Some one say mITX?

[Exocet956]

Actually it has a robust overclocking selection according to the manual

 

[Jokeinjoker]

These are making me wet.... I have been researching making a PC for my in-dash mod to my car and these look like the ticket to fit my need

 

[timme]

Found a review.

Translated from German so it's a little weird to read.

http://translate.google.com/transla...intel-dg45fc-review&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=de&tl=en

I read the original review (im German) and the board seems really decent. Although, I found it highly irritating that they were using a E8500 for the review. A more mid-range CPU would have been more appropriate from my point of view.
But since the CPU load for playing HD content never went above 25%, it should be fine with something like a E7200 or even a E5200. That would be so lovely.

That's a load of money for the Intel sticker, though. 130 EUR board, 90 EUR CPU, 30 EUR 2GB RAM, makes 250 EUR for the system alone. No optical drive, no HDD, no case, no PSU.

A build with the latest mATX Asus board with 780G Chipset is 60 EUR for board, 60 EUR for a X2 4850e, 30 EUR for RAM, makes 150 EUR for the system.

That's 100 Euro for:
- Intel over AMD
- ITX over mATX

Is it worth it? I don't know Hopefully the prices on the G45 ITX boards drop sooner or later.

 

[Exocet956]

I got my board from computergeeks and it was working great, until i mounted it to the case.

A big warning to anyone who buys the J&W MINIX780G-SP128M the voltage regulators are surface mounted to the back side of the board. They are very tall and Will make contact with the motherboard backplate. IF you don't isolate the motherboard backplate the board will short out regardless of what case you decide to mount it to.

I contacted the company and that was the first thing they said was the cause of my board failing to post. I am currently RMAing the board to computergeeks.

Definely a bone head engineering move to mount giant surface mount components on the underside of the mobo For reference the case I was attempting to use was this case Link
in my defense, by my measurements, it would have happen regardless of case I tried to mount it in. I am certainly not in the habit of looking at the underside of my motherboards. oh well at least I won't have a problem rmaing the board. This time around I am going to cover the motherboard mountplate in electrical tape so I won't kill the next one.

 

[Calroth]

This time around I am going to cover the motherboard mountplate in electrical tape so I won't kill the next one.

For bonus points, you can use something like Sil-Pads, which is like electrical tape made out of Arctic Silver 5. You can get these or similar products from electronics shops. Those voltage regulators may get hot, in which case, you can use your case as a crude heatsink

 

[Exocet956]

Isn't arctic silver 5 conductive? That would negate the purpose of isolating the motherboard plate if that was the case. I have always heard the that arctic silver 5 is conductive. So i assume in tape form it would be also.

 

[Private_Ops]

Isn't arctic silver 5 conductive? That would negate the purpose of isolating the motherboard plate if that was the case. I have always heard the that arctic silver 5 is conductive. So i assume in tape form it would be also.

If I'm not mistaken AC5 has micro flakes of metal in it to help heat transfer.

I personally use the this since I can get it at my local Radio Shack for a bit more.

 

[Calroth]

Isn't arctic silver 5 conductive? That would negate the purpose of isolating the motherboard plate if that was the case. I have always heard the that arctic silver 5 is conductive. So i assume in tape form it would be also.

It's like AS5. It's in fact electrically non-conductive, the only thing it conducts is heat.

(In hindsight it was a lousy analogy.)

 

[CrimandEvil]

It's like AS5. It's in fact electrically non-conductive, the only thing it conducts is heat.

(In hindsight it was a lousy analogy.)

More like this stuff then: http://www.jab-tech.com/Arctic-CERAMIQUE-2.5g-pr-1626.html

 

[Exocet956]

So let me get this straight I should rather than use electrical/duct tape, masking tape use this "thermal interface tape" to isolate the motherboard back plate? I don't even know if the components generate that much heat. All I thought I needed to do was prevent the shorting out against the back plate.
Where can I get this fancy non electrically conducting thermal interface tape?

 

[CrimandEvil]

So let me get this straight I should rather than use electrical/duct tape, masking tape use this "thermal interface tape" to isolate the motherboard back plate? I don't even know if the components generate that much heat. All I thought I needed to do was prevent the shorting out against the back plate.
Where can I get this fancy non electrically conducting thermal interface tape?

No, electrical tape is more then fine. He just suggested it since they were hot volt regulators that you could transfer the heat they produce into the mobo tray; using the tray as a heatsink for the volt regulators.

Anyways, how do you like the board so far?

 

[Exocet956]

well it was working quite well until I mounted it to the case.
I like everything about the board except for the odd choice of component placement. I assume the components are voltage regulators they are large square block components. While i understand the size limitations of itx it still makes me scratch my head.

The port placement is ok except the ide is flush with the atx connector. This is a problem I you plan on using sata only but I have a ide optical drive and I found that getting both cables in at the same time a chore.

The board does not come with a heatsink like the jetway itx board but fortunately i found a heatsink that was low profile enough for my case. I am stoked about the e-sata port. It's about time I saw that on a itx board. The side port memory is a big plus but I could not see any option in the bios for sharing memory so I assume that the turbo cache or what ever its called will be handled by the driver. It might not even share memory at all since it has side port memory.

It has loads of ever clocking options in the bios ironically in a section called JustWoot. I don't know how far I can push my x2 given the case and heatsink restrictions. However until I get my rma I can only comment on bios and physical layout since I posted the board a few times outside the case and then promptly killed the board when I mounted it in the case.