Smaller is sometimes better especially when efficiency and innovation are two primary focuses. Mini-ITX motherboards are one of the latest ideas that some what follows along that focus. While it doesn’t take creative thinking to produce one, the features that pack the little board does take a little effort. With limited space, picking and choosing the right features can make or break the end result. We know GIGABYTE is pretty good at the big stuff. But, how are they at m-ITX motherboards? Let’s have a look at the H55N-USB3 Mini-ITX and answer that question together.
Features and Specifications
The GIGABYTE H55N-USB3 sports the Ultra Durable 3 platform improvements necessary to support Dynamic Energy Saver 2 and secure an ErP certification to satisfy European Union regulations. It also fully supports the entire line of Intel LGA1156 processors, in particular the Core i3 and i5 with integrated graphics processors and of course Intel Turbo Tech. GIGABYTE adds two other features like Cloud OC and Hotkey OC. That in itself suggests the board can do more than just a casual turbo increase. If all that overclocking goes wrong, you got Dual BIOS to save your neck.
Since it supports processors with integrated graphics and the latest expansion features, you’ll find a VGA, DVI, and HDMI 1.4a port out. There’s also two blue USB 3.0 ports as these come in very handy if one was to use this in an home theater PC. The board omits SATA3 and sticks to offering 4 onboard SATA2 ports along with 1 rear eSATA port. A single full speed PCIE x16 slot will come in handy for any graphics card.
The integrated audio gets a full sized boost with a Realtek ALC892 codec which has proven to be an upper echelon cost effective high definition solution and also has an SPDIF optical out. Quality of implementation we will later decide during testing.
At a humble $95 to $105 USD, it could be just what you need in time for the holiday season.
Video Unboxing and Walkthrough
Some of us like the hands on approach when looking motherboards over. I found the layout of the H55N-USB3 to be pretty neat and tidy. Have a look for yourself.
That’s a pretty packed little mini-ITX motherboard. Why we don’t call them “miniboards” is something that has crossed my cavernous cranium. You probably also noticed the board doesn’t offer integrated WiFi. Could that be a problem for some users looking to make things a little more portable? Let’s test it and find out.
Testing Notes and System Setup
We’ll be putting the GIGABYTE up against the ZOTAC H55ITX-C-E (no more letters please), which is probably its closest competition in the market and we’ll be looking closer at this board in a future review. I’m pretty convinced that the ZOTAC favors a user who want WiFi and portability while the GIGABYTE is tuned for enthusiasts with a little more on their mind besides stock performance.
Test System Hardware:
- Processor: Intel Core i5-655K LGA1156 Processor
- Motherboard 1: GIGABYTE H55N-USB3 (as tested)
- Motherboard 2: ZOTAC H55ITX-C-E
- Memory: Kingston HyperX LOVO 4GB 1800MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
- Graphics: ZOTAC Geforce GTX480 Videocard
- OS Storage: Kingston 128GB SSDNow V+
- USB 3.0 Enclosure: Rosewill RX-358-U3B w/WD Caviar 2TB Black HDDn
- Power Supply and Enclosure: Silverstone SG07 and Watt SST-ST60F-SG (600W)
- Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Note that the latest Intel INF (4/29/2010)chipset, Realtek Azalia r2.49-6121 audio, NEC 2.0.4.0. USB 3.0, and Intel VGA 2104 drivers were installed. The motherboard’s latest F5 BIOS was also update was patched. Onward with the benchmarking!
Benchmark Configuration
The software benchmark suite consists of CPU and motherboard intensive titles to tax all of the sub systems: 3DMark Vantage, PCMark Vantage, CineBench R11.5, GraySky x.264 Encoding, Unigine Heaven Demo V2.0, Games: Battlefield Bad Company 2, Crysis, SANDRA Network, SANDRA CPU Math and Multimedia.
CrystalDiskMark was used to test USB 2.0 and 3.0 performance accompanied by a Rosewill RX-358-U3B external enclosure containing a Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black SATA2 hard drive. A Seagate 7200.10 500GB SATA2 hard drive was used in testing SATA2 performance.
Overclocking the GIGABYTE GA-H55N-USB3
Typically, m-ITX boards aren’t really meant for overclocking. Due to the supported CPU features like Turbo, it stands to reason that there is something more to this board.
The H55N-USB3 effortlessly holds 190MHz automatically and clocked all the way up to 210MHz with 1.4 volts, pushing the processor to about 4.6GHz. There’s clearly a range of performance here that will please both extreme overclockers regular enthusiasts.
3DMark Vantage
Starting off the beatings is 3DMark Vantage. If you aren’t sure how your system compares to others, there’s a large database online that you can match up against.
I was actually expecting a little different results here. But, after running the benchmark several times between the boards, it shows there’s very similar circuitry at work. As you can see by the GPU core, a GTX 480 makes it a 3D graphics eating beast. Differences in results are statistically insignificant.
PCMark Vantage
PCMark Vantage is more of an overall productivity and multimedia benchmark. Here, the H55ITX gets a nice score in Communications probably due to its WiFi feature. The integrated audio codecs are similarly configured, but the H55N scores just a bit higher. We’ll explore more carefully in our audio testing coming up.
SANDRA CPU Math and Multimedia
These are pretty good scores compared to previous generation CPUs. The little H55N just seems a little more agile here. It could be due to a little extra something between the board’s BIOS and memory. But in reality, results are statistically insignificant due to such a low percent difference.
CineBench R11.5
Both platforms make a run for number one. The H55N-USB3 just barely pulls past the H55ITX. I credit the H55N’s saucier, more aggressive BIOS. It likes Turbo just a tad more and eeks ahead slightly.
GraySky x.264 Encoding
This is easily reproducible benchmark free for download. All that encoding gives the CPU, memory, and sub systems something to chew on. Not too shabby a platform in either case when coupled with a HyperThreaded CPU. Again, the H55N-USB3 seems slightly more aggressive.
Unigine Heaven Demo v2.0
Thanks to the ZOTAC Geforce GTX480, it handles the Heaven benchmark in DX10 and DX11 just fine. That means it’ll rock with video games using both DirectX versions without issue.
Games: Warhead and Bad Company 2
Yep, this thing can game! The H55N-USB3 becomes a kick a$$ gaming system when you add a performance video card. Plays movies and games just fine now with the right GPU hardware onboard.
IO Performance – CrystalDiskMark and SANDRA Network
I have to be fair here and point out that the H55N-USB3 lacks WiFi whereas the H55ITX features it. It’s always nice not having to worry about another cable when adding a home theater PC to your cinema. As you noticed, neither off these platforms support SATA3 but really don’t need it since USB 3.0 is so quick. But, it would be nice to see USB 3.0 and SATA3 as standard. In either case, both boards perform well with a bit more aggressive performance for the GIGABYTE.
RMAA Audio Performance
Since RMAA sometimes gives us mixed results when vendors try to juice it with extra special software, I opted to test with just the reference driver software. It has yet to fail reporting things like stereo cross talk and line noise that can sometimes be missed even with a good quality stereo head set. I know the Realtek ALC892 audio codec is capable of 24-bit 48Hz, 96Hz, and 192Hz. So, each setting was tested. Have a look at the results.
24-bit 48Hz RMAA Results
24-bit 96Hz ALC892 Results
24-bit 192Hz ALC892 Results
All integrated audio codecs should be more than capable of at least average 24-bit 48Hz performance. It at least achieves that. However, the integrated does better at the 96 and 192Hz settings. I’ve seen this before in other tests including the ZOTAC H55ITX-C-E which did better at 192Hz than at 48Hz. But of course more on that in a future review.
All things considered, the H55N-USB3 audio quality is noise free and clear to the plain ear. However, it’s a little flat at moderate to higher volumes. I wouldn’t expect too rich an audio experience without using the built in equalizer in the audio driver’s software. Either way, H55N has good hardware and software implementation of the integrated audio. However, if you are using the optical out to your home theatre receiver, these results no longer matter as it’s up to your own audio equipment to decode the bitstream.
Power Consumption
These platforms are primarily meant for running lean. Low power, low noise, and low thermal requirements are all hallmarks of the mini-ITX platform. For consumption testing, I ran the system with just the processor, memory, SSD, and extra hard drive to simulate a realistic power load.
If there were a GTX 480 installed while monitoring, the consumption would be more like 190 watts idle and 375+ plus watts load through our wall socket power meter. While my Silverstone SG07 is up to the task, it defeats the general purpose of these platforms. Keep power consumption in mind if you plan on packing a power hungry video card beast in your mini-ITX system.
Final Thoughts
The great thing about these systems is that they use very little power. You don’t have to worry about it tripping any breakers or shutting down your local power grid. When coupled with a good Core i3 or i5 Clarksdale processor, this little mini-ITX motherboard helps create an extremely capable home theater system. Add your favorite Core i7 Hyperthreaded processor and you now have a system capable of quick encoding. Throwing power consumption out the window by adding a capable video card turns it in to one hell of a gaming system.
Another great thing for enthusiasts is that H55N-USB3 has some serious overclocking muscle hiding underneath that blue PCB. This board flexes CPU bus clocks over 200MHz, if you’re willing to risk the voltage and your processor. If you’re using or planning to push these frequencies, you’re going to want to use a good performance CPU cooler. Since, Small Form Factor (SFF) enclosures don’t allow for very tall coolers, might I suggest a Silverstone SG07 or DangerDen LAN Tower accompanied by a lower profile heat pipe Zalman CNPS8000 cooler. We don’t want you falling victim to an ITX cook off!
Ultimately, I found myself kind of missing WiFi. If you like the idea of being able to move this box around effortless, this is a must have feature. But, the lack there of isn’t completely a downer. That’s because you can find USB WiFi adapters for as little as $15 USD up to $30 for feature rich models. That’s not too much extra at all being that the little board only requires $95 to $105 USD of your hard earned money.
What more can I say? It’s small, it’s fast, it sports a full speed PCIE x16 slot for graphics lovers, and USB 3.0 for the guy who needs speedy access to his terabytes of media files. The GIGABYTE GA-H55N-USB3 has big teeth and is ready to use them!
Pros
- Extremely capable mini-ITX for Small Form Factor systems
- Supports Intel Clarksdale processor with integrated graphics
- USB 3.0 support for fast storage access
- Standard GIGABYTE 3 year warranty
- Full speed PCIE x16 slot
- Overclocks very well for its purpose
- Small $100 level price tag
Cons
- No integrated WiFi
- PCIE slot location may limit CPU cooler sizes
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
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GIGABYTE GA-H55N-USB3 Mini-ITX Motherboard – Photo Gallery
