AHCI mode is faster in linux than Linux AHCI.I had hoped the onboard graphics would be adequate of a step up from the 7050 that I wouldn't need to have a discrete card for pcsx-r and mupen64plus, nevertheless it was fairly borderline so I stuck my gt240 back in so I could run 4x AA and 16x filtering. The onboard graphics do function fantastic for VDPAU playback.I've also got an HVR-2250 and HVR-1600 operating in the board. Everything works with out a hitch other than sometimes my IR keyboard picks up on boot and will allow me to enter the bios settings and at times it doesn't.

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Looks pretty; good specs (on paper). DOA This was my initially (and almost certainly my final) knowledge with Zotac. Maybe Zotac's Mini-ITX products are of much better top quality, but I doubt it.

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The placement of the SATA ports fit my case really nicely. Also the included parts had been incredibly well produced. The board wouldn't post. There is a readout for the error codes but the manual doesn't contain a guide for these codes. The backplate is really inexpensive and flimsy. I'm in fact surprised that I didn't cut myself on it. I'm particular this board would be fine if I didn't have the poor luck of acquiring a lemon. I RMA'd it and went with an Intel board.

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Has onboard graphics. After two months the board began to turn off randomly after a few minutes of operation. Zotac did send a replacement. I hope the new 1 doesn't do the exact same factor.

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Effortless to install. Will support 16GB of memory. Good graphics and resolution. HDMI worked with no hassles. Had problems with the DVI/VGA connectors. I believed the board was poor when I was installing it because my monitor had a really distorted picture of the bios load screen and I could only see 50% of the windows install screen. My board shipped with outdated software that wouldnd load with Windows 7 64bit. SATA cables that ship with the unit are JUNK! Invest the dollars for greater cables.

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Blew out my old HTPC mobo and needed a replacement that would take my older RAM Ɣ sticks of DDR2-800 @ 2GB each and every), LGA775 quad processor and 1.5TB drives. For the funds, this one particular's a winner. Holds anything, plenty of space, no glitches with the OS (Win 7, 64 bit), and the onboard video looks good. Set up was uncomplicated. In no way had a Zotac board but it's been solid so far. Don't be fooled by the 6 SATA ports. five and 6 only operate under a RAID configuration. Not a deal breaker, although. I believed I had a house run considering that I have four hard drives and 2 SATA DVD drives. Back to the PCI card for the peripherals. Would be good to disable the major yellow Zotac splash screen on startup but that's really modest potatoes. four-pin ATX 12v power provide is a lengthy way away if you have a power supply on the bottom of your tower. I am wary of installing too several manage panels. I prefer to install just the drivers for the audio and video hardware to make them run and leave the bloat out unless you actually will need the configuration tools.

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Geforce 9300, HDMI, four memory slots. Desktop graphic score three.8, 3d score 5.2 onboard. Hybrid SLI. Most challenging motherboard I have ever installed out of over 200 in 15 years! Had to be creative just to get windows installed. Error code AO had me stumped but after I reset escd and added a pre-installed windows hardrive I now have a rapidly stable operating server. If it would have booted up windows like any other motherboard I would have given it 5 stars. I am nonetheless wondering how this board produced it past R&D to store shelves.

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Nonetheless operating good but... Manual shows it can wake from USB device but bios does not support. So if individuals want to use USB based RF devices to wake up the system, this is not the board. Also it can not energy USB devices (not even one port) in S3 mode or hiebernate mode. I can not edit or update my previous post, hence writing a new 1. I nonetheless maintain my old rating although. Zotac support confirms that it is mistake in manual and mobo doesn't support this alternative. Pretty useless for me.

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Cheep, but you get what you pay for Motherboard came DOA showing "A0" error.NO Where is there documentation on what that error means.Named their 24x7 support and soon after a 1 hour wait I was told to return the motherboard via the retailer. When I asked why I need to return it via the retailer and not them, they replied that it would take 1 MONTH to RMA via Zotec and that it would be better to just return it to the retailer. I locate it 1 hell of a cop-out to put the price of a return for DOA hardware on the retailer and not themselves. Zotac consumer service is much less than helpfull.

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Works good, Hybrid SLI, Got Almost everything Going with no quirks. I got the suitable I\O Shield. NONE E8400 three.0Ghz, 4x2GB DRR2 Patriot RAM, 2x400GB HDD, This Board, Television Tuner, Dual SATA DVDRW

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I have had this board for about seven months. It runs quite nicely. The onboard video can support two displays w񳀨P resolutions quickly on each display. I have a 21.5" LCD Monitor & a 1080P LCD HDTV. I don't game on my PC, but it's good for watching blue-ray movies on. My 1st m-board did have video driver problems w/Vista but the board was quickly replaced w/a very good 1 by Newegg. I have to also say that the Zotac consumer support is incredibly responsive (quick). My PC specs are: Intel Core 2 Q9300, 4GB RAM, 500GB Seagate Hardrive, & LG Blue-Ray drive. The VGA port is not firmly supported by the bracket on motherboard. Try to get an I/O shield that reinforces the VGA port if you can. Even though I have plugged & unplugged my monitor a lot of times, frequents connects/dis-connects on this port are not advised. The DVI port is located below the VGA port & is better supported. I at the moment use the HDMI port for my monitor w/o any issues.I have had a couple of begin-up problems w/the board, but this could be attributed to Vista. I have had to reset the CMOS to resolve this concern a few times. Overall a worthy obtain. I would have no hesitation buying a Zotac board in the future IF the price undercuts the next competitors m-board (w/similar specs).

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This board is worth each penny I installed it almost five months ago and by no means had any problems with it specs Core two Quad 9650 Gforce 9800 GT 8gb DDR2 800 OCZ Overall performance two 1.5TB seagate LG blu ray burner zalman Reserator XT SL to keep it cool none

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Wonderful board with straightforward to use items. I loaded it up with an E8400 and can use the onboard nVidia 9300 to do 1080p, and blue ray HD just fine.I have it running under Win 7 property prof, and Fedora Core 12 A small difficult to mix normal IDE drives with the new SATA drives. Win 7 won't recognize any of the old IDE drives on the IDe controller, but that OK, Linux will. I like the Micro-ATX format - leaves plenty of room for straightforward cabling, as lengthy as you don't have too quite a few PCI_E boards to install.

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geforce 9300 on-board video, HDMI, form factor, cost Motherboard refuses to hold bios settings, fails to post each time. I bought this board with the original intention of creating an htpc, when I realized I wasn't going to finish the project. I "upgraded" the board in my work laptop or computer, replacing a Gigabyte GA-965P S3. Moved that board to a different machine I pieced together from my old parts and upgraded an old machine that we still store critical files on.My machine is now crippled. As I only have a Pentium Dual-core cpu 1.8ghz (oc'd @ 2.7; three.2ghz on the old motherboard, this board is not as stable). I have to manually enter the bios each time I power on the machine and reset my FSB settings. Even though an inconvenience, I have no selection but to keep making use of this board as I'm not about to tear down the other machine to fix it. Knowing what I know now, I would recommend working with a a lot more known brand. I have applied GB/Asus/Biostar motherboards in the past with no issues anyplace like this.

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Bought this board for a little pc I was putting together for a relative for Xmas 08. It's been a wonderful board given that with no issues. It's just applied for regular internet browsing and videos though. Onboard graphics aren't halfbad. If your a gamer although you'll need a true GPU to go with it. None that I can think of.

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If I could get it to load windows it would be good. Error code AO. Will not boot from cdrom even when all three boot sequences are directed to cdrom. Even pulled a hdd from a different laptop or computer and it just hangs at the beginning windows screen. In no way once again am I going to obtain an off brand motherboard. The last two in a row have been poor XFX and Zotac socket 775.

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Works nicely as a 1080p linux HTPC with proprietary nvidia driver. Having every thing onboard is nice.Overclocking Pentium dual-core E5300 30% from 2600MHz to 3466MHz was as uncomplicated as changing FSB from 800 to 1066 in bios. GPU fan became noisy soon after a couple months.Bios has way too numerous complications. Just getting into bios is complicated - needs hitting a key at just the proper moment. Bios boot order doesn't work right.Fails to detect the first drive on power up. It finds the other people and can boot off the next drive and then linux finds the 1st 1 with no difficulties. I've attempted with 3 various drives and the very same thing often happens. On warm boot it does find the first drive. No onboard LAN boot ROM - the settings are shown on bios screen shots in the manual but don't seem in my bios.The RAM check with quick boot disabled is very slow (minutes) and when it gets to 4GB it starts over at zero. I'm making use of debian squeeze with this board connected by HDMI to a 1080p Tv. Acquiring 1080p output needed installing the proprietary nvidia driver - then it worked with no configuration needed.VDPAU allows offloading video decoding to onboard GPU, lowering CPU utilization by ㅪ% throughout x264 playback.3D works.Audio out over digital coax and HDMI both work.I took off the noisy GPU fan and it's been running without having it for a couple months now. The heat sink gets too hot to hold for incredibly long but no signs of instability yet.

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It works out of the box. It's a great form-factor for modest builds. Great assortment of connectors, selections and features for this price-point. Ran Windows 7 nicely straight out of the box. Unable to wake from USB (Zotac only put this in their much more expensive GF9300-G-E). Challenging to come across BIOS version (need a utility from the Zotac web-site). 40mm fan was not loud (as another reviewer complained). If you can live without wake-from-USB, then this is a fantastic HTPC or modest-form factor motherboard. Scored this down to 2 eggs from 4 due to the inability to register boad for promised lifetime warranty, hit-and-miss availability of drivers (drivers section of website is generally down), poor/lackluster support, failure to obtain rebate. Emails for support and/or registration went 1+ weeks before being answered if ever. As long as this machine does what you need to have, in no way need to have drivers, support, your rebate or to regsiter your item for their lifetime support, this board will do you fine. Good board. Bad organization, rebate, driver and BOIS support.

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Built 2 systems for friends and they are surprinsingly satisfied. This Motherboard is very stable, they are both running windows 7 RC without problem, I would truly recommend this product even if this company is still unknown to most of us, they seem to have build a really great motherboard.