ZOTAC GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi

It's the only Mini-ITX board out that has PCI-E x 16 and 775 and is relatively affordable...

I'm about to order one... $115 AR then grab an SG05 for ~$110 shipped (unless a deal pops up)
Just bought a used E7200 + 4GB of DDR2 1000 for $110
All I need then is the Slimline DVD Burner SN-T083A - for about $60 and then decide on SSD, 2.5 or 3.5" Drive. then a AXP-120/140 or Geminii.

On and a video-card... GTS250 most likely, maybe a 4850 from XFX.

Anyways, should be a pretty sweet mini-itx gaming rig for < $6-700

Think of trimming down the cables and sleeving them + powdercoating the inside black and putting some windows on each side (with venting probably)
 
It's the only Mini-ITX board out that has PCI-E x 16 and 775 and is relatively affordable...

I'm about to order one... $115 AR then grab an SG05 for ~$110 shipped (unless a deal pops up)
Just bought a used E7200 + 4GB of DDR2 1000 for $110
All I need then is the Slimline DVD Burner SN-T083A - for about $60 and then decide on SSD, 2.5 or 3.5" Drive. then a AXP-120/140 or Geminii.

On and a video-card... GTS250 most likely, maybe a 4850 from XFX.

Anyways, should be a pretty sweet mini-itx gaming rig for < $6-700

Think of trimming down the cables and sleeving them + powdercoating the inside black and putting some windows on each side (with venting probably)

Nice deal on the E7200 and RAM. Are you not interested in the HD4770? I would think that might be a better option, no? Lower power consumption and less heat? What sort of power supply comes with that case (too lazy to look it up)?

Do you know of any good tutorials concerning hacking/shortening the PSU cables? I might be interested in doing that at some point this summer also but I am not that technically proficient.
 
I'm more about getting the most power out of it, rather than saving heat/power ;)

It comes with an FSP 80+ 300Watt... which is enough for the motherboard, quadcore, 4850, 1 HDD and 1 Slimline DVD.

And I haven't really looked at tutorials, but I do have a few webpages that might help...

Webpage1 Webpage2 Webpage3
 
Thanks for the links. I got curious about it so I did a quick check an found what appears to be a decent tutorial on cable modification/sleeving. Here it is if anyone else is interested.
 
Does anyone have trouble with the ethernet port on this board?

After a fresh Vista x64 business install with the 20.09 (latest) nForce drivers, the networking device shows up with a yellow sign in device manager saying "Device cannot start - Code 10", which seems to be only a generic code if anything goes wrong.
I also tried getting drivers via windows update (only got display drivers there) and using the driver CD that came with the board, no luck either.

I've found loads of nforce networking "Code 10" reports, but they all occured on older boards.
I also got a BSOD/freeze at crcdisk during boot (looked at safe boot log) after installing the drivers.
EDIT: turns out this is a popular problem. the solution is installing vista x64 with only 2GB of ram and then patching via windows update, or use a vista sp1 disk (i assume the fix is included in sp1). unpatched vista is not playing well with 4gb of ram on nforce. this still leaves the ethernet problem though.

All this felt like a slow and silent chipset death, so I sent the board back for RMA. Still, I'd like to know if the ethernet problems are only a software problem which I was unable to solve :confused:
 
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All this felt like a slow and silent chipset death, so I sent the board back for RMA. Still, I'd like to know if the ethernet problems are only a software problem which I was unable to solve :confused:
I haven't had much experience with NVIDIA Ethernet drivers (and NVIDIA chipsets in general), but I do have some experience with Ethernet drivers in general under Vista x64.

The thing is, from what I've managed to figure out from testing, Vista x64 is EXTREMELY picky with network drivers, especially if there are filter layers (like cFosSpeed, or an AntiVirus with firewall functions).

I have an Asus P5E Deluxe mobo with a Marvell NIC. I was experiencing random crashes, sometimes just after a few MBs were transferred through the NIC. Or, like yourself, the NIC wouldn't detect a cable, or throw up some other weird error. I finally managed to rule out OC issues (both on the mobo and the GPU), and slowly made my way to the cFosSpeed extra layer on the network stack.

A rather thorough web search told me that these kinds of extra layers are not very liked by Vista's network driver model. A different (older) driver version finally answered the problem once and for all. Until my last BIOS update, that is... That happened last Wednesday night, and Thursday morning I had to go away for a few days, so I have that one to look after again. cFosSpeed.dll is acting up, it throws the computer into S3 mode as soon as it loads; and BSODs when accessed when moving to S1... sheesh.

So, to sum a rather long story up, you might have had a network driver hickup. Those are definetely NOT pretty, and can be a MAJOR pain to get rid of.

Hopefully it really was a faulty chipset, if not, you might want to try using other drivers.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
Thanks a lot, I'm also hoping they find something in RMA, but it seems like the nForce ethernet is glitchy.

I posted the same on avsforum, and so far the ethernet with 20.09 drivers is reportedly working fine on XP SP3 and Win7 RC x64.

I didn't put Vista SP1 on my fresh install, so I could've missed a fix that came with SP1. But before I tried a fully patched Vista, so that can't be it.

Strangely, the board worked perfectly in a temporary setup on my desk. After I put everything together in the case (Sugo SG05), ethernet started to act up.
 
Strangely, the board worked perfectly in a temporary setup on my desk. After I put everything together in the case (Sugo SG05), ethernet started to act up.
Maybe there was an EM interference somewhere because of the case? Or a very tiny short that caused intermitent problems? I've had both of them, actually, one of them being a VERY bad grounding on my main Centurion 5 case that causes sparks to fly every time a USB cable touches any metal parts on the case...:eek:

Hopefully, the RMA will fix it soonish.

*Vent* This is why I don't buy on-line that much... If I have a problem in a regular store (not the big chains, the smaller ones who can actually offer great prices), I hand in the defective product and either get another one at the same time or in a couple of days tops, or I get my oney back in full. Big stores and e-tailers are s****ier (though some big stores refund you in full up to the 30th day after the buy), you actually have to pay to get something fixed. I'm not sure that's even legal in Portugal, though every e-store I know hits you with a "we're only responsible for RMA fees TO costumers' adresses" clause... */Vent*

Sorry. Just had it bursting out.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
Either it was a short or something similar, or a chain of driver/OS installations that caused the ethernet to suddenly fail.

As the board ran fine otherwise, I'm still sure there is a software reason for the problem. There is quite an amount of individual problems with the nForce chipsets. I already occupied myself for two evenings with researching the "Code 10" issue, with no helpful result so far.

Regarding buying hardware online: return policies/RMA are indeed one of the major concerns for customers, and that's for a reason. But as competitive as the market is, shops realize that and go a long way to improve customer service, at least here in Germany. There are shops that suck, but everyone knows it and it's easy to avoid.
The biggest problem in RMA cases is the delay between retailer and manufacturer. Most RMA policies require an item to be sent to the retailer, but all they do is send the item straight to the manufacturer to get it checked or exchanged. That relation isn't very transparent and causes huge delays here. And in cases like mine, there is a chance that the board is being returned unchanged from the manufacturer because they couldn't reproduce the error.

 
... there is a chance that the board is being returned unchanged from the manufacturer because they couldn't reproduce the error.
I believe that it must be hard for the department who doesn't do anything else than checking faulty reported hardware.

Imagine the countless different issues with all kinds of configurations, resulting in trying to pin point what hardware component might be the cause.
Not only is it unrealistic to expect from manufacturer to be able to verify the issue with the very constallation, but aren't most computer problems so much more complicated to track down ?

I suspect manufacturer to rather exchange old for new in case of doubts, to make life easier for both sides.
When they make a product availbale for a certain price, then this price already includes the inconveniance for troubleshooting of a number of customer's repair requests.

For example, I have bought a 24" Samsung monitor in March 2008.
Only half a year later the sensor buttons on the front sometimes don't respond anymore. It's an intermittant problem.

I contacted Samsung and they ordered a sub-company to pick the screen up, repair it and drop it at my place again. I even got a loan screen for the time being.
When they brought the monitor back (repaired), it worked for a while and the same fault started to happen again soon afterwards.

Contacting Samsung again, they initiated another collection.
But I thought to myself, why would I have to accept this forward / backward if these sensor buttons seem to be crap in the first place ?
I asked the gentleman who dealt with my case to escalate this matter as I don't agree to go through an repair-orgy, having the risk that my screen collects one scratch after another.

It's still in the process of being decided where to go from here, but that's something a manufacturer of any component must be aware of.
 
Indeed, from an economical point of view, there isn't much point in trying to reproduce an error on a 100$ product for 1-2 hours. I'll see how it goes :)
 
Does anyone have some linkage to the recommended drivers for each of the nForce 9300 subsystems? IDE/SATA, Network, sound, video, etc? I've not used an nVidia based board in ages, mainly because I had so many problems with them before. It was a hassle last time to pick and choose the best and most stable drivers.
 
I'm looking for a case for this mobo. The thing is that I will be using the onboard video so I want the case to be small BUT I want to fit a full size optical drive. I can't find anything out there that fits that criteria, everything that fits a full size optical drive is too large.

Any ideas?
 
Does anyone have some linkage to the recommended drivers for each of the nForce 9300 subsystems? IDE/SATA, Network, sound, video, etc? I've not used an nVidia based board in ages, mainly because I had so many problems with them before. It was a hassle last time to pick and choose the best and most stable drivers.
NVIDIA chipset drivers (which usually include just about anything from the IGP to the network interface) are a all-in-one package. That's one of the great things about NVIDIA chipsets, you just need to download a single package to get most drivers ready to be installed.

And for the sound chip, just go to the Realtek website, and download their HDAudio driver package. Done. There are only three or four big audio codec manufacturers for motherboards: Realtek, Analog Devices, VIA and Sigmatel. There are others, but those are usually only seen on add-on cards, like Creative Labs (they actually have codecs, too, not only fully developed audio chips) and C-Media (they were somewhat common back in the AC'97 times, though).

Sigmatel works mainly with Intel, AD left the audio codec market last year, and VIA is still rather rare, having perhaps replaced those few motherboard models that actually fitted AD chips. The rest of the market is Realtek, so there are not many chances for you to go wrong by downloading that driver package for pretty much every PC you might buy... lol

I'm looking for a case for this mobo. The thing is that I will be using the onboard video so I want the case to be small BUT I want to fit a full size optical drive. I can't find anything out there that fits that criteria, everything that fits a full size optical drive is too large.
I'm affraid that's not that easy to handle that one. Since most ODDs have steep power-up current requirements, most cases that use them also have a big-ish PSU. Plus, the whole drive is at least 12 to 14cm long, which causes some clearance and airflow issues with the CPU heatsink...

The smallest case I know that can handle a 5.25'' ODD is the Apex MI-100 (and other MI-xxx derivatives), and I reckon it's probably not very easy to go smaller and still fit that big of a drive...

Cheers.

Miguel
 
Anyone ? :)

Also does the board allow booting from USB ?

I'm using a Scythe Shuriken. Solid choice for all low profile / SFF things. Fits well, yet the push pins are a pain. Literally, you won't feel your finger tips for a while.

The board allows booting from USB, I installed Vista from a USB DVD just fine and you can set USB HDD as booting device aswell.
 
Yea, I'm guessing he wants to use a Blu-ray HD/DVD combo drive... might be a better option just to get a small mini-itx case, then put that combo drive in an enclosure...

Not the prettiest option, but probably the smallest...
 
Actually I dont wanna use any disc drives. Too old tech for me lol :D
was just wondering if it would be possible to instal WIndows 7 from bootable USB pen drive.
Shuriken is nr.1 option on my list atm due to size and price. It also should provide good airflow for chipset and power circuitry area.
Thank you for info timme
 
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Actually I dont wanna use any disc drives. Too old tech for me lol :D
was just wondering if it would be possible to instal WIndows 7 from bootable USB pen drive.
Shuriken is nr.1 option on my list atm due to size and price. It also should provide good airflow for chipset and power circuitry area.
Thank you for info timme

I use GeminII in my sugo SG05b, didn't catch which case are you going to use.

Yes you can install vista/7 from an USB pen drive
 
Dynatron P12 Passive HS and yes you can usb boot... I have used both an 8 Gig usb stick and on another occasion the USB ODD to load Win 7 - 64 RC1 on the system
 
Not all USB devices work though.

My 8GB USB stick for example, does not allow to be formatted in NTFS system.
Tried everything until I found out it's a hardware related fault.
Surprisingly a lot of people have the same problem.
 
Danger Den now has the drawing for the NB waterblock if anyone wants to order one. Call and tell them you want the chipset block Richard (me) and Derek designed a few weeks back. Their socket 775 blocks fit the CPU as well of course.
dsc015272747053.jpg
 
Danger Den now has the drawing for the NB waterblock if anyone wants to order one. Call and tell them you want the chipset block Richard (me) and Derek designed a few weeks back. Their socket 775 blocks fit the CPU as well of course.
dsc015272747053.jpg

Is the cat included?
 
Danger Den now has the drawing for the NB waterblock if anyone wants to order one. Call and tell them you want the chipset block Richard (me) and Derek designed a few weeks back. Their socket 775 blocks fit the CPU as well of course.

Any idea on cost?
 
Guys any of you lucky owners run Raid 0 on this board ? How is your experience with installation and performance ?
 
Guys any of you lucky owners run Raid 0 on this board ? How is your experience with installation and performance ?

Not running raid (oh, I miss raid), but you would have to give up on either having an optical drive or the pci slot to make it happen.
 
Not running raid (oh, I miss raid), but you would have to give up on either having an optical drive or the pci slot to make it happen.

Not really.
You can get a USB header to USB plug. Then a USB to sata or ide adapter.
Things would be tight to fit in there. But if you do not have a video card it should work fine.
 
Not really.
You can get a USB header to USB plug. Then a USB to sata or ide adapter.
Things would be tight to fit in there. But if you do not have a video card it should work fine.

My main issues with USB drives is speed. I'll admit to not doing a ton of recent research on the matter, but what is the functionality of a blue-ray drive reading movies or burn speeds if I use it through USB? I plan on doing this eventually when I downgrade my Zotac from "primary desktop" to simply a compact system, but until then access to my bluray burner is a higher priority than raid.
 
My main issues with USB drives is speed. I'll admit to not doing a ton of recent research on the matter, but what is the functionality of a blue-ray drive reading movies or burn speeds if I use it through USB? I plan on doing this eventually when I downgrade my Zotac from "primary desktop" to simply a compact system, but until then access to my bluray burner is a higher priority than raid.
No need to worry about speed. USB 2.0 allows a maximum speed of 480 Mbit/s, and 12x blu-ray (which still does not exist) is 432 Mbit/s, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc. A suitable and very compact "Slim ODD SATA to USB 2.0 converter" is available at http://www.shopaddonics.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=ADSSSAU2.
 
The fastest I've honestly seen out of a USB device wasn't close to 480mbps though...

But for what's available now, it should be fine (I don't think they're past 2 or 4x right?)

I just read the wiki real quick, I guess we're up to 8x... which USB should still be fine for (Hell Buffalo is selling an External USB 8x burner)
 
No need to worry about speed. USB 2.0 allows a maximum speed of 480 Mbit/s, and 12x blu-ray (which still does not exist) is 432 Mbit/s, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc. A suitable and very compact "Slim ODD SATA to USB 2.0 converter" is available at http://www.shopaddonics.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=ADSSSAU2.

The fastest I've honestly seen out of a USB device wasn't close to 480mbps though...

But for what's available now, it should be fine (I don't think they're past 2 or 4x right?)

I just read the wiki real quick, I guess we're up to 8x... which USB should still be fine for (Hell Buffalo is selling an External USB 8x burner)

Hmmm... I might have to try that. At worst, I can test my blueray drive through the usb connector and see how it functions. Even if it doesn't keep up to snuff, I can just use the other drive as external backup storage...
 
Quick question. What do you guys use to monitor temps, fan speeds & voltages? I find everything doesnt seem to work with this board :(
 
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