14 DAY TRIAL // Mini-ITX motherboards can be used in various types of devices, from small form factors PCs / HTPCs to digital signage, kiosk systems, etc. Giada decided to cover the whole spectrum at once this time.
Which is to say, Giada has introduced more than one new mini-ITX motherboard, one with a BGA package and one with LGA 1150 socket support.
For those unaware, BGA is a motherboard design that has the CPU soldered directly to it. MI-I56SL is the part number of the new Giada board.
The platform comes with a dual-core Intel Core i5-4200U central processing unit, with 1.6 GHz base clock, 2.6 GHz Turbo Boost clock and 3 MB cache memory.
Two SATA 6.0 Gbps ports are included in the motherboard (SATA III as they are otherwise known) and so are two mini PCI Express slots.
The other two Giada motherboards, the DT-H81DL and DT-B85DL, are both made for actual desktop PCs, so they have DDR3 DIMM memory slots (two each) and a PCI Express x16 slot.
More importantly, they have a standard LGA 1150 socket, for normal Intel Haswell central processing units.
Other specs include two SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, a VGA output, a DVI port and a bunch of USB connectors, plus audio outputs, HSMI, one COM port (all these on the back panel, except the SATA connectors). There are many pin headers for most of those interfaces on the motherboard too.
The only difference between the DT-H81DL and DT-B85DL is the choice of chipset. The former uses H81 Express, while the latter is an Intel B85 Express platform.
Unfortunately, despite having added the product pages to its website, Giada did not reveal the prices of the three newcomers. Then again, they probably won't matter much if the company decides to ship them only to small form factor PC OEMs instead of consumer retail channels. We’re not sure whether it will happen that way for the LGA 1150 platforms, but it's a possibility, and it’s a certainty for the MI-I56SL.
