An eta on the H55N-USB3 mini-itx board?

[jonj678]

This seems to be just seeping into the usual channels so it's quite possible you have no more information on it than reporters do. Still, a mini-itx gigabyte H55 or H57 board is something I've been waiting for since the i3 530 was first announced so I'm excited.

Do you know when more information will be available on it, or when you'll know the date it'll hit UK shores?

Very optimistically, is there any hope the photos are of a prototype and the retail version will have a heatsink on the motherboard power circuitry?

Cheers

[skiigor]

Gigabyte Readies Feature-Packed Mini-ITX LGA1156 Motherboard
Gigabyte is readying a new motherboard in the mini-ITX form-factor which is bound to surprise some with its feature-set. The GA-H55N-USB3 is a socket LGA1156 motherboard based on the Intel H55 chipset, supporting the entire range of LGA1156 processors with a powerful 4+2 phase VRM. The socket is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, which is powered by its own 2-phase circuit. Gigabyte was able to accommodate five SATA channels by the chipset, making space for one eSATA, and four internal SATA 3 Gb/s ports with RAID support.

Its lone expansion slot is a full-bandwidth PCI-Express 2.0 x16, while being based on the H55 chipset, it also supports Intel Flexible Display Interface for processors with embedded graphics. On its connectivity front it doesn't make many compromises either, with 8+2 channel HD audio with optical SPDIF connector, a two-port USB 3.0 controller giving out two USB SuperSpeed ports, gigabit Ethernet, Keyboard/Mouse combo PS/2, four USB 2.0 ports on the rear-panel + four by internal headers, and display connectivity which includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. The GA-H55N-USB3 is expected to be out in April.

[jonj678]

If its four phase for the cpu, then all twelve little black chips can be seen on the top of the board. I can't see any space for heatsink mounting pins, but Enzotech have an excellent range of stick on copper sinks which will take care of that. Not that more phases means better power delivery as such, but it does suggest you have overclockers in mind.

The crippling limitation to the Zotac H55 mini-itx is that the bios does not allow control over various voltages, for fear of customers pushing it too hard. I'm hoping that Gigabyte won't take the same approach, a warning message is much better than the options being absent.

I would be pleased to review a sample under high end watercooling for you, if you are so inclined. At least a few of us will be mad enough to combine water with mini-itx.

[runn3R]

Some better pictures are here:
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,1651.0.html