Gigabyte H55N USB3
Introduction
Published: 16th June 2010 | Source: Gigabyte | Price: £89.99 |
Introduction
As we have previously said, the less than pint size Mini ITX form factor has gathered a huge following across a variety of users. Not only has Mini ITX brought affordable computing into the hands of low income families, it has also found a place in living rooms as discrete home theater computers, and most recently, performance users. Around 12 months ago Zotac broke the silence of Mini ITX with it's Core 2 Quad and PCI-Express 16x ready GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi motherboard and it was clear that a fair proportion of individuals liked what they saw. Of course technology has moved on and this year, we also saw a Core i3/i5/i7 compatible rendition known as the H55 ITX WiFi. Motherboards such as these make it possible to assemble a surprisingly compact performance PC, but is this sector a little too niche for today's largest manufacturers? All we know for sure is that Gigabyte think otherwise as they have been kind enough to send us a potent competitor to the H55 ITX WiFi. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Gigabyte H55N USB3 motherboard.
As the name suggests, the motherboard is also a LGA1156 Core i3/i5/i7 compliant item and also supports USB 3.0. As always however there is more to a product than meets the eye...
Specifications
| Processor Support | Intel LGA1156 Pentium/Core i3/Core i5/Core i7 Processors |
| Chipset | Intel H55 |
| Memory | 2 x DIMM, Max. 8GB DDR3-1333/1066/800 |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| VGA | Multi-VGA output support: HDMI, DVI-D, RGB |
| Multi-GPU Support | None |
| Storage | Intel H55 Chipset |
| LAN | Supports one PCI Express LAN 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by Realtek RTL8111E. |
| Wireless LAN | N/A |
| Audio | Realtek® ALC892R 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC |
| USB | Intel H55 Chipset - 8 x USB 2.0 ports (4 x Rear, 4 x Internal) NEC USB Controller - 2 x External USB 3.0 ports |
All in all the motherboard appears to have the right recipe to prove successful but, as per usual, we'll never know until it has been put to the test. Does the H55N USB3 have what it takes to best our review of the Zotac H55 ITX? Let's find out...
Most Recent Comments
What's the ALC892R like ? Very important to me that.
Other than that, £90 (mrrp?), upto £10 off for online stores, I would definitely look for this one in something like a Scan Today special. If it went for £75-£80 it sounds a bargain.
Great stuff.Quote
It would seem that I forgot to apply the correct labels on the Vantage graph. Minimum Maximum and Average actually refererred to Overall Score, GPU Score and CPU Score respectively.
As for the ALC892R, honestly I could not fault it. The sound quality was crisp enough and appeared to be at least as good as the previous 889 series.Quote
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