14 DAY TRIAL // The H81 chipset may not allow for the same performance heights as Z87, but that's okay, it's not supposed to. Instead, it can make for a good small form factor platform, as Biostar has all too eagerly showed just now.
The company has introduced the Hi-Fi H81MDC micro-ATX mainboard, suited for mid-tower or mini-tower computers.
It only has two SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, and a single PCI Express 3.0 slot, which means that it will allow for moderately powered gaming systems with a single video board and two HDDs, or maybe an HDD and an SSD to take advantage of Intel Rapid Start Technology and Intel Smart Response (SSD caching).
With up to 16 GB of DDR3-1600 MHz memory and two storage drives, the Hi-Fi H81MDC could allow for some more than decent gaming performance inside a compact case.
It won't enable any super-high-end multi-monitor gaming, but single-monitor performance will be more than enough even for the highest graphics settings of games, past, present and future.
That said, the Hi-Fi H81MDC mainboard does have four more SATA ports, for a total of six, but they are SATA 3.0 Gbps ones.
What's more, besides the lone PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot, there is a mini PC Express slot, colored red like the two memory DIMMs.
Video outputs exist as well of course. After all, Intel's 4th generation Core i7 and Core i5 processors have built-in HD 4600 graphics, so they need an outlet or two.
In addition to HDMI, there is DVI support. HDCP even allows full video and audio support, over both HDMI and DVI.
Blu-ray audio DRM is included as well, allowing high audio output of 24 bit/ 192KHz rather than 16 bit/ 48KHz during media playback from disks.
Furthermore, there are two USB 3.0 headers on the mainboard, for the I/O panels that all desktop cases have these days. Rear-panel ports exist too of course. Sadly, no price is known.