Strengths: Great price/performance ratio, reliable, easy to setup

Weaknesses: Northbridge runs hot and makes the PCI-E 1x port pretty useless. Drivers on the CD are very outdated.

Summary: Aside from the Northbridge complaint this is a great motherboard. The onboard graphics adapter is the best I've seen. Be sure to go to both the Gigabyte and AMD web sites to get the latest drivers BEFORE you set up your system - the included CD is pretty useless. Search for "Catalyst Control Center" to get the latest graphics driver for the onboard graphics.

Strengths: (1) Full-featured motherboard that is smaller in size (2) Has onboard video with VGA/HDMI/DVI outputs(3) Low power consumption

Weaknesses: (1) None

Summary: As a relative newbie to the whole building a computer thing, I found that this motherboard was very easy to install and get up and running. Although I put in video card, it is nice that this motherboard has good onboard video with a plethora of outputs - especially since the motherboard I previously tried did not have onboard video and I was not getting any video output or errors or anything to tell me why my video card wasn't working. Despite its small form-factor, this motherboard is richly featured and you would only need to drop in a CPU and some RAM and pretty much be up and running. The motherboard is designed to fit Micro ATX cases, which are smaller set ups most people use for Home Theater PC's.

Strengths: Lots of connectivity for home theater hookup, e.g., HDMI, S/PDIF, IEEE1394. Supports Hybrid Crossfire for video upgrade. Easily decode HD videos with onboard video. Supports new Phenom CPUs.

Weaknesses: Some reported northbridge heat problems but I don't have that problem myself. Also there are heat issues with 125W Phenom Quad-cores.

Summary: Paired this with a 4850E and Antec Fusion as my HTPC. Works great and so far I have not run into any problem with HD video playbacks or HDMI output. Onboard video is plenty enough for playing back Blu-Ray or HD DVD but it's nice to know that with Hybrid Crossfire support, I could upgrade easily with a cheap HD2400 or 3400. Excellent choice for HTPC and even a bit of casual gaming.

Strengths: MDMI,DVI,VGA..HD sound onboard,Digital in and out on board,Best IGP ive ever seen

Weaknesses: Dont bother with hybrid crossfire if u are a gamer..phenom 9750 quadcore in a MATX case and the northbride and southbridge run a bit warm but nothing dangerous.Get a coolermaser 590..Perfect layout

Summary: I love it!!Runs fast,has great HD sound plenty of options..The hybrid crossfire is meant for Bluray and dvd playback..not much more.Save the 50 bucks for the 3450 and get a single 3850 or 70 and youll have a super HTPC.GB

Strengths: AM2+ Phenom FX AMD X2 dual core,AMD 780G, SATAII and Raid,PCI Express 2.0, DDR2 1066

Weaknesses: some bios versions have problems with phenom

Summary: Budget priced micro board with improved AMD 780G chipset and graphics. You can add another PCI-E radeon with the onboard graphics using crossfire. Works for HTPC builds with audio and HDMI out. This is a great micro board with the 780G for the AM2 and Phenom. I have heard you should not use with 125v Phenoms.

Strengths: loads of connectors, e sata, firewire, gigabit ethernet, you name it it's got it. powerful integrated graphics processor. runs HD movies without a hitch.

Weaknesses: no crossfire or SLI, no DDR3 memory compatibility

Summary: this is a nice motherboard. perfect for building a home theatre PC but also great for you regular desktop PC as well due to the number of connectors it comes with. great price for everything that you get with this board. integrated graphics are strong enough for vista visuals and for play back of blu ray or hd dvds.

Strengths: All HDMI, VGA and DVI connections are included.

Weaknesses: Onboard audio is pool

Summary: The graphic card runs full hd movies very smoothly (My CPU is X2 4450e). It's an excellent motherboard for home theater PC but it would be better if you have an third-party audio device.

Strengths: mATX form factor, good instruction manual, features

Weaknesses: NB gets plenty hot

Summary: This is my first experience building a PC from scratch. I've always been interested in making an HTPC and took the leap. I liked the many features that come as standard on this board. Things like on board graphics, HDMI output, plenty of SATA connectors (it includes 2 SATA cables), IDE controller (comes with flat cable as well), and software utilities. Well documented motherboard. I found plenty of HTPC enthusiasts talking about this MB and that's why I decided to get this one. I've loaded Ubuntu and it works great. Using 2 GB of ram and AMD 64 X2 4000. No overclocking or any fancy stuff. Just watching movies and HD tv with Hauppauge 1600 tuner. The only downside, I'm planning on buying an aftermarket fan to cool the north bridge. It is getting hot when I use the computer. Not a minus, since custom PC's are meant to be tinkered with.

Strengths: HDMI, Easy setup, Great feature set, good overclocking, everything I needed in a HTPC.

Weaknesses: Got it for $85 which is a little higher than I usually spend for mobos.

Summary: Bought this because the 8600GTS had a fan and this built in video made my system quieter. The 8600GTS also did not have the overscan features this built in video had. Selling the video card and mobo would reclaim the extra cash I spent. I would definitely recommend this motherboard.

Strengths: Gigabyte stable quality. This is an all around board for non-hardcore gamer on AMD platform.

Weaknesses: Not really. One of the BIOS(F3) quirk is that if ACHI mode is selected, the boot menu does not boot from USB flash drive when I choose to.

Summary: It's great for HTPC/file server application. The heatsink below PCIe 1x is low enough that it does not block my PCIe 1x tuner card. The VGA/HDMI/DVI combination is the killer for other competitor. Cat 8.4 comes with NB 780G and SB ACHI drivers. Vista SP1 runs smoothly without problem. Oh, powerdvd 7.3 will cause Cat 8.4 to crash and powerdvd 8.0 works, not really gigabyte's problem.

Strengths: Nice board layout; Gigabyte did a great job packing so much into a mATX board while ensuring that add-ons will fit. Great for overclocking; support for Phenom and 1066mhz ram; HDMI & PCI-E 2.0

Weaknesses: framerate of the ATI HD 3200 IGP - my ATI AiW Pro 9600 card had better 3D performance that this GPU.

Summary: This board is killer, but I was disappointed after reading website reviews that touted decent framerates (even at 1024x768) from the IGP. My experience was total opposite, even after installing Cat 8.4 and overclocking the GPU. I even increased the Frame buffer in BIOS, but it was pathetic (1276 3DMark03 score). After I installed an XFX 8600GT with 512mb DDR3, the mark jumped to a whopping 15375!

Strengths: A ridiculous amount of uses along with a fantastic array of connectivity. DVI, HDMI, VGA, S/PDIF, eSATA... the list goes on and on. On top of this... there is definite room for overclocking.

Weaknesses: Drivers are still very fresh. I am using a 4400+ CPU in mine and am having some problems with deinterlacing some content. The Northbridge gets a little hot but there is no problems directly related.

Summary: This is a great board that has many useful features. You can build a very low power HTPC rig and still be able to pull off Bluray and HD-DVD playback along with mild gaming. Overclock your CPU a little bit and add in a PCI-E videocard to take advantage of the Hybrid-Crossfire technology and really have a lean machine on your hands. The HDMI supports both Video and Audio allowing you to clean up your wiring a little bit and still maintain high quality digital signals. This board will be perfect once the drivers are allowed to mature for a little longer. AMD/ATI has taken a very good step in the direction of hands down conquering this corner of the PC market.

Strengths: Perfect for HTPC. Support AMD Phenom Quad core CPU's

Weaknesses: Drivers are still new for this chipset

Summary: Great for HTPC board. Best onboard video capable of accelerating HD video. No additional discrete video card needed. HDMI connection. ESATA and firewire ports. Supports AMD Phenom CPUs for upgrade later from AMD X2's. Everyone from AVS Forums is talking about this board for HTPC use.

Strengths: So many options for connectivity. (DVI and HDMI) Great onboard video that consumes little power. Works great with 64-bit Linux. (Use Ubuntu 8.04 beta or Fedora 9)

Weaknesses: None really. Don't buy if you are a hardcore overclocker. But you probably already knew that. There will probably be more OC-friendly BIOS updates soon! Still a fresh chipset.

Summary: Great rig for HTPC/green pc setups.Gigabyte has a useful RSS feed for BIOS/driver updates. ATI's Catalyst 8.3 drivers are pretty good, will probably get a lot better next month, as this is the newest chipset.