Customer Reviews

Zotac GF9300-A-E GeForce 9300 FSB1333MHZ LGA775 DDR2 667/800 Motherboard

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I received my MB yesterday and proceeded to build a system with it. Windows 7 64-bit installs and runs mostly beautifully.

After some research I found this board does NOT support USB wakup from S3 sleep. If you use a USB keyboard, it will not go into S3 sleep at all, only S1 sleep. S3 sleep turns off the cpu, cpu fan, and much of the logic, just keeping memory and any wakup logic active. S1 sleep does not turn off the cpu or cpu fan, and doesn't reduce the power consumption to very low levels. This also means this board will not work well with USB media center remotes that want to do USB wake via IR remote control signals.

Messages on the Zotac website from Zotac customer support confirm this card does not support S3 USB wake.

This board WILL go into S3 sleep if you use a PS/2 keyboard (if you enable S3 in the BIOS). It also can power on from a PS/2 keyboard using a key sequence.

Due to the S3 sleep issue, forcing me to use a PS/2 keyboard, I'm taking points off the rating.

Zotac does make a 9300 based mini-ITX board that is supposed to support USB wake from S3 sleep. Only an updated board rev (that's supposed to ship around November 2009) has this ability. That board is also supposed to support dual-link DVI. The mini-ITX card gives up 2 PCI slots and 1 PCI-x1 slot present on this micro-ATX sized board, and also I believe doesn't have the 1394 port like this board.

I got this motherboard hoping to replace my previous board which was starting to have some problems. I installed it, powered it up, and nothing came up. The board showed 'A0' on the error code display. I contacted customer support and this was our conversation:
Me: Hi I got a zotac geforce 9300 motherboard, and when I power it on the error display shows A0
Me: I couldn't find anything about the error code
Me: could you help me troubleshoot?
Zotac Rep: Just a moment please
Zotac Rep: Let me see if I can find any info on that error
Me: no problem
Zotac Rep: thanks
Zotac Rep: There doesn't seem to be much info on the error
Me: any idea what it relates to?
Me: memory, cpu etc?
Zotac Rep: Im still searching
Me: no problem
Zotac Rep: I don't know what to tell you
Zotac Rep: I can't any info on that

Good to know their tech support has no knowledge of error messages. Returned, thanks to Amazon's great customer service.

I like the board so far, it has worked fine. I only had a little problem installing the RAM. The manual states the proper way to install the memory modules to get dual channel performance. If I installed as per the instructions, the computer wouldn't boot, steady long beep, and showed error A0 on the board's display. Nowhere in the manual or in Zotac's website can you find the meaning of the codes. After trial and error, I was able to get the board to boot. The built-in video card is pretty good. Great motherboard for an HTPC. The only defect I see in this product is the manual.

Easy installation and setup.
Motherboard fired up with no problems running Win7 Ultimate.
Great product support with Bios & driver updates.

Motherboard came DOA showing "A0" error.
NO WHERE is there documentation on what that error means.
Called their 24x7 support and after a 1 hour wait I was told to return the motherboard through Amazon. When I asked why I should return it via Amazon and not them, they replied that it would take 1 MONTH to RMA via Zotec and that it would be better to just return it to Amazon. I find it one hell of a cop-out to put the cost of a return for DOA hardware on Amazon and not themselves. Heck, if I was Amazon, I would stop selling Zotac products if Zotac continues to offset the cost of RMAs for their shotty hardware on Amazon.

I bought this board for a low cost htpc build and it does everything I need it to do and does it well. I waited a bit before writing this review to see if it stood up. It does. It is fast, stable, and feature rich. The onboard video is even good for games. I played hl2 episode 2 today and frame rates were good with high detail. I wouldn't expect any current games to run, but for casual and last gen games, things were more than playable at 720p resolution.

I coupled the board with 4GB of memory and a 2.8 E6300 dual core pentium and I have a htpc that does everything at a super low cost. I am mostly watching videos and listening to music with the system, but overall it's really quite awesome. This board is one of the most feature rich I have ever seen and it's a great value. Highly recommended.

The only issue that i will mention is that the GPU fan is small and therefore a bit louder then I would prefer. I don't understand why companies install small fans like this, they're always annoying.. I may wind up replacing the fan. Other than that, great board.

I bought this motherboard as a replacement for an Abit motherboard that failed.

The installation instructions were clear and the installation was very easy. The operating system (in this case Windows XP) recognized the new motherboard without a problem and installation of the peripherals went flawlessly.

The system has been running continuously for several weeks and seems to be faster than with the old motherboard.

I am very happy with my choice of motherboards. I was unfamiliar with Zotac before buying this board but am favorably impressed.