If you're looking to build a quick or home theatre PC in a compact case, the
945G-M3 motherboard from
ECS is
worth considering.
Built around
Intel’s
945G and
ICH7
chipsets, this microATX board will support Socket 775 CPU’s with 533, 800 and
1066MHz FSB speeds (including Pentium D).
Two Dimm slots provide support for up to 2GB of 400/533 or 667MHz DDR2
memory.
Despite the small form factor the board is actually well featured. You get
integrated Intel GMA950 graphics, high-definition 7.1 audio, gigabit Lan along
with four USB2 and four Serial ATA ports.
Due to its relatively small size, expansion slots are always going to be
limited. You get one 16x PCI Express graphics slot, a single x1 PCI Express slot
and two standard PCI slots.
Annoyingly, the x16 PCI Express slot has a catch so small that it's hard to
access once you've slotted your graphics card into it.
Overall though, this is a well featured and reasonably cheap motherboard that
would suit those looking to build a small form factor or home theatre PC.
The ECS 945G-M3 is currently available from
PC Nextday .
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