14 DAY TRIAL // Until recently, the cheapest mini-ITX motherboard available to users interested in building a compact HTPC or gaming system was the 104€ ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT, but Biostar has recently lowered this price to an impressive 63€ with the introduction of the TH61 ITX v5.0.
Moving from the Z68 to the H61 chipset will disable SATA 6Gbps support, but otherwise the Biostar board offers all the same features that the Z68M-ITX/HT, but at a significantly lower price.
This includes support for up to 16GB of 1333MHz DDR3 memory, thanks to the two full-size DIMM sockets installed on the board, as well as the possibility to add a dedicated graphics card in the PCI Express x16 slot installed on the board.
Storage is provided by four 3Gbps SATA ports, which are placed right next to the motherboard's Intel H61 chipset, the same PCH also being used for routing the video signal from the CPU to the rear I/O panel, where Biostar has placed D-Sub, DVI and HDMI video outputs.
Outside of these connectors, the rear bracket includes four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, a PS/2 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port and 8 plus 2 channel audio with a digital S/PDIF output. ThesE are driven by a Realtek ALC892 high-definition audio codec.
Two additional USB 3.0 ports (powered by an ASMedia ASM1042 controller) can be routed to the front of the case by using the extra pin header that is installed on the board near the SATA ports.
In Europe, the Biostar TH61 ITX v5.0 is available with prices starting from 63€. In comparison, the ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT is listed at €104, while Zotac's Z68 solutions come with an even higher €140 or €180 price tag.
Foxconn and ECS are the only two other motherboard makers that have LGA 1155 boards which can rival the TH61 ITX as far as pricing is concerned, but none of their similarly priced models are as feature rich as this Biostar model. (via HardwareLuxx)
