AMD has replaced Sockets 754 and 939 with Socket AM2 and the result is that you can get budget Micro-ATX designs such as this Gigabyte that offer all the integrated features that you need in a PC with the choice of a cheap Sempron or a killer Athlon 64 X2 processor.
The Nvidia Geforce 6100 chipset is a bit of an oddball, as the name suggests. After all, Nvidia chipsets are supposed to be called Nforce while the graphics cores are Geforce. In this case the integrated graphics core is a feeble cut-down version of Geforce 6200 that supports a single VGA output. Other models that use the Geforce 6150 have DVI output which is preferable for a TFT display.
On the plus side the chipset is low-powered and is cooled by a low profile passive cooler which means that you can build a quiet PC that uses a single fan on the processor. Gigabyte is clearly using thermal control as the CPU fan often stops spinning when the PC is idling, which helps to reduce noise levels.
The layout of the sides of this small motherboard is beyond reproach with the power connectors located neatly atthe board and plenty of space around the PCI Express x16 slot in case you decide to install a beefy double slot graphics card.
Unsurprisingly the list of features is quite short so the integrated audio only has three mini jack connectors and the Lan is 10/100 rather than Gigabit but this is perfectly acceptable at the budget end of the market.
Testing with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ processor and 2GB of Kingston KHX6400 memory on Windows XP SP2 with an Asus EN7950GT graphics card we saw a score of 5,401 in PCMark05 which is 700 marks shy of other AM2 motherboards.
In 3DMark06 the score was 3,210 which is shocking as we’ve seen the Asus score more than 5,200 marks on similar PCs. The integrated graphics score 207 marks in 3DMark06 which is only to be expected.
Also consider:
ECS RS485M-M motherboard
An ideal base for a budget home theatre PC
ECS 945G-M3 motherboard
The ECS 945G-MS motherboard is a well priced and good-performing motherboard and
would suit a home theatre PC system
ECS KA1 MVP Extreme
A well-featured board, but there are some design flaws
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