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Case - Antec Fusion V2
MB - Intel DG45ID
CPU - Intel Q9300
RAM - 2G Corsair
HDD - 1TB Seagate
Blu-Ray ROM - LiteOn DH-401S
HVR-2200
If you want to use this board be aware that there are no PS2 ports and no IDE connector - so it's SATA optical and HDD's only and USB everything else. It only has optical SPDIF out (no coax) if you need to use it.
The build went smoothly. The only problem I ran into was that I needed to move a SATA power connector on the only double SATA feed from the power supply to make it reach both the BD and HDD. Apart from that pretty much everything else is plug and play. There are a couple of technical wiring connections with the Antec case due to the built in VFD and IR reciever, but they are not a problem with the help from google (or me if you wish).
I am using the supplied CPU cooler. The noise level from the box with the power supply plus two side exhaust fans set a low speed is about the same noise level as the fan on my PTAE-1000 projector. I have no problem with this level and don't see any reason to upgrade the CPU cooler.
There are two current HD issues with this board. The first is a 'repeater' issue if you feed the HDMI into an AVR (and particularly if you have a Denon AMP like me) and the other is 24p. I won't go into them here because the current thread on the AVS forum about this motherboard will give you all the information you need. I am not too concerned about these issues because I think they will be solved in the future and there are work arounds for the repeater problem.
OK, does it work ?
Blu-ray = Good. The optical drive came with PowerDVD 7.x BD 2channel software which had to be upgraded to Ultra 8 to make it useful in my situation. I now have a workable multi-zone BD player plus my existing PS3.
(EDIT - EVR does work with this board - see third post for details)
Freeview HD = OK. I have installed my trusty DVBViewer on the new kit and cranked it up last night. I'm not fully up with the play on renderers but I can tell you that Vista EVR does not work on this board. It will display a picture but it's mostly bright yellow. I can get good output at this stage using 'Overlay Mixer' but it comes with a bit of 'ghosting like disturbance' on panning shots. More tweaking needs to be done here to see what improvements can be made here.
The normal decoders are currently installed (Cyberlink, AC3Filter, Monogram AAC). I have the onboard sound feeding via the Intel HDMI driver and there are no problems with AAC or AC3 into my AMP via this connection.
Current CPU usage: 3-4% @ 720 and 16-18% @ 1080i or Blu-ray
Trusted
Snowflake
