Zotac H55-ITX Review - The World's First mini-ITX H55 Motherboard
by Joshua Youngberg on February 28, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Contrary to DFI’s P55 MI-T36, the H55-ITX focuses less on overclockability and more on packing as many features as possible onto its miniaturized surface. This isn’t to say that ZOTACs board can’t be overclocked at all though. In fact, I was able to maintain a 150 BCLK while reducing Vcore and without the ability to manually set the CPU VTT voltage using our retail i3 530 CPU.
Where you’ll want to play it safe though is on the Lynnfield series of processors; looking at Zotac’s power regulation for processor VCore, there’s not enough overhead to handle Lynnfield CPU’s much past stock operating frequency. This is an area where DFI got things wrong with the MI-T36, initial BIOS releases offered free range of BCLK and voltage and users ended up burning out MOSFETs. DFI back-peddled and released a BIOS in late December that removed CPU VCore as an option, limiting overclocking to stock processor VID only. Zotac keeps things simple by removing the option to change VTT (termination and supply voltage for the intergrated memory controller and signal stages of the CPU), which limits the potential to increase bus frequencies – time will tell if this method is sufficient to prevent failures. The truth is that M-ITX motherboards aren’t designed to offer buckets of overclocking headroom; if that’s what you’re after, we think you’re better off looking towards some of the more robust micro-ATX boards like the P7H55D-M EVO from ASUS.
Also, care needs to be taken when choosing a processor heatsink for the H55-ITX. Zotac has placed the CPU socket next to the PCIe slot so any heatsink larger than Intel’s may cause interference when installing a video card. This peculiarity prevented us from installing a Coolermaster GeminII S when running with dedicated graphics. However, if you choose to use an i3 and its integrated graphics then this point is moot.
Features such as six onboard SATA ports, wireless-N networking and the ability to support i3, i5 and i7 processors are what ZOTAC really set their focus on. This feature set separates the H55-ITX from every other mini-ITX board on the market. Performance from the bundled wireless adapter was great as well. We measured file transfer speeds to be several times faster than the 802.11g cards bundled in Zotac’s earlier motherboards.
Out of the box, the H55-ITX was quick to POST and the BIOS was easy to navigate. The on-board sound, Ethernet and USB ports worked correctly. Overall, system stability was rock solid even while overclocking. The only time the board failed to POST was when the RAM was configured to work at 1600MHz, a frequency not supported by the i3 530. The H55-ITX wasn’t bundled with any additional software outside of the drivers CD. Price wise the H55-ITX is competitive with other fully featured mini-ITX motherboards, going for around $150 shipped. Mini-ITX motherboards come with a price premium and are generally more expensive than their similarly equipped micro-ATX counterparts.
Due to an innovative design, a potential for miniscule power consumption and the fact that the H55-ITX is currently the only mini-ITX motherboard on the market that supports the Core i3’s integrated graphics, the ZOTAC H55-ITX WiFi has no competition for the time being. If you've been waiting for a feature-filled mini-ITX Clarkdale motherboard, Zotac appears to have delivered.
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Duwelon - Monday, March 1, 2010 - link
Lol you're hopeless.Devo2007 - Sunday, February 28, 2010 - link
This might also make a decent candidate for a smaller Windows Home Server box as well (with something similar to the Acer Easyshare H340). Heck, if it weren't for the requirement of a CPU heatsink/fan, I'm pretty sure someone would find a way to swap out the board in the Acer with this.Orville - Sunday, February 28, 2010 - link
Joshua,I don't think I've read anything by you before. I guess you are new? You must be a gamer, though, because compute performance is mostly all you write about. On that subject, why doesn't Zotac spec the max power draw allowed for the CPU. I guess it must be at least 95 Watts? But why don't they stand up like a man and say what it is? There must be something rotten in Denmark. All you gamers would want at least 130 Watts, wouldn't you?
You must not be an HTPC guy because Blu-ray never showed up in this article, even once. Isn't Blu-ray (play from media, play from server, RIP and burn) the main thyme of HTPC? On that subject what are the key differences between the H55 and the N55 with respect to HTPC needs? Also, what NIC MAC/PHY does this board use? I don't think I saw that. Anyway, does the NIC support jumbo frames? If so, what size? I wouldn't buy this board for a either a media client or a media server without excellent jumbo frame support. Also, how does the Core i3 530 IGP work in an H55 motherboard setup. Somewhere I thought I read that HTPC was the realm of the N55?
I must confess that the power numbers you published here are very impressive. Imagine what they'd be if those hog HDDs you used were replaced by an SSD. Any idea how Zotac beats DFI so bad in power consumption. I mean 30 Watts less on 75 Watts total is pretty damn snazzy. How do they do that?
I'm waiting with baited breath for your response.
MadMan007 - Monday, March 1, 2010 - link
The DFI is a P55 board and so *must* have a graphics card, you are comparing IGP versus discrete card to get the 30W difference. It's actually an 8W difference (98 vs 106) when you look at discrete vs discrete.Lonyo - Monday, March 1, 2010 - link
I would assume an i3 CPU in a motherboard supporting it would be as capable at Bluray as an i3 CPU in a motherboard supporting it.Maybe it's a bit of an omission from this particular article, but AT has already done articles covering the i3/etc performance and included h264/Bluray playback numbers.
This is a motherboard review, and on this motherboard there is only sound which has any relevance to HTPC performance. Any commentary on Bluray playback ability would be more related to CPU/GPU performance, rather than the motherboard.
Most of the tests are just "this motherboard performs equally to other motherboards".
lowteckh - Sunday, February 28, 2010 - link
So where's the test for the wireless benchmark?And why not compare it to what everyone is probably most interested in - the LGA775 NV9300 board?
lowteckh - Sunday, February 28, 2010 - link
And where's the VGA port...? I wouldn't consider an adapter a port.mariush - Monday, March 1, 2010 - link
It has DVI to VGA adapter.Stokestack - Sunday, February 28, 2010 - link
A PS/2 keyboard connector? DVI?Why? Seems like a waste of space.
Given that you're OK with the on-board graphics (so you don't need a case big enough for full-length cards), what's the smallest case that would work with this thing?
CurseTheSky - Sunday, February 28, 2010 - link
PS/2 works on interrupts rather than polling. Even though USB keyboards feel "instant," there's actually a very short delay that can potentially cause problems. PS/2 eliminates that.Additionally, PS/2 supports full N-key rollover (allowing you to type / hold as many keys simultaneously as you wish without skipping any) while USB can only support a maximum of 6.
I personally use strictly USB devices, but PS/2 still has the advantage. Plus, I've had problems getting older OSes to install using a USB keyboard rather than PS/2.