14 DAY TRIAL // ECS has just made official its lineup of LGA 1155 H61-based motherboards which are destined to be used in entry-level Sandy Bridge systems, as the new boards feature integrated graphics as well as reduced prices when compared to other H67/P67 solutions.
The new range includes six new motherboard models, four of them featuring a Micro-ATX design, while the other two use the full-ATX and the ITX form factors.
Starting with the Micro-ATX boards, all of the models feature DVI, VGA and HDMI outputs as well as a full length PCI Express x16 slot, which can be used for installing a dedicated graphics card.
In addition, the motherboards pack dual DDR3 slots, which allow for up to 16GB of memory, and carry at least one PCI-E x1 expansion slot, some models even featuring regular PCI slots.
Unfortunately, however, all of the boards seem to lack SATA 6Gbps support, and only two of the four models get SuperSpeed USB 3.0.
Moving to the full-ATX board, this gets two additional memory slots, a second PCI Express x16 slot (x4 electronically), dual SATA 6Gbps connectors, as well as improved VRM cooling.
Finally, the H61H2-I2, as ECS' H-61-based ITX board is called, packs dual DDR3 memory slots, four SATA 3Gbps ports, one PCI Express x16 expansion and VGA, HDMI and DVI video outputs.
All the motherboards are based on Intel's B3 revision of the Cougar Point chipset, so they aren't affected by the SATA bug that Intel has uncovered in its 6-series PCH's.
No details regarding price or availability were made public at this time, but the H61 chipset is expected to launch at about the same time as the Z68 motherboard controller, according to some reports.
Cheaper versions of Sandy Bridge processors are expected to arrive soon, under the Pentium brand name, prices starting at $64.
