14 DAY TRIAL // Intel's launch of the H61 chipset, has spawned the birth of an impressive number of low-end Sandy Bridge motherboards and MSI has just introduced a mini-ITX H61 model which features integrated graphics support as well as one of the lowest prices we have seen for an LGA 1155 solution.
The motherboard is officially called the H61I-E35 and it supports a wide series of Sandy Bridge desktop processors with integrated graphics, including some Core i7 chips according to MSI.
The rest of the motherboard configuration, however, isn't nearly as exciting as MSI has designed the H61I-E35 to fit into an extremely low budget.
This means that we don't get any extras such as USB 3.0 support, a PCI Express x16 or a mini PCI-E slot, so potential buyers are stuck with the Intel HD integrated GPU as the PCI-E x1 slot available isn't able to support any worthwhile dedicated graphics cards.
The number of SATA drives that can be installed is also limited to four and the board comes with no 6Gbps SATA ports.
Fortunately, we do get two full-size DIMM slots unlike some models which rely on more expensive SO-DIMMs memory modules to function.
Moving to the back of the board we see that MSI has installed four USB 2.0 slots, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a D-sub and HDMI port and three audio jacks.
While I most certainly understand MSI for dropping support for USB 3.0 and other higher-end features, the limited amount of USB slots is certainly a case for concern as most users have come to rely on a wide variety of such peripherals for their day-to-day computing needs.
Right now, the H61I-E35 is listed for about €66 which makes it one of the cheapest LGA 1155 motherboards around.
Still, it’s important to note that for only a few Euros more, one could get the Intel DH61DL which offers USB 3.0 connectivity and a mini PCI Express slot, but this also isn't without its flaws as it lacks HDMI connectivity and features only three SATA slots. (via VR-Zone)