FIRST IMPRESSION

The pre-production sample of the Intel DG45ID that we received was so new, it didn't have a box, I/O shield, any cables, or a even pressed driver disc - it arrived in a foam-padded shipping box, with a CD-R burned with a hodgepodge of driver installers, yet everything that we needed was supplied in one form or another. Unfortunately, at this point, we can't comment on the final hardware and software bundle that will be included with production motherboards.

The DG45ID motherboard is similar in design to the earlier DG33TL, which featured the G33 chipset with GMA 3100 onboard graphics. It's manufactured on a deep-blue PCB (a darker shade than Gigabyte's), and is dominated by a large silver-colored passive heatsink with a plastic retention bridge, mounted over the northbridge. The various structural elements of the board, such as PCI and memory slots, are nicely color-coordinated, in case you're planning on a windowed case to put your hardware on display, though the overall color scheme is one of the more conservative ones that we've recently seen.

As mentioned earlier, this motherboard is positively designed around home theater PC applications, so its Micro ATX form factor enables it to be used in any of the various HTPC-style chassis that use Micro ATX motherboards in order to match the dimensions of most home audio/video equipment. Let's take a look at a breakdown of the board's specs and features.

• Form Factor: Micro ATX (9.6" H x 9.6" D)
• CPU Socket: LGA 775
• CPU Support: All Celeron 400, Celeron, Pentium, Core 2 Duo, or Core 2 Quad CPUs
• Memory Slots: 4x 240-pin DDR2 (533/667/800) DIMMs, Dual Channel Capable
• Maximum Memory Support: 8 GB total
• Chipset: Intel G45 Express (G45 GMCH, ICH10R Southbridge; "Eaglelake")
• Audio: 8-Channel Intel High Definition Audio (7.1); IDT 92HD73E audio codec chip
• Audio I/O: 5 analog outputs, one optical (toslink) S/PDIF output
• Video: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD onboard with HDMI and DVI+I output
• LAN: Intel 82567LF Gigabit Ethernet Controller, 10/100/1000Mbps
• USB/Firewire: Up to 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 on rear panel), 2 IEEE-1394a (Firewire 400; one on rear panel)
• Storage: Six SATA2 3.0 Gb/s ports (Five internal, one eSATA)
• Other I/O: Consumer IR emitter/receiver (via header), one serial port (via header)
• Expansion Slots: 1x PCIe x16 slot, 2x PCIe x1 slots, 1x PCI slot
• Additional Features: Intel Rapid BIOS Boot, Intel Fast Memory Access, Intel Clear Video Technology, ACPI 2.0, CPU and Chassis fan speed control