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GigaByte GA-MA78GM-S2H Motherboard
Price Range
$88.99
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: jeffcalif
Updated:07-21-08
Duration of ownership:
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 Drivers on the CD are very outdated.
Overall Evaluation: 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.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: cotebryan
Updated:07-02-08
Duration of ownership:
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
Overall Evaluation: 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.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: lordwu
Updated:06-18-08
Duration of ownership:
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.
Overall Evaluation: 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.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by:
Updated:06-12-08
Duration of ownership:
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
Overall Evaluation: 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
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: stockshowgypsy
Updated:06-09-08
Duration of ownership:2 Weeks
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
Overall Evaluation: 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.
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: buddycrack
Updated:06-07-08
Duration of ownership:2 Days
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
Overall Evaluation: 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.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: tehaolee
Updated:05-29-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: All HDMI, VGA and DVI connections are included.
Weaknesses: Onboard audio is pool
Overall Evaluation: 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.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: bping
Updated:05-26-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: mATX form factor, good instruction manual, features
Weaknesses: NB gets plenty hot
Overall Evaluation: 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.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: AirJames2007
Updated:05-04-08
Duration of ownership:7 Days
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.
Overall Evaluation: 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.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: junk2005comcastnet
Updated:05-03-08
Duration of ownership:
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.
Overall Evaluation: 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.
