I have this board with an e5200 dual core Intel, the Apex MI-008 case, 2GB of OCZ PC6400 RAM, and a WD 320GB HDD. I'm dual booting Win7 and a minimal Ubuntu 9.04 install with XBMC autostarting.
I've got to say it's a solid board, and the Linux version of XBMC with VDPAU as the renderer kicks Windows to the curb even with DXVA up and running. Once all of the bugs are worked out that is.
Comparing framerates and CPU usage on the "Killa" Planet Earth sample yield surprisingly different results. On Linux with VDPAU as the renderer @1080p, my CPU utilization is sub 10% on both cores and I have no dropped frames. On Windows7 in XBMC, without DXVA helping, my CPU stats spike and stay in the low 90% range and about 16 dropped frames. DXVA through MPC-HC yields slightly lower CPU stats, although not as good as VDPAU, and a lower dropped frame count.
The main hurdle to overcome with the Linux install was getting all of the audio over HDMI settings correctly. First I couldn't get audio at all over HDMI, then I got audio while watching most of my files, but no audio through the GUI. Then after much thread combing and some help from other members, I now have fully working audio. I have GUI audio prompts, audio in all my A/V files, including flash files, and have had no problems other than the occasional badly encoded file causing problems.
Most of the HD stuff I have on my network is MKV contained h.264 encoded video. Most is 720p while I have some at 1080p. I've yet to see anything this build cannot handle. I don't use the wifi part of the the board, so I can't comment on that, but I'm thinking about putting a TV tuner card in the open slot and see how that works.
The only complaint I have is the lack of waking from S3 standby from USB. Other than that, I'm very happy how the whole thing turned out.