14 DAY TRIAL // Biostar has just announced four new LGA 1155 motherboard models based on Intel's upcoming H61 chipset, all of them featuring a micro-ATX form factor as well as integrated graphics support.
The H61 chipset is destined to be used in budget Sandy Bridge systems and should be a great choice for users who will buy cheaper Pentium CPUs which are expected to launch sometime later this year.
The most basic of the four boards announced by Biostar is the H61ML which features a slightly more compact layout (24.4x20cm), a single x16 PCI Express slot, two PCI slots and one x1 PCI Express slot as well as just two DIMM sockets.
Four 3Gbps SATA ports are also provided and, on the back, we find four USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 port, a D-sub connector, a DVI connector, a 10/100Mbit Ethernet port and three audio jacks for 5.1-channel audio out.
Next in line is the H61MH which adds an HDMI video output as well as a Gigabit Ethernet port to the mix.
These features are also kept by the Biostar H61MU3 motherboard, that replaces two of the USB 2.0 ports with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, driven by an ASMedia controller.
Finally, we get to the TH61U3+ that uses a slightly larger 24.4x24.4cm mATX PCB while also adding a second PCI Express x16 slot, although this has only four lanes worth of bandwidth available. These are accompanied by a single x1 PCI-E slot and a regular PCI slot.
Just like the H61MU3, the motherboard also features a pair of USB 3.0 rear I/O ports, but this time, Biostar has decided to use a Renesas controller rather than an ASMedia one.
Pricing and availability have not been made official until now, but these models should make their appearance at the CeBIT fair in Hannover, Germany.
Last week, ECS also announced its upcoming range of H61-based motherboards, comprised of six new SKUs. (via VR-Zone)
