Intel Desktop Board DG33TL - motherboard - micro ATX - LGA775 Socket - G33

• Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 1 review
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 9 stars

  The perfect entertainment PC board

  by achalemoipas on February 19, 2008

  Pros: It has everything you need

  Cons: IDE connector placement/empty Bios/videocard ram limit

  Summary: This is an amazing little product.
  
  I wanted to build a very simple, very small and very quiet computer that has lots of power and will last as long as
  
  ...

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  Summary: This is an amazing little product.
  
  I wanted to build a very simple, very small and very quiet computer that has lots of power and will last as long as possible.
  
  I was going to buy a small HDMI capable videocard only to connect the PC to my HDTV and to give it an extra graphics kick for image rendering and graphic design (small stuff like webpages and just fooling around with video editing), I don't need to. I just bought a dvi to hdmi cable (10$). The integrated graphics offer an excellent performance, I was even able to play bf2142 on medium everything, at max resolution (42 inch HDTV) and it ran very smooth. I just tried it to test it and couldn't believe the result. Intel REALLY improved their integrated graphics, because they were completely useless in the past.
  
  It renders HD video flawlessly. The audio system is top-notch, I connected the pc to my dolby digital home theater system with the optical connector and it plays as well as anything else, in 7.1 surround dolby digital, all integrated.
  
  It supports 8gb of ram. It consumes very little energy considering the power it has. Since everything is already there, if you are building an entertainment pc, you won't need a sound card or a video card (unless you want to play modern games on average settings), ethernet is also integrated. You also won't need a large PSU: I got 4 gigs of dual channel DDR2, a 2,33ghz dual core processor (E6559), and a few media center gadgets running on it with a 380 watt power supply.
  
  The main badside of this board is the Bios. Can't overclock in any way, can't set fan speeds, very little info is available about anything. Aside from memory timing, there's basically nothing you can change. I don't care about that at all myself, but I know it's important to power users who want to maximise everything.
  
  Another very big downside is that you can't have more than 256mb of video memory. So forget about a 512mb card.
  
  There's no floppy drive connector, probably because they haven't been used in 10 years. The IDE cable connector is a little out of place, but that's only a minor problem during installation.
  
  Gamers, tweakers and power-obsessed users would be more happy with an Asus board that uses the same intel chipset or a Nvidia chipset. But I didn't like the way the Asus boards were built, they had cheap plastic parts all over the place and cheap heatsinks, while the Intel went for top of the line and even almost excessive heatsinks, aluminum parts, etc. It's not expensive for nothing, this is extremely well built. You just know it's never going to die.
  
  I've done a huge amount of shopping before buying this and for a powerful, compact and silent PC that will not be used to play the most recent videogames, this is the best purchase you can make. The construction is extremely durable and protective of everything you connect to it. It uses very little energy, has all the ram you need, all the audio you need and all the video you need.
  
  Do not go for this mobo if you want to make a Lanbox or gaming box. You could do it, but next year your machine won't be able to play the newest games.

  Updated
  This motherboard was assembled using the cheapest thermal paste I've ever seen in my life. I don't even know what to call it because I've never seen this before.
  
  The southbridge was running at 89-90 degrees celcius, which is 2 degrees away from breaking the board or 10 degrees away from boiling point. Good thing it's winter.
  
  This problem can be solved by removing the heatsink using pliers, and by being extra careful to not damage the board itself, lift the heatsink but don't pry it loose by putting pressure on the board.
  
  Clean everything, you will probably need a razor blade to remove whatever they put on there (mistery goo with some kind of fabric, very poorly applied). The chip MUST be very, very clean. Same for the heatsink. Then apply a quality thermal paste such as Arctic silver 5. It costs about 4$.
  
  By doing this, the temperature of the southbridge dropped by 30 degrees celcius, which means the original thermal paste was worst then putting nothing at all on the chipset.
  
  This problem would have, without a doubt, broken the board and maybe other components within a few months.
  
  Performance was greatly increased also.
  
  Aside for this, I'm extremely happy with the board, espescially now that it's not generating extreme temperatures inside the case.

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