Intel D945GCLF2 Essential Series Mini-ITX DDR2 667 Intel Graphics Integrated Atom Processor Desktop Board - Retail

by Intel

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001CK96QG
• Item model number: BOXD945GCLF2
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 6, 2008

Product Description

The Intel® Desktop Board D945GCLF2 is designed to support Internet-centric computing, delivering incredible capabilities in the new flexible Mini-ITX form factor. Featuring the integrated 45nm dual-core Intel® Atom™ processor 330 and the Intel® 945GC Express Chipset, this board is an energy-efficient solution for home users as well as for unique vertical markets. Designed with Intel’s leading edge 45nm Hi-k metal gate processor, this board delivers incredible opportunities to communicate, listen, watch, play, and learn via Internet connectivity.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am having a lot of fun with this board--no buyers remorse here!, November 12, 2008

By 

Ian M. Terry (New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intel D945GCLF2 Essential Series Mini-ITX DDR2 667 Intel Graphics Integrated Atom Processor Desktop Board - Retail (Personal Computers)

You may need a couple of extra cables and such to build a machine with this board but once you get your computer up and running you will most likely be impressed by what you put together for under 200 bucks. I think I actually built a machine for about 210.00 including a used case and PSU w/o monitor.

My setup has 2 GB of Ram (the max amount), 60 GB SATA Hard Disk. Also, I used a 20 pin PSU to 24 pin Motherboard converter cable as the pins did not match up when trying to plug the stock 20 pin connector into the motherboard--the instructions say this is possible. I use it mainly as a media server and for watching movies through s-video output to my TV set.

Here are a few really nice bits I found out about the D945GCLF2 board after I got it home:

It has a vga and s-video output (no DVI) which can be used in dual display configuration. If you have a TV with an s-video input this can come in handy.

Each of the Atom 330's cores have hyperthreading which amounts to 4 logical processors detected by your operating system--the atom 330
along with it's 945 GPU make the computer run snappy.

Unlike some of the reviews of this board state, it can be used for more than just web browsing. No, you can't play Call of Duty but many 3d games that are a couple of years old run very well. I tried Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness and Oni (which is way old) and they both ran flawlessly.

Ubuntu with Compiz looks stunning.

I put the good stuff first because I really don't have any problems with my computer but here are some glitches I had to work around:

The s-video output has a vertical scrolling issue when the computer
first turns on but clears up when your OS loads. I still can't read the grub boot menu from my TV set. The VGA output has no issues, however. This s-video flicker problem could be solved by a bios update from intel (if we ever get one) in the future.

The board comes with a driver disk for windows so installing 2000/xp/vista is easy. Installing Ubuntu proved to be less than stupidly easy
(it often is stupidly easy these days). The main problem I had was with getting the dual display working with s-video and getting the OS to recognize the two Hyper Threading cores in the atom 330. I solved the
multi core problem by installing Ubuntu 64 bit. Ask a Linux wizard why the 64 bit distro is different in that regard, all I know is that it now recognizes 4 logical processors and I am satisfied with the result.

All and all This machine is pure fun: It's cheap, its small, and it works
better than it should.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A small board for a small computer., November 16, 2008

By 

Guillermo Ruiz Buenrostro "Quoth, the Raven" (Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Intel D945GCLF2 Essential Series Mini-ITX DDR2 667 Intel Graphics Integrated Atom Processor Desktop Board - Retail (Personal Computers)

First, let me state an obvious thing: this board is not for everyone. It is a small, low-power computer mainboard built, designed and made (although not in that order) to use precisely as that, a small computer.

It measures exactly 17 by 17 centimetres, five centimetres tall. It has an Atom processor running at 1.6 GHz, enough power to run various flavours of Linux and Windows XP, but you don't want to run Vista on it. Why would you want to run Vista at all, I wonder? Well, that's another entirely different question.

It is a very limited board. It has a single memory slot, up to 2 gigs of DDR2 memory, shared with the video chip, which has both a VGA port and a s-video port, so you can plug it to a tv. It also has a single PCI slot, so you can install, let's say, a wireless network internal card or an i/o card. But it has 8 USB ports, so you can plug a lot of stuff. It has a serial and a parallel port, a keyboard and mouse port, both ps/2 style, an ethernet port (1 gbps) and integrated audio ports that sounds good enough. It has two Serial-ATA ports and an EIDE port, no floppy port (who use floppy drives today?) so you can safely plug a couple hard drives and a couple dvd burners.

This is an underpowered board, no doubt about it. But as today's underpowered machines are yesterday power computers, I'd say this baby was like a workhorse computer in 2003, or a server in 2000. It has enough power to decode most HD formats, at least those I've tested. You cad surf the net, play games that doesn't demand a supercomputer to load the splash screen and do general computing chores and tasks, all that using barely 35 watts, including one laptop hdd and one laptop dvd drive, but not the monitor.

Why would you like --or want-- to purchase this baby, then? Two words: embedded computer. I'm building a small machine, so small it fits in an old Nintendo Entertainment System case. Why would I want to do that, you may wonder? Well, first of all, I doubt that a burglar will want my old, battered, ugly NES and instead focus on my shiny Blu-Ray player, that in reality is just a dvd with a shiny sticker. And last but not least, can you imagine your friends' faces when instead of launching Opera in your Wii you fire up Firefox or Chrome in your NES? It's a priceless moment, believe me.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Little board, September 25, 2008

By 

S. Gray "audiosteve" (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intel D945GCLF2 Essential Series Mini-ITX DDR2 667 Intel Graphics Integrated Atom Processor Desktop Board - Retail (Personal Computers)

I just built a small system for my daughter with this board. Ubuntu 8.04 installed without a hitch and has everything she needs. She has an office suite, audio playback, movie application, Firefox browser, etc.. and it all works very well. It's not a speed demon but did execute all of the aps I threw at it with no noticeable delays or problems. If all you need is a system with which to do pretty much anything that is not seriously compute intensive, such as gaming, then this is a value that is hard to beat. It plays DIVX moves at 1400x900 just great. The total cost of everything including a multifunction card reader, case, 250G drive, DVD burner, motherboard and 1G memory was under $300. And my daughter loves the shoebox sized case it all fits in. BTW, the 1G Ethernet interface (the previous D945GCLF has 100BT) was a big plus when it came time to transfer files to the new machine.