Gigabyte H55N-USB3 Mini-ITX by end of April

ces · Post by **ces** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 3:30 pm

Gigabyte H55N-USB3 Mini-ITX
"We've had a chance to look at Gigabyte's late "prototype" of the H55N-USB3 Mini-ITX mainboard, with the preliminary packaging too. We think it's a lot squeezed into very little space, somewhat of a engineering (and manufacturing) marvel."

"Other than having what is already on the chipset, Gigabyte added USB Super Speed, every digital display connectivity option bar DisplayPort (there is even good ol' VGA), high current capacity USB ports, dual BIOS EEPROMs. I've noted 2-phase memory VRM, 2 phase Uncore VRM, and 4 phase CPU VRM."

"Yes, you can put the Core i7-875K on this board, and do some overclocking. Yes you can fit this board into a Silverstone SG07 and run a Radeon HD 5970 on it's PCIe expansion slot to make a mighty LAN Party rig."

"Yes, there might be some features included which I've forgotten to include here, but there is always opportunity for a review when the board is ready to be shipped in late April."

http://vr-zone.com/articles/gigabyte-h5 ... /8729.html

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 6:46 pm

More mini-ITX choices is always nice. I noticed Gigabyte had some other mini-ITX boards (I think they were all Atom based), hopefully they will continue to branch out into this market.

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 11:55 pm

Cute. Gigabyte have been making quite a few nice boards recently IMO particularly at the uATX form factor - they've been my choice for the past two or three years, with integrated everything-I-want and good under-volting too. It's nice to see them giving a higher profile to their ITX offerings.

Would be nice if the price wasn't eye-watering, but as with most things in the ITX world I'll not be expecting this to be the case.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 12:17 am

TBH kind of wishing I would have gone with MSI for my latest build, their boards seem to be more power efficient. Gigabyte still makes great stuff, though, and they're really good about BIOS updates. They've already added support for the new Phenom II X6 on my 785G board.

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 8:21 am

I want... Alas, I'm trying to save money for Sandy Bridge so I really can't afford to build another LGA1156-based PC.

ces · Post by **ces** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 9:29 am

ilovejedd wrote:I want... Alas, I'm trying to save money for Sandy Bridge so I really can't afford to build another LGA1156-based PC.

Be patient. Have your cake and eat it too,

They will end up doing an 1155 variant of this board.

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 10:18 pm

ces wrote:Be patient. Have your cake and eat it too,

They will end up doing an 1155 variant of this board.

News article on Tom's mentions street price of ~$130 and it should be hitting retailers this month. Already saw one seller on Froogle at $127 but I think I'll wait until a more reputable online retailer stocks it. Will be pairing this with a Core i7-860 I picked up from MicroCenter for $200. I never did learn how to resist temptation.

Oh well, I figure I should still have enough saved by the time Sandy Bridge gets released in Q1'11 (assuming it's worth upgrading to).

leifeinar · Post by **leifeinar** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 6:22 am

This is first m-itx board that gives proper undervolting options. down to standard gigabyte values 0,5V

faugusztin · Post by **faugusztin** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:09 am

Review of this board in Slovak language :
http://pc.sk/modules.php?name=article&w ... 1276088151 (Translate (via Google)).

Hope you will like it.

yuu · Post by **yuu** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 2:19 pm

Probably like other ggb boards, if you touch the cpu voltage, instead of selecting the "normal" option, you loose the c-states. the normal option is literally there to use it, just press "+" its the first thing to pop up, and it can be seen on minute 2:24 from the review.... I'd like to see this explored, I'd like to see the DVID option in action, what does it do. If cpu is 1.11 VID and you set 1.20, you loose c-states. Well on a i7 it's ugly (since i5 2/4t is useless). I think Dvid can fix that.

... And you have to use Windows 7, because XP has degraded hdd performance with i7, what if I want to stay with winxp? it is bad.

alexrock23 · Post by **alexrock23** » Thu Jun 10, 2010 8:29 pm

This is built for mini-ITX, has USB 3.0 ports on the front, and, most importantly for your needs, has dual expansion slots to accommodate a beefy dual-slot graphics card. To cool a Core i3/i5 in that small of a case, you would almost have to get something like the H50 cooler from Corsair:

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:16 am

alexrock23 wrote:This is built for mini-ITX, has USB 3.0 ports on the front, and, most importantly for your needs, has dual expansion slots to accommodate a beefy dual-slot graphics card. To cool a Core i3/i5 in that small of a case, you would almost have to get something like the H50 cooler from Corsair:

What case?

Anyway, board's now available on Newegg for $104.99 + $7.56 shipping.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 6:57 am

Anandtech's review is up.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3769/revi ... gabyte-way

Good news for undervolting & underclocking:

anandtech wrote:Voltage control is provided for CPU VCore, VTT, VDIMM, PCH and VAXG. The range for CPU VCore starts from 0.5V and extends out all the way to an insane 1.90V, which is more than anyone will realistically be able to use given this boardâ€™s intended audience. The low voltage options will certainly bring a smile to the face of ultra-low power enthusiasts and underclocking nuts. Most mini-ITX motherboards tend to skimp out on the low voltage stuff, so Gigabyte are creating some extra appeal for the H55N-USB by catering for such use.

yuu · Post by **yuu** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:05 am

It is good news confirmed indeed the undervolting. since gb always makes us happy. still sandy bridge no-go though. well. is it just me or the sicket is off center quite a bit. i have been playing with paintbrush a lot trying to center it,. and it still bothers me.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:34 am

yuu wrote:is it just me or the sicket is off center quite a bit.

The socket? The location bothers me as well, though this is pretty much how all the 1156 mini ITX boards are arranged.

Here's a thread from [H]ardForum re: 1156 socket locations/clearances for a few different mITX boards:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1500679

Slight differences between them, but not much. Large coolers are going to be a tight fit, if they fit at all.

brady_myitpros · Post by **brady_myitpros** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 2:16 pm

ilovejedd wrote:
alexrock23 wrote:This is built for mini-ITX, has USB 3.0 ports on the front, and, most importantly for your needs, has dual expansion slots to accommodate a beefy dual-slot graphics card. To cool a Core i3/i5 in that small of a case, you would almost have to get something like the H50 cooler from Corsair:
What case?

Anyway, board's now available on Newegg for $104.99 + $7.56 shipping.

He performed an incomplete copy and paste of my post from here:
pcpro.co.uk/reviews/motherboards/358180/gigabyte-ga-h55n-usb3

The case I'm referring to is the Lian Li PC-Q08.