Gigabyte Readies Feature-Packed Mini-ITX LGA1156 Motherboard

[btarunr]

Gigabyte is readying a new motherboard in the mini-ITX form-factor which is bound to surprise some with its feature-set. The GA-H55N-USB3 is a socket LGA1156 motherboard based on the Intel H55 chipset, supporting the entire range of LGA1156 processors with a powerful 4+2 phase VRM. The socket is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, which is powered by its own 2-phase circuit. Gigabyte was able to accommodate five SATA channels by the chipset, making space for one eSATA, and four internal SATA 3 Gb/s ports with RAID support.

Its lone expansion slot is a full-bandwidth PCI-Express 2.0 x16, while being based on the H55 chipset, it also supports Intel Flexible Display Interface for processors with embedded graphics. On its connectivity front it doesn't make many compromises either, with 8+2 channel HD audio with optical SPDIF connector, a two-port USB 3.0 controller giving out two USB SuperSpeed ports, gigabit Ethernet, Keyboard/Mouse combo PS/2, four USB 2.0 ports on the rear-panel + four by internal headers, and display connectivity which includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. The GA-H55N-USB3 is expected to be out in April.



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[brandonwh64]

WOW! one hell of a HTPC or small file server or just a small PC in general! that would be sick with a I7 with a 5970 and 8GB of ram in something the size of a XBOX!!

 

[btarunr]

WOW! one hell of a HTPC or small file server or just a small PC in general! that would be sick with a I7 with a 5970 and 8GB of ram in something the size of a XBOX!!

Nah, the HD 5970 won't let it be the size of an XBOX. More of a Micro-ATX tower with its drive cage sawed off.

 

[Arrakis9]

to me this is fail design number 2 zotac made the first now gigabyte.... the reason ? cpu socket too close to the pcie 16x connector. the layout is backwards and i dont like it.

 

[btarunr]

to me this is fail design number 2 zotac made the first now gigabyte.... the reason ? cpu socket too close to the pcie 16x connector. the layout is backwards and i dont like it.

It respects Intel Specifications, there's abundant room for even a TRUE with its fan blowing upwards:

 

[Mussels]

it had to happen sooner or later, cool nonetheless.

pity it uses H55 and not something better from AMD or intel.

 

[brandonwh64]

It respects Intel Specifications, there's abundant room for even a TRUE with its fan blowing upwards:

Maybe a small water cooling loop? yea your right a 5970 wouldnt fit in one of those little cases. maybe a 5750?

 

[fr500]

Besides the fact it's a Gigabyte board and it has USB3.0 support I don't see myself trading my DFI MI P55-T36 for this one.

Still, better power management than the Zotac ITX-55 hope the price is right

These boards need better power management, maybe digital PWMs or a very restrictive BIOS, otherwise someone will overclock them and they will die an horrible death (I bought three DFI boards, two had to be RMA'ed, they were automatically overclocked by ABS and shortly the memory controller on both the processor and the board died)

 

[brandonwh64]

From the looks of the boards capacitors and mosfets that it has some that would take alittle beating BUT then only thing you have to worry about is heat cause its so small. if you even got a good heatsink in there it might not be enough in a small space.

 

[fr500]

Well looks pretty similar to the DFI board in that respect, OC'ing will never will Mini-ITX's biggest strenght I guess, the DFI board has 4+2 power design too, but the PWMs are designed to handle a maximum wattage, after that limit has passed they burn.

In my case nothing really died, just one Memory channel on the mainboard and the memory controller on the CPU, got both replaced under warranty and now I'm very careful with the BIOS clock and voltage settings.

 

[brandonwh64]

yea i would say the 4 pin motherboard power would be a issue for high clocks but i have seen alot of 775 boards that use that push some CPUs pretty far. How long did they last? i have know idea but they dont limit it much. if you get a cpu that will overclock with a minimum voltage bump then i dont see the problem in it.

 

[Mussels]

if you go ITX, you'd better learn to undervolt, not overclock.

These tiny systems arent made for 24/7 load either.

 

[brandonwh64]

yea! i would think that these were mostly made for HTPCs or for someone that just uses it to surf the web or some kind of work computer and maybe light gaming with a change of heavy gaming (If you can fit the video card in the case). My future hopes are that they come up with a ITX design that will be a overclockers dream board for that small of a design.

 

[fr500]

Well undervolting was a no go on the Zotac 9300, still mine is still rocking with an e8400@3.6Ghz and a GTS 250

My DFI board runs pretty much 8 hours a day with an i5 750@150Bclk with turbo enabled, and a 5770 inside a Silverstone Sugo SG-05. it's my main PC and I do some gaming at night.

It passed 10 hours of OCCT just fine, never actually tried prime for 24hours because I can't be up 24 hours to put out a fire

It's pretty stable and runs way cooler than my previous desktop (e8400@4Ghz 2x8800GTX), also it's pretty fast.

The DFI board has no overvolting/undervolting options for HT quads, maximum recomended BCLK on an i5-750 is 180BLCK and on an HT enabled 860/870 is 150BCLK.

It runs pretty cool at 19c idle actually with a Corsair H50. It's amazing all you can fit on an SG05

 

[Arrakis9]

It respects Intel Specifications, there's abundant room for even a TRUE with its fan blowing upwards:

http://img.techpowerup.org/100319/btalkajw339084.jpg

i still think it is too close to the gpu

 

[TheLostSwede]

Another picture here http://gigabytedaily.blogspot.com/2010/03/its-boy.html

 

[btarunr]

These tiny systems arent made for 24/7 load either.

This one uses Ultra Durable 3 Classic PCB construction and 4+2+2 phase VRM. So not only will it run those 95W chips, but also overclock them.

 

[ERazer]

woot my next cruncher mobo

 

[alucasa]

It respects Intel Specifications, there's abundant room for even a TRUE with its fan blowing upwards:

http://img.techpowerup.org/100319/btalkajw339084.jpg

But, if you are building space challenged mini-itx build, DFI one is the best way to go. It comes from my experience.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1802750&postcount=11

I tried Zotac, no, no.

 

[theorw]

Imagine this mobo on a 5970!!!!!It would be a perfect match for the vga!loooooool
With an I7 and some corsair W/C!!!
And 8gigs 1600MHz!!!

 

[Mussels]

This one uses Ultra Durable 3 Classic PCB construction and 4+2+2 phase VRM. So not only will it run those 95W chips, but also overclock them.

yeah but then you likely have a lot of heat in a very small case to deal with.

 

[btarunr]

yeah but then you likely have a lot of heat in a very small case to deal with.

Case? What case? Overclockers see through cases. Use the Lian Li Spider.

SFF cases come well-ventilated these days, with 40 mm fan on its top and bottom.

 

[HammerON]

Where there is a will there is a way

 

[zithe]

Case? What case? Overclockers see through cases. Use the Lian Li Spider.

SFF cases come well-ventilated these days, with 40 mm fan on its top and bottom.

This isn't marketed for overclockers.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Perfect for a micro-server/mini workstation. What is the coldest, LV s1156 out there? With this, I could swap out my Atom fileserver for a s1156 and put up OCR and PDF optimisation services in addition to webserving, email and NAS.