With the ongoing trend of HTPCs and System on a Chip designs in the past year or so we have seen a growing demand for hardware that's getting smaller. Next to the actually ICs especially small form factor motherboards are definitely a topic of growth and trend.
See, today's tested motherboard for example is only 17 x 17 cm on size, and while it has limited options here and there, it can function even as a full high-end PC if you wanted it to. There's no real limit to what processor you use, and if you pop a Core i7 870 processor on this motherboard and inject a dedicated graphics card you might have created the smallest yet fantastic gaming rig you can carry around.
But of course products as the H55N-USB3 motherboard we test today are intended for generic PCs, typically armed with an Intel Clarkdale based processor (which has an embedded GPU), paired with dual-channel memory and an decent HDD. This handful of components will get you a fully functional mainstream PC, perfect for usage as HTPC or generic Desktop work PC.
Gigabyte decided to up all this up a notch or two. They took the extremely small Mini-ITX form factor very serious, and each inch on this motherboard has been equipped with an component. As such we see that the H55N-USB3 motherboard is ready for all LGA 1156 Core i3/i5 and i7 processors, it is equipped with four SATA 2 ports, a x16 PCIe Slot for high-end graphics, durable components like solid chokes and very quality capacitors, optical Toslink SPDIF output, and when paired with a Clarkdale based Core i3 or i5 processor the ability to utilize the D-SUB (VGA), DVI or HDMI connector. Oh and it's got USB 3.0 as well.
All that for 90 EUR, not bad at all we say. Let's pop in a Core i5 661 processor and see if we like it.
So today we'll discuss a topic amongst many of the male and female species for decades now ... does size really matter ?! Is 17 cm is enough ? And yeah, we'll be answering that mythological question today.
We'll be reviewing a very cute and small motherboard sized only 17cm x 17cm, and for those that do not recognize it, this is the Mini-ITX form factor.
Popular in many scenario's like automotive, industry implementations but as we'll show you, with a motherboard like tested today truly excellent for HTPCs and even regular desktop PCs as well.
The product comes from Gigabyte and is tagged as H55H-N-USB3, despite what you might think or feel about Mini-ATX, this little motherboard has it, it's packed and loaded with features. Pop on a Clarkdale based processor like the Core i3 or Core i5 series and you can use it's HDMI, DVI of D-SUB monitor connector. Audio ? No worries the embedded Realtek ACL 892R eight channel audio codec will happily output to analog or coaxial or optical TOSLINK S/PDIF connectors, need USB ? Well, the rear panel even has USB 3.0, need SATA2 ? Here we spot four ports and one eSATA, dual channel memory ? Yep supported, up-to 1600 MHz and in the end if you do not want to use the embedded graphics from the processor, then you can even pop in a full x16 PCIe graphics card and make a wicked gaming rig out of this incredibly handy H55H motherboard.
To facilitate the Clarkdale processors, Intel needed to come out with a specific chipset, in fact they'll be released two of them each with their own derivative sidekicks. This is needed to run the integrated graphics via what's labeled as the Flexible Display Interface (FDI). Intel is offering two new chipsets to the market, H55 and H57/Q57. P55 actually should also work fine, yet obviously not with the embedded IGP. We will actually put this to the test today.
Now you might think the platform will be cheap and well, honestly procing is average at best. Intel will charge its partners 40 USD per chip per 1K units. In a pale comparison, Intel charges almost 40 USD for a P55 chip to the motherboard manufacturers.
The motherboard tested today we'll pair it with a Core i5 661 dual core processor for a test run. But first, let's have a look a some photos of the motherboard itself.
These little motherboards always offer heaps of fun and features don't they ? It's just good to see how much stuff you can chuck into something so small. The end results as such was impressive. Though the boards are not the cheapest at roughly 90 EUR / 105 USD you are building a platform that is small, easy to carry around yet you still get an excellent feature set. The inclusion of the full PCIe x16 slot, the USB 3.0 headers, the wide range of monitor connectivity and even the Optical SPDIF Toslink audio output it all makes the motherboard, as tiny as it is, very feature rich and up-top date on modern standards.
The Mini-ITX motherboard is a perfect example of getting the most out of your hardware. At 17x17 CM we see a PCB fully utilizing everything it can. Face it, this motherboard performs as well as any regular H55 based motherboard and comes is packed with 95% of the regular features as well.
So for a reasonable amount of money you get a proper baseline performing Core i3 and i5 ready motherboard. Pop in a Clarkdale based processor and et voilla, you'll have working 2D/3D graphics as well. It's pretty much all you need to get Windows Vista or 7 going properly. Should you want to game in a more serious fashion, then just make use of the PCIe slot and pop in a dedicated graphics card.
Though we did not cover it deeply, you can even overclock your processor in the BIOS. A somewhat decent selection of features is offered there including Multiplier control and the ability to over and undervolt the processor. Memory overclocking is also fairly good, all memory timings are available, and each timing has an AUTO parameter scales properly with frequency. How much overclock options you actually need on a motherboard like this remains trivial though, but the implementation certainly is very decent should you need it.
Overall the Gigabyte H55N-USB 3.0 is a really fair and good motherboard. Performance is as expected good thanks to H55, and for the money the features are plenty decent for any environment you can think of: automotive, HTPC, desktop, internet, work and even high-end gaming is a very possible alternative here.
Gigabyte stuffed the 17x17cm PCB full with all the features the H55 chipset has to offer and then some more. The one thing you might miss is say an extra PCI x1 slot for more high-end audio. But yeah, there's no room left on the PCB really. Ehm, two things we feel are missing, RAID support and an extra FAN header along with proper FAN RPM control from within the BIOS. But that's all I can think of really.
The H55N-USB 3.0 motherboard comes very recommended as a fair value product. Size apparently doesn't matter, as you can gain every foreseeable and modern option a regular sized mainstream ATX motherboard offers as well, and what makes this a great deal is that you can pair it with any socket 1156 processor. Fast, versatile, feature rich, petite and even USB 3.0
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