VPN: BOXDG45FCIntel BOXDG45FC Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
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 Rating: Review Date: 03/21/10 |
Great ITX mobo for HTPC
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Rating: Review Date: 11/10/09 |
Good ITX with not so good quality
Comment:
Tried both Vista and Windows7 Ultimate x64. Worked pretty well except the S3 resume. It crashed most of the time when resume without confirmed reasons. Checked with Intel support and is currently in the process of RMA. Using this board for HTPC paired with e3200, is a perfect solution. Better performance than my old AMD 4000 and 780g. Not good for gaming for sure. |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/15/09 |
Intel BOXDG45FC Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Cons:Poor components compared to other parts
Pros:Beautiful, Intel Comment:
This is an OK board. Intel's standard is to have very solidly built boards, but it seems they have cheaped out on this one, especially with the power delivery. FYI, the power on the RAM you may have to manually set the voltage. Make sure you use something that will deliver clean power with this! However, IGP is more than enough to handle HD. |
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Rating: Review Date: 08/07/09 |
Intel BOXDG45FC Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Cons:none so far
Pros:Easy Overclock Tested and runes cool nice looking Comment:
perfect little board for my small computer overclocked proccesor with and external piece of software it runes cool and looks nice |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/12/09 |
Intel BOXDG45FC Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Cons:- No OCing and fairly limited BIOS options- Thin/soft board (bent/flexed with a stock intel heatsink). Was borderline ok but not sure if this will cause long term problems with thermal contraction/expansion.- Power connector is on edge of board with the clip facing out and overhanging over the edge of the board. This made it a very tight fit in the case (think plastic chopping).- No VGA out and also no DVI to VGA adapter (there isn't much in the box besides a couple of straight sata cables)- no cooling on southbridge. Rapidly hit 70C just entering BIOS when not in a case (so if it was actually doing something and in a case, would be much higher). I just stuck on a single spare memory heatsink (Enzotech BMR-C1) and the temp dropped to 55C (the cpu fan is close enough that it gets some air flow).- Only 1 3pin fan header (also has 1 4pin fan header) Considering the stock Intel CPU heatsink I had was 3 pin and there were 2 fans to install this was quite annoying (used 1 splitter and 1 4pin moles to 3pin adapter).- PCIe x1 not PCIe x16 (just mentioning it again in case someone misses the x1 vs x16)- No PS/2 ports (or other legacy ports)
Pros:- Modern G45 chipset- some nice ports on back including eSATA, HDMI and digital out- 6 USB ports on the back- Doesn't require 24pin + 4pin PSU. It accepts 20pin + 4pin for CPU (manual picture for where the 20 pin goes is lousy)- Tiny box!- Easy install for Win 7 beta 32bit and Linux Comment:
Keep in mind that No "legacy ports" (i.e. PS2 ports, IDE, etc) except for a serial port. Also only have DVI and HDMI and does not include a DVI-VGA connector.With a 35W Celeron 430 (1.8GHz 65nm core2 solo)(for now), the power use with a 2.5" 320GB WD is about 41 watts from the wall (using a 120 watt Pico type PSU) while installing Linux.Intel has Linux drivers for this MB. Win 7 beta 32bit also installed well (only missing driver was for the Intel Management (ME?)- vista version refused to install).I strongly suggest adding some cooling to the southbridge (no attachment points so thermal glue or thermal tape needed) and keep an eye on the northbridge temps (northbridge heatsink is standard with two wire clips).Despite a few issues, I do like this board especially as there are few other options for a modern ITX board. This review was modfied by poster @ 03-18-09 02:19 PM |
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Rating: Review Date: 12/29/08 |
Intel BOXDG45FC Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Cons:tight fit into my case, not enough documentation, needed extra fan for cooling.
Pros:Small, compact, beautiful, high-end, perfect audio, cir ports, easy install, super easy to connect power leds and switches, barely any hassle. 10 usb ports. Comment:
This beautiful blue board can run like a pro with barely any hassle at all. The only problem was my other hardware components were bending the board... easy fixes though.The board got hot, so I had to add an extra fan.Wiring was hard to place away from the components and fans... nothing new to computer-building.This was my Christmas gift. I absolutely love this board... any other computer geek would say the same. :)In my mind the only weaknesses were the expansion capabilities... 1 pci-express slot. It has ports (input and output) on the motherboard for a consumer IR device, I can turn on my computer with a TV remote! - Or turn on my TV with my computer!One thing I dint like was that it came with no manual... only a quick set-up guide with a layout diagram. I had to go download a manual off Intel's website: http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/dg45fc/sb/e3002601_en.pdfThe big problem was that vista didn't appreciate the graphics. HDMI is really good... Vista thinks otherwise.I am using Linux as my fist OS on this machine and thanks to a core 2 duo 3.0GHz processor I have usually 5% CPU usage... that gives me an extra 95% towards whatever I throw at it.To put everything short: lots of functions, lots of usb ports, very fast, very compact, very good! |
Paired with Hauppauge 2250 dual TV tuner card. Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit graphics driver doesn't seem to play well with the Hauppauge TV tuner. However, streaming Windows Media Center to my Xbox 360 bypasses the graphics driver and lets me watch live TV and recorded TV with no problems. Pentium E6500 works great with this mobo for HTPC use. 2 GB OCZ 800 MHz RAM, 500 GB HD, DVD-RW, Apex MI-008 ITX case.