I have put together a new AMD phenom powered system after my old Intel 865G motherboard died on me. My new configuration stands at:

* AMD Phenom 9650 Agena: Four Cores of awesomeness clocked at 2.3Ghz by AMD

* Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2HP: Feature Packed, value for money, rock solid board.

* 1GB Transcend PC2-6400 DDR2 800: Two Sticks of these to run in dual channel mode.

The configuration aims to achieve a good balance between performance, power consumption and price. The motherboard is also available in an all solid state capacitor variant which should offer better durability. Its christened "Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-DS2HP". Notice the extra 'D'?

I chose AMD over Intel because it offers a better performance over its Intel counterpart at the same price point. Plus Green, Purple and Black is so much sexier than Blue and Orange. (Come on, bubble gum sells in blue-orange packing :P )

The Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SCHP is a very well designed board. Its follows the micro ATX form factor, comes with two PCI slots, one PCI-e 16x Slot and one PCI-e 1x slot. Its outfitted with AMD's SB700 southbridge and 780G northbridge, both covered by solemn looking copper heat-sinks. All your standard connectivity options like LAN, USB, 1394 port, e-SATA are bundled. The board comes with an ATI Radeon HD3200 onboard. This is probably the first onboard solution that can playback 1080p content flawlessly.
Read more about the board on Gigabyte's site.

The processor slots in via an AM2+ slot. AMD's heat-sink is well designed, a charm to put on and works exceedingly well. The heat-sink comes with some thermal goop pre-applied. Although it works, I would still recommend you clean it off and apply a good thermal grease. I use Tuniq TX-2. Some popular choices include Arctic Silver 5 and MX-2.

If you are facing high CPU temperatures [50 degrees and above Celsius] I suggest you reapply some good thermal paste and ensure that the processor is locked to the board properly.

As I mentioned earlier, the onboard solution plays back High Definition content, even 1080p content flawlessly. The processor usage remains at 20% or lower levels through out playback. This is a great chipset to use if you are building an HTPC. The onboard chip will probable even handle a bit on gaming. Cant confirm that though. [The last game I played was "Age of Mythology" :)]

The CPU runs very cool. It does not cross 41 degrees Celsius even when put under a stress test. And that is a lot, given my ambient temperature is about 34 degrees. Pictured below, me encoding a DVD, while simultaneously playing back a 1080p movie in VLC. The movie in question is the Fanboys trailer. The CPU usage stays below 50% through out. Click the image for a larger view.

There is one small niggle though. The LAN drivers Gigabyte provides on their CD are horrible. It causes Windows to freeze up and crash. The problem can be solved by using the latest drivers [5.7 upward] from Gigabytes site. If your PC is rebooting too frequently for you to be able to complete the driver repair, open up the BIOS, disable the onboard LAN and then boot into windows. That should stabilize the system.

AMD's cool and quite technology is brilliantly amazing. When you are not performing any processor intensive tasks, it reduces the processor's clock rate and voltage. This allows the fans to spin slower. So when you are just listening to music of web surfing, your computer goes dead quite. Definitely a plus for multimedia and HTPC applications. You will be surprised how much better everything sounds without the whine of the CPU fan. Apart from noise reduction, it also cuts your power bills and helps save the planet. And that is never a bad thing.

If you are wondering about the thermocol in the pictures, I use it as a non conductive surface for bench testing.

All images magically expand when clicked.