SPCR

Unless you have a real home theater (ie acoustically designed and with discrete amps ect...), I doubt you could tell the difference from 5.1. Its a bit easier to differentiate, the larger the room is.

But even then its damn hard. At least for me.

What about a low profile socket 1156 heatsink?

Anyone found a good one yet?

I really like the Gelid Slim Silence 775 for the socket 775 with itx boards but I haven't seen anything I like for the H55ITX.

wysiwyg wrote:What about a low profile socket 1156 heatsink?

This might be a good one.

I'm currently thinking about upgrading my DG45FC for this motherboard.
I'm just not sure how my picopsu would handle an i3 + a proper graphics card. I probably should just make a whole new case for it. I already have a spare Nexus Value 430.

The NK96 looks like a possibility, thanks for the suggestion.

I tried a NK54 for the GF9300 but liked the Gelid Slim Silence 775 better because of the increased airflow towards the chipset heatsink. Hopefully that won't be such a big deal with the i3/i5 integrated graphics taking over processing. I asked Gelid if they were making a Slim Silence for the 1156 but didn't hear back.

You don't think the onboard graphics on the H55-itx will be good enough for what you need?

I run at 2560x1600 display from the Zotac GF9300 and it works great but this build isn't for gaming. I used an In-Win BM650 case for the GF9300 which has a 120W psu that wouldn't really handle an extra video card. I'm looking at the Antek ISK cases with 150 watts for the H55-itx but with the cpu at 83W which includes the video it's possible 120 watts would be good enough but I'm not sure; I'm watching for reviews.

Also - the i3/i5 graphics processor is equivalent to the 4500HD's onboard GPUs from previous intel motherboards although with better clock speeds; 766 mhz I think. The i5-661 is 87W instead of 73W but has a 900mhz clock speed for graphics and I believe doesn't have a couple of cpu capabilities/instructions the others have; i.e. more media oriented.

The 4500HDs had some past problems with Windows XP and full screen video so I think either Vista or Windows 7 will be needed for the H55-itx if you use the onboard graphics. I hope the full screen video stutter is eliminated by the improvements made for the i3/i5 integrated graphics since that'd be a real let down after the GF9300 worked out.

BTW - I had the 83W wrong in my last post for i3/i5, generally it's 73W except for the I5-661 which is 87W. The E8500 I have now is 65W. I should really measure actual power use on my pc to see how close it is. I still think 120W for the H55-itx might be a bit short of what I want with the dvd + two hard drives.

I want to use this mobo to build my first HTPC:
mobo: Zotac H55-ITX WIFI
cpu+gpu: Intel Core i3 530
case: m350 (any others plz sugest any suitable mini itx)
hdd: SATA 2.5" 500 GB
RAM: 4 GB
PCI-e: DVB-S2 card (plz sugest any good working in that mini-itx sized case card)
PSU: picoPSU 120w + power brick

Is this config achievable in that small mini itx form and it is possible to add slimsized optical drive (blue-rya sony combo)? How about PSU, will 120w be good enough for all this?

m350=no space for opti and no pci-e bracket.

I use an external opti with mine...with that there's no real reason to have the m350 accessible any more, so you can put it almost anywhere and just have the dvd drive in the HT rack.

ntavlas wrote:How about the good old zotac 9300itx? I remember reading that the second revision can undervolt and most importantly has support for "wake up on usb".

A dual core i5 or a quad core c2? There is not much between them in terms of power consumption/ speed so why not go with the cheaper solution.

i have the zotiac 9300itx, it does support undervolting, but only by -0.1 volts the htpc in my sig has idle consumption of 33w

Does anybody have this board yet (the H55-ITX)?

I'm debating whether to get one, and my question is... Does it support Dual-Link DVI with 2560x1600 resolution?

I've read contradicting things on the internet - some spec sheets say it does dual-link, some people report it won't do dual-link.

Anybody have first-hand experience?

Wait a month and take a look at the Gigabyte version of an H55-ITX before you make a final decision.

ces wrote:Wait a month and take a look at the Gigabyte version of an H55-ITX before you make a final decision.

Thankfully I have to wait for my may wages til I can buy anything, so I'll have to wait at least a month

Still would be interested in firsthand reports on dual-link on the Zotac.

EDIT: Looked into the GigaByte, it only has 4 sATA, which is not enough.