Product Description

Marketing Description Introducing the Intel Desktop Board DG45ID built in micro-ATX form factor. This board is designed to bring you the next level of quality home entertainment experience with integrated HDMI display output and hardware accelerated decode during high-definition playback. With support of Intel Core2 Quad processors and up to 1333 MHz FSB, this desktop board truly brings joy to your living room.Intel Desktop Board DG45ID supports Dolby Home Theatre and is Microsoft Windows Vista Premium WHQL certified. Detail Specifications Form factor - microATX (9.60 inches by 9.60 inches 243.44 millimeters by 243.84 millimeters) Processor - Support for an Intel Core2 Quad processor in an LGA775 socket - Support for an Intel Core2 Duo processor in an LGA775 socket - Support for an Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor in an LGA775 socket - Support for an Intel Celeron Dual-Core processor in an LGA775 socket - Support for an Intel Celeron processor 400 sequence in an LGA775 socket Memory - Four 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) sockets - Support for DDR2 800/667/533 MHz DIMMs - Support for up to 8 GB of system memory Chipset - Intel G45 Express Chipset Audio - 8-channel (7.1) audio subsystem with five analog audio outputs and one optical S/PDIF digital audio output using the IDT 92HD73E audio codec Video - Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD onboard graphics subsystem with integrated HDMI + DVI-I display ports LAN support - Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbits/sec) LAN subsystem using the Intel 82567LF Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Product Details

• Brand: Intel
• Model: BOXDG45ID
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 2.36" h x 8.66" w x 12.99" l, 1.72 pounds
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 1 GHz
• Memory: 8192MB

Features

• Form Factor uATX
• Memory Slot 4
• Slots 1 x PCI-E x16 ; 2 x PCI-E x1 ; 1 x PCI
• Max Bus Speed 1333 MHz
• Supported RAM Technology DDR2

Amazon.com Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description With the growing popularity of user-generated media, peer-to-peer sharing and the uploading and viewing of streaming video, photos and more, it's no secret that the creation and sharing of digital entertainment is on the rise. From tech-savvy hobbyists to professional designers, today's users need hardware that can run the advanced multimedia tools needed to create and enjoy audio, video and more.

Amazon.com Product Description
With the growing popularity of user-generated media, peer-to-peer sharing and the uploading and viewing of streaming video, photos and more, it's no secret that the creation and sharing of digital entertainment is on the rise. From tech-savvy hobbyists to professional designers, today's users need hardware that can run the advanced multimedia tools needed to create and enjoy audio, video and more.Intel® Media Series Desktop Boards Product Highlight
Incredibly versatile, Intel® Media Series Desktop Boards are designed to support high-bandwidth interfaces and are ideal for running demanding entertainment, education, and gaming applications. Big, unwieldy media files can quickly overcome mainstream desktop PCs. Intel Media Series Desktop Boards allow users to experience HD videos in surround sound, design school projects or presentations, or upload vacation videos right out of the box, and with superior speed and efficiency.

Graphics
Intel® Desktop Media Series Boards offer users an excellent visual experience thanks to the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD with Intel® Clear Video Technology. This built-in support for full 1080p high-definition visuals eliminates the need for an additional graphics card while offering support for today's most popular video outputs including HDMI and DVI. This feature enables incredible visual media capabilities including video and image editing, streaming video viewing, and HD home theater entertainment. Ever flexible, Intel® Desktop Media Series Boards also offer a PCI Express x16 graphics connector to support the latest high-end graphics cards for a great 3D gaming experience.

Onboard Audio
Utilizing the Intel® High Definition audio chipset, the Intel® Media series delivers rich, realistic 360° Dolby Home Theater audio with up to 8-channel, 7.1 surround sound. Included Dolby Control Center software allows you to tweak and adjust your audio experience to meet your exacting requirements. Immerse yourself in sound as you enjoy the latest film in high definition or simply relax with some favorite tunes. Whatever you do, enjoy every decibel coming at you in all directions.

Quad-Core Compatibility
With support for Intel's latest quad-core processors, Intel® Desktop Media Series Boards deliver highly efficient performance for the most demanding entertainment applications. With multiple computing "brains", new multi-core processing systems can run resource intensive games and multimedia applications with phenomenal ease and superior responsiveness.

Advanced Technical Specifications

• Supported CPU
  • CPU Socket Type: LGA775
  • CPU Type: Intel® Core™2 Quad / Intel® Core™2 Duo / Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core / Intel® Celeron® Dual-Core / Intel® Celeron®
  • North Bridge: Intel® G45 Chipset
• Memory
  • Memory Slots: 2x240-pin
  • Memory Standard: DDR2 677/800 MHz
  • Maximum Supported Memory: 8 GB
• Expansion Slots
  • PCI Express 1.0 x16 connections: 1
  • PCI Express x1 connections: 2
  • PCI bus connectors: 1
• Storage Devices
  • SATA 3Gb/s: 5
  • eSTAT: 1
• Onboard Graphics
  • Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD with Intel® Clear Video Technology
  • Integrated HDMI & DVI ports
• Onboard Audio
  • Audio Chipset: Intel® High Definition Audio
  • Audio Channels: 8-channel (7.1) Dolby Home Theater
  • S/PDIF Out: 2 digital audio outputs
  • Audio Ports: 5 analog audio outputs
• Onboard LAN
  • Max LAN Speed: 10/100/1000 Mbits/sec
• Onboard USB
  • Onboard USB: 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 external ports, 6 via 2 internal headers)
• Physical Spec
  • Form Factor: microATX
  • Dimensions: 6.75 inches x 6.75 inches (171.45 mm x 171.45 mm)

Customer Reviews

Old technology need not apply
I bought this to upgrade my 6-year-old PC after reading some good reviews on the integrated graphics technology the G45 offers. It seems that gamers and overclockers are not too fond of this board, but I don't really do either of those things, so it seemed like a good solution for me. This board will support Quad Core processors, but I went with a Core2Duo E8400 3.0 GHz chip. Overall, I am very pleased with the performance, however I had a very hard time getting the system up and running. I've been assembling systems for 21 years and have never had so much trouble. Had I been paying closer attention when I ordered it, I would have realized this board has NO SUPPORT FOR IDE Drives, NO SUPPORT FOR Floppy Drives and NO BUILT-IN VGA. The built-in graphics uses DVI or HDMI only. Fortunately, my monitor supported DVI, so I just had to buy the cable. There is only one PCI slot, and one PCIe slot, but if you use PCIe, the onboard graphics are disabled, so you can't have both.
I thought I would use my existing optical (CD/DVD) drives, and located some SATA-to-IDE adapters online (which I had to order and wait for). There seems to be a problem using CDs booted on optical drives with SATA-IDE adapters to format the new SATA HDD I bought for this system, as I could never make the drive bootable and Windows install would typically fail in the middle. After buying a SATA DVD Drive and running the setup from there, everything worked fine on the first try. I would recommend this board as long as you buy all SATA Drives and forget about floppies altogether. The SATA-IDE adapters seem to work on the older HDs from my old system. I can read and write to the old IDE drives although they would not boot. I was able to copy all my data from the two old HDs to the new SATA drive and put the old ones out to pasture.

Even thought I bought it over a month ago, I've only been using it about 10 days, so it's hard to gauge reliability at this point. The benchmark tests are pretty impressive for the completed system and Intel has all drivers and documentation readily available on their website. It seems to run cool, too. I'm only using the stock Intel CPU fan that came with the chip and the fan built in the the Power Supply, although there are hookups for two more internal fans, they don't seem to be necessary. temperature seems to be stable.

As usual, Amazon shipped the board fast and well-packed. It was brand new and factory-sealed.

To sum up, the board has all the new features, but none of the old so it's probably best to plan on a total system rebuild with this one.

Excellent MOBO for HTPC
I've been building computers since NT4, and I'm amazed how technology has come, so far. I'm specifically impressed with the Intel DG45ID MOBO. Built specifically for Media Center use. This MOBO works really well with my Vista x64 Ultimate. I watch Blu-ray, HD DVD's, and online movies. I set this up with a quad core processor, 8GB RAM (Corsair), on an Antec case. The built-in HDMI (video card) passes audio and video. I've tested other MOBO (not an Intel), & their built-in HDMI (video card), does not pass audio. This video card can only achieve 1080p, at 60hz. So if you have a 120 Hz TV, it will bump down to 60 Hz.
Good luck with watching Netflix movie, using this video card. There's some DRM, management rights issue.
There are no legacy peripherals/hookups on this MOBO; all SATA, USB, Firewire connections. I don't know how the integrated RAID controller performs, since I'm currently not using it. The only suggestion is to have integrated wifi included on this board. I'll purchase this MOBO again, if someone wants me to build them a Media Center.

*** April 2009 Update ***
I purchased and hooked-up the Sony STRDG820 Receiver. The Sony works really well with my HTPC. I'm still using the integrated HDMI in the MOBO.
Last week I updated the BIOS. I found out that I'm way behind and I could not update using Express BIOS update. I had to update using Recovery or Iflash. I don't have a USB floppy, so I updated using my USB stick. The app that I used is the HP USB Disk Storage. You can download that app for free. You should be able to create a DOS startup disk, with the downloaded BIOS, .BIO extension file from Intel.
BTW: I'm using the Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 800 MHz 240-PIN DDR2 Dual-Channel Memory Kit - TWIN2X4096-6400C5. I have 8GB RAM, and BIOS setup for auto; my current memory speed is 800MHz.
Also, I'm not experiencing that weird DRM Netflix issue anymore.

Fits the purpose
I use this board for an HTPC setup, and as such the HDMI port was a must. I run this system through an Onkyo HDMI 1.3 receiver, and find it syncs well and provides multi-channel audio with easy. Upgraded drivers (vs. what was included) help the stability. There is little legacy with this board, but I don't need that. This one does all that I need at a reasonable price.