14 DAY TRIAL // When making HTPCs (home-Theater Personal Computers), companies usually do their best to find as small a motherboard as possible, so that they may fit in inside small form factor casings. Still, there are limits to just how compact such a PC can get, because there is still the issue of adding expansion cards, especially video boards. Zotac aims to address this need for compactness by offering a mini-ITX motherboard that, impressively enough, also features a significant level of performance and versatility.
The product goes by the name of H55U3 WiFi and is powered by the Intel H55 chipset (LGA 1156 socket), making it compatible with a variety of CPUs. It also has a pair of DDR3-1333 memory slots, which makes it possible to implement a healthy memory capacity. More importantly, however, is that the platform supports discrete graphics and wireless connectivity, in addition to a certain other special feature that will sit quite well with those interested in high data transfer speeds.
The Zotac H55U3 WiFi comes with a full set of six SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors and has a single PCI Express x16 slot. There is also a certain Renesas Electronics (ex-NEC) controller that powers a pair of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports. This will let even the newest flash drives and other types of external storage solutions work at their fullest. As for connectivity and I/O, Zotac threw in an eSATA port, Gigabit Ethernet, built-in 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, 7.1 channel audio and DVI and HDMI outputs.
All in all, this invention should prove quite powerful and able to playback any multimedia files when paired with a decent CPU and matching video and memory capabilities. For now Zotac's H55U3 WiFi has only been listed on Chinese retailers, priced at the equivalent of $118. It is unknown when, if ever, the platform will make it to other regions.