Gigabyte to launch Core i5 mini-ITX board
This mighty but tiny little blue motherboard: the GA-H55N-USB3, is designed for desktop performance and destop parts, in as little space as possible.
As you’d also expect there is the usual Gigabyte feature set of dual-BIOS, 2oz copper PCB and solid capacitors, although overclocking will be limited by the 3+1 phase power included – simply because of the physical size constraints of the mini-ITX platform.
Having sat down for a chat with Gigabyte motherboard gurus (one of whom used to work at VIA), they've always been well aware of the mini-ITX market but claim it wasn’t until Intel put its foot in with G45 that the whole industry moved with it: now there are channel partners requesting performance mini-ITX options to go alongside the new cases and other SFF components which are becoming more available.
Given the competitive feature set of 4 SATA, 1 eSATA, USB 3, x16 PCI-E, Gigabit Ethernet and a full complement of rear I/O ports, we expect the price of Gigabyte’s GA-H55N-US3 to slightly undercut the Zotac board. For bigger pictures, click here.
Are you interested in Gigabyte’s latest mini-ITX H55 motherboard? Is mini-ITX a form-factor you think you'd have a use for, or do slightly larger micro-ATX boards do small computing just as well? Sound off in the forums.
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With this in mind it seems an omission to leave out the 802.11n Wifi. At first I thought they may have left out n but included b/g but I have looked at the photo's and don't see any wifi at all, just a LAN port. All of which means I think Gigabyte have missed a large section of the market.
After all, there is no option to add a wireless card......
USB Wifi or PCI-E x1 since the x16 slot is backward compatible ;)
This ^^
A big honking graphics card + small mini-ITX board kinda defeats the point
For under-Telly machine, Atom + ION does it best
Could've sworn when the IGP was first reviewed it struggled with Blu-ray playback, but looking back at this: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/01/25/intel-gma-hd-graphics-performance/7
I can see that bluray playback was fine. Really don't know wether I am coming or going today. Back to school for me.
Incidently, I wasn't thinking about a dobber of a card, just a passive little one, but it doesn't matter any more.
i'd add this to a Sugo SG07 with a ATI HD5870
Yes, many. Pretty much any heatpipe based tower heatsink large enough for a 120mm fan. Finding one that will fit in a small case that you would put this into though might be harder.