ZOTAC G43ITX-A-E Mini ITX - 65-watt TDP max?

Jack Flash

Gawd
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Oct 7, 2008
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Saw this on Newegg, and seems like a good board, especially if using a PCI-E 16x GPU. 5 SATA ports, Integrated 802.11n WiFi, but...

The specifications call for a 65W Processor Max. What would the results of putting a 95W Intel Q9400 inside? Would adding MOSFET heatsinks allow for the higher wattage processor?
 
A 95w CPU should work just fine unless your using a cramped case. I saw this board too and I'm looking forward to picking one up. :)
 
Why get it instead of the 9300? just wondering

Because I've already had the 9300. Loved it but had to sell it (even though I had no issues with it).

But, reasons to get this over the 9300:
1.) Two more SATA ports.
2.) Better layout. (It was a PITA installing anything into the 9300).
3.) Price. For $130 I might as well spend the extra $10 and go s1156. I do wish the G43 was at least $10 less.

Reason not to buy:
1.) 9300 is a better IGP.
2.) OC options. No idea what the G43 has.

But, really, for me I just want to play around with it and see how it does. I know how the 9300 handled and really liked it but I don't know how this little guy handles and it looks like a decent board so why not?
 
A-E seems to indicate 'first revision' so it's anybody's guess how reliable it will be.
 
A-E seems to indicate 'first revision' so it's anybody's guess how reliable it will be.

I have the board and AHCI mode isn't working properly ... doesn't work with any optical drive (tried 3 different ones from Samsung and Sony and none worked) and <1MB/sec transfer rate for my WD Caviar Green.

Currently running my Intel SSD on Enhanced IDE :(

CubeEnergyMC3Black-ZotacG43ITX.jpg
 
I have the board and AHCI mode isn't working properly ... doesn't work with any optical drive (tried 3 different ones from Samsung and Sony and none worked) and <1MB/sec transfer rate for my WD Caviar Green.

Currently running my Intel SSD on Enhanced IDE :(

This is the sort of stuff that should be easily dealt with through a BIOS update... hopefully.
 
I have the board and AHCI mode isn't working properly ... doesn't work with any optical drive (tried 3 different ones from Samsung and Sony and none worked) and <1MB/sec transfer rate for my WD Caviar Green.

Currently running my Intel SSD on Enhanced IDE :(

AHCI has problems with optical drives on many different platforms. I had some issues with booting from the CD on the 9300-ITX but once I boot to Windows I can load up DVDs and such with no problem.

An Intel SSD in EIDE mode is a terrible tragedy since you don't get TRIM. I offer my sincere condolences.
 
AHCI has problems with optical drives on many different platforms. I had some issues with booting from the CD on the 9300-ITX but once I boot to Windows I can load up DVDs and such with no problem.

An Intel SSD in EIDE mode is a terrible tragedy since you don't get TRIM. I offer my sincere condolences.

Really? I use AHCI on mine, I had to because the OSX Leopard DVD would't boot otherwise :D

Both OSX Leopard and Windows 7 boot fine on AHCI mode, and both my HDDs are using AHCI too of course.

But well I'm using a 9300-G-E of course so it's a bit OT
 
AHCI has problems with optical drives on many different platforms. I had some issues with booting from the CD on the 9300-ITX but once I boot to Windows I can load up DVDs and such with no problem.

An Intel SSD in EIDE mode is a terrible tragedy since you don't get TRIM. I offer my sincere condolences.

Never encountered incompatibility between AHCI and OD on all my other rigs including the DFI LanParty MI P55-T36.

No TRIM on EIDE ... really ? I used to have another rig with an Intel G2 80GB SSD on EIDE and TRIM seems to be working because I did a CrystalDisk benchmark (after 3 months of usage) and the performance seems to be pretty much on par with the initial figures.
 
I have the board and AHCI mode isn't working properly ... doesn't work with any optical drive (tried 3 different ones from Samsung and Sony and none worked) and <1MB/sec transfer rate for my WD Caviar Green.

Currently running my Intel SSD on Enhanced IDE :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v680/elpibe10/CubeEnergyMC3Black-ZotacG43ITX.jpg

I know this is an old thread, but did you try this?

http://www.zotacusa.com/forum/topic...-drive-problem/page__view__findpost__p__5738?
 

Had the same AHCI problem with my 2nd identical board that I purchasedt from Amazon (first one was from NewEgg).

Looks like it's a design problem.

Anyway, it's working fine with Enhanced IDE and TRIM is working so I'd just leave it as it is since this is one of those rigs that I rarely use (just a few times per month at most).
 
No TRIM on EIDE ... really ? I used to have another rig with an Intel G2 80GB SSD on EIDE and TRIM seems to be working because I did a CrystalDisk benchmark (after 3 months of usage) and the performance seems to be pretty much on par with the initial figures.

TRIM just basically tells the drive it is okay to do garbage collection. Intel drives are good at doing that on their own even without TRIM. That's why the G1 drives were so resilient to performance degradation even w/o TRIM. I wouldn't worry too much about having or not having TRIM with any of the current Intel drives.
 
TRIM just basically tells the drive it is okay to do garbage collection. Intel drives are good at doing that on their own even without TRIM. That's why the G1 drives were so resilient to performance degradation even w/o TRIM. I wouldn't worry too much about having or not having TRIM with any of the current Intel drives.

True for G1 but not so for G2 according to Anandtech.
 
TRIM just basically tells the drive it is okay to do garbage collection. Intel drives are good at doing that on their own even without TRIM. That's why the G1 drives were so resilient to performance degradation even w/o TRIM. I wouldn't worry too much about having or not having TRIM with any of the current Intel drives.

Your wording can be a little confusing as garbage collection is the term 'normally' used to describe the in-drive-in-firmware background process (found in a few drives) whereas TRIM is the command passed by the OS to reclaim the 'deleted' cells.
The G1 resiliency (and the G2's to a lesser extent) has more to do with its fragmentation algorithm: it doesn't have any type of garbage collection. The point at which performance degradation becomes visible comes a bit later in the G1 but it will come. It then requires a secure-erase type format (or maybe the use of an Intel toolbox-type app) to recover its performance.
As for your need of passing TRIM, your mileage may vary. I personally reinstall the OS every few months anyway, so secure-erasing my drive wouldn't be that much of a problem (I said wouldn't as I don't own a SSD).
 
Had the same AHCI problem with my 2nd identical board that I purchasedt from Amazon (first one was from NewEgg).

Looks like it's a design problem.

Anyway, it's working fine with Enhanced IDE and TRIM is working so I'd just leave it as it is since this is one of those rigs that I rarely use (just a few times per month at most).

Yeah ok... Just thought I'd try and help, seemed to be an ackward solution but you never know :)

Got my board this other day. Not using an ssd though, haven't played around with it so much yet so I dunno what default settings are. But I'm thinking of running either ubuntu or windows on it as a mediacenter.
 
Yeah ok... Just thought I'd try and help, seemed to be an ackward solution but you never know :)

Got my board this other day. Not using an ssd though, haven't played around with it so much yet so I dunno what default settings are. But I'm thinking of running either ubuntu or windows on it as a mediacenter.

Well, I hope you plan on adding a video card cause anything other then a G45 is just shit poor for media playback. Even the G45 isn't that great at it.
 
Well, I hope you plan on adding a video card cause anything other then a G45 is just shit poor for media playback. Even the G45 isn't that great at it.

If there's a lot of problems I'll probably put in a 4350 that I have laying around... any special issue you are thinking of? I tried a 720p mkv tv-episode a bit and it worked fine for the quick test I did.... I'll give it something more heavier! I was using the latest version of VLC. Dunno if the gpu acceleration is on by default though
 
Well, I hope you plan on adding a video card cause anything other then a G45 is just shit poor for media playback. Even the G45 isn't that great at it.

If he's got a nice C2D he won't have any trouble at media playback
 
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