Vastly superior performance and significant reductions in heat output compared to earlier Intel desktop processors have put Intel’s Core 2 Duo at both ends of the scale: It can be found in high-performance gaming machines and diminutive, efficiently packaged Mac Minis. But putting aside the extremes of big and small, it’s still hard to find support for Core 2 in mid-sized enclosures. Gigabyte is looking to change all that with its GA-945GM-S2 motherboard.

Designed for space-efficient microATX enclosures, can Gigabyte’s new low-cost entry still deliver on the promise of Core 2 performance?