Mini-ITX motherboards have really picked up steam in the last couple of years and Gigabyte is well aware of this trend as the Taiwanese manufacturer has just introduced a new LGA 1155 board that should be able to fit the needs of most users interested in building an HTPC system around an Intel Sandy Bridge processor.
In order to use the integrated graphics packed inside Intel's second generation Core processors, the board is powered by the H67 Express chipset and features no less than three video outputs.
However, compared to its competitors,
Gigabyte has chosen to drop the DVI connector that is common to almost all other integrated graphics motherboards, and replace it with an HDMI output.
As a result, the GA-H67N-USB3-B3 now features dual HDMI ports and a D-Sub connector. Sadly, a DisplayPort output was not provided.
Expansion wise, the
motherboard features dual full length DIMM sockets, a PCI Express x16 slot, fours SATA ports (two 3Gbps and two 6Gbps), and the whole board is powered by a 4+2 phase VRM that's compliant with Intel's VRD 12 specification.
The only thing missing is a mini-PCI Express slot for installing a WiFi card so users will have to rely on an external USB dongle for wireless connectivity.
Speaking of USB, the board packs four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports and the I/O panel also houses an eSATA port and a Gigabit Ethernet port.
Audio is provided via a Realtek ALC889 HDA codec which has a 108 dB signal-to-noise ratio, and the board also packs coaxial and optical SPDIF output connectivity as well as the regular 7.1-channel audio jacks.
Other features include dual-BIOS and 3TB+ hard drive support as well as compatibility with the SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 modes.
Gigabyte's H67N-USB3-B3 is expected to be priced around the $120 mark. (via
TechPowerUp)
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