Gigabyte H55N USB3 motherboard review

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.

Meet the newborn, so young, so small, only 17cm at birth. This is the Gigabyte board. We'll use it for baseline performance, for a nice overclocking session you'll need something a little more spicy not a Mini ITX platform. Most features come straight of the Intel H55 chipset, and as you can see already, this Mini-ITX motherboard really is stuffed though.

Packaging so you know what to be on the lookout for in the stores, and yeah .. even that's small :)

The motherboard has a Mini ITX form factor. This form factor will actually allow the motherboard to be installed in an ATX based chassis perfectly. It's just smaller and uses only four holes for mounting is secure. Anyway, you can observe by all the connectivity it's an interesting motherboard alright. The board even comes with a x16 PCIe slot

Rear IO: The board comes standard with six USB connectors of which the blue ones are USB 3.0, eSATA, D-SUB, DVI  and even a HDMI connector, Gigabit Ethernet and 7.1 analog output. Also a Digital S/PDIF sound output, Optical TOSLINK, is spotted. Very nice.














from : guru3d.vom