Zotac's board isn't the fastest or most capable out there, but for just being stable and for HTPC playback it's the best Intel solution currently available. The Nvidia GeForce 9300 gives it an underlying boost to be something great with dual digital displays, perfect HD HQV numbers (that we've not seen before) and Blu-ray playback that the Intel G45 can't match.

We do feel it underperforms in general productivity and in the hands of more capable Tier-1 manufacturers like Asus, MSI or Gigabyte we'd expect much greater potential to challenge the Intel G45 in core performance figures, BIOS options and overclocking. However for doing what it says on the tin the Zotac GeForce 9300 does work well and we haven't had a problem with it (certainly more than can be said for others), so while it's not perfect, it should make for a very compelling HTPC purchase.