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This mainboard is based on Intel H55 Express chipset and supports contemporary LGA1156 processors. Mini-ITX form-factor allows building a powerful system in a compact case. Despite tiny size, the board is equipped with numerous controllers, and can even overclock processor and memory if needed.
This is a review of a fully-functional microATX mainboard that has all necessary features and additional controllers, including USB 3.0. We will not only determine the performance improvement provided by this new interface, but will also check the mainboard performance in nominal mode and during overclocking, and test its power consumption in different conditions.
This mainboard is very well designed, its technical specifications meet all today’s requirements, its BIOS allows fine-tuning the system to your liking. It boasts a number of features typical of higher-end mainboards, but has not very high price point.
<p><span style="font-size: small;">In the race to get a USB3 capable mini-ITX motherboard to market, Gigabyte has today announced the first entry into the arena - the GA-H55N-USB3. Measuring a tiny 17cm x 17cm, this board is a stark contrast the the Gigabyte X58A-UD9 released last week.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/3736/news-just-in-gigabyte-announces-usb3-miniitx-h55-motherboard-">Read more...</a><br />
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Gigabyte are currently attacking the X58 market; with no less than 10 boards, from the budget EX58-UD3R (and it's upgrade, the X58A-UD3R) to the premium EX58-EXTREME, their latest board tacks on the moniker of the X58A-UD9.
A full-size mainboard on Intel H55 chipset has a number of obvious advantages over microATX modifications, which are more numerous these days. Unfortunately, performance, energy-efficiency and overclockability are not among these advantages.
So far we’ve looked at three different mini-ITX motherboards here at Anandtech over the past 6 months. While each of the products we’ve reviewed have ticked a certain number of boxes, when you look at the feature sets of similarly priced m-ATX boards one of the irksome common denominators (among other things) with the mini-ITX offerings is that you essentially pay more for less. Well, ECS may just have delivered the perfect cost to feature ratio with the H55H-I, a $79 mini-ITX motherboard based on the Intel H55 chipset.
Ordinarily you might sneer at the mention of ECS, but in this instance basic functionality and layout very much fits; especially when you consider what vendors like Intel and DFI are offering on their boards for a price premium – those boards cost over $120.
All ECS need to do with the H55H-I is provide a workable BIOS and good plug-in functionality to steal the show. Of course, those two things are often easier said than done.
<p><span style="font-size: small;"> Okay, I lied a little. Biostar announce their new tech as ‘<strong>BIO-unlocKING</strong>’, a feature on their latest 8xx series motherboard to unlock the quad core Thuban based processors (such as the Phenom II X4 960T) to their hexacore variants. Biostar cover themselves by noting that not all quad core Thubans will unlock. This feature will also help with unlockable dual core chips.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"> However, this is their new TA890FXE board. Premiered at CeBIT earlier this year and upgraded since with a new (and better) color scheme, the ubiquitous combination of the 890FX and SB850 chipset will feature a 5+1 phase VRM, four PCI-E x 16 2.0 slots (x16, x16, x4, x1) for quad CrossfireX support, SATA 6Gb/s, Realtek Gigabit Ethernet, e-SATA, 7.1 Channel audio, support for dual channel DDR3 and 6 USB2.0 slots. <br />
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<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/3691/biostar-announce-the-ta890fxe-and-bioking">Read more...</a><br />
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These two products offer a very successful and neat combination of all features and interfaces a contemporary platform might need, including a popular USB 3.0 standard. Among the great features we should also list rich BIOS functionality, good overclocking potential and flawless operation.
<p><span style="font-size: small;">Popular motherboard manufacturer MSI has announced the next weapon in their motherboard arsenal - the MSI Big Bang-XPower. Like other second generation X58 motherboards, the XPower will feature SATA 6G and USB 3.0 teamed up with a slew of overclocking features in order to captivate the enthusiast market.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/3688/bigbang-xpower-msi-motherboard">Read more...</a><br />
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