14 DAY TRIAL // After all the high-end announcements of the past month, Gigabyte's entry-level H81M-HD3 is a welcome change of pace.
Featuring the micro-ATX form factor, it has two SATA 6 Gbps ports, three SATA 4 Gbps ports, six USB 3.0 ports (two via header), a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, two legacy PCI slots, a PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot, and two DDR3 DIMM slots.
Other features include Gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel HD audio with optical (TOSLINK) SPDIF output (driven by Realtek ALC892 CODEC) and AMI Aptio UEFI BIOS.
These features, as well as the CPU socket (2+1 phase VRM) and the display outputs (dual-link DVI, D-Sub DisplayPort, and HDMI), are energized by one 24-pin ATX connector and one 8-pin EPS input.
Gigabyte should sell the platform for $60 / €45 – 60.