This quote from the end pretty much summed up my entire thoughts.
Quote:
Unfortunately, that spark doesn't shine as brightly as it should. The KI51PV is a great idea on paper, but Albatron's execution is hampered by a handful of questionable design decisions and missing features. Albatron should be taking full advantage of the capabilities of the nForce 430 chipset, including its support for high definition "Azalia" audio and Gigabit Ethernet. There is no good reason to handicap the chipset's GigE controller with a 10/100 Fast Ethernet PHY.
On the BIOS front, the KI51PV really needs temperature-based fan speed control. This feature is a must-have these days, and even more important for Mini-ITX boards destined for home theater PCs. The KI51PV should have performed better in our ATA and USB tests, too, although with a Turion 64, it held its own remarkably well against dual-core Socket AM2 systems.
The KI51PV's niggling flaws aren't show-stoppers, but they're hard to forgive given the board's $310 price tag. That price is in line with the cost of other Mini-ITX boards with real CPU sockets, so it isn't necessarily exorbitant. Still, it's tough to tolerate even the slightest indiscretion when you're dropping three bills.
I was really looking forward to this board and hoping to see a price of $150-$200. 754 Semprons at 1.6Ghz are cheap, very low power, undervolt well, and are powerfull enough to run HD television. Athlon 3400+ for 754 now are 90mn and run at 2.4Ghz. They can be found cheap too. The 6150 was exaclty the right chipset to use. However, without HD audio, no fan control, no voltage control, poor overall excecution, and too high a price, really makes this board a huge disappointment for me. This would have been the perfect ITX HTPC board.
Core 2 Duo boards cost the same, support dual core, and come with a pci-e x16 port for upgraded graphics if you want. All tuners can now be found in USB versions so a PCI slot is not crucial.
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