ECS H55H-I Review: Mini-ITX at a Sensible Price
by Rajinder Gill on May 6, 2010 6:59 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
It’s pleasing to see that ECS have decided to go with the more popular Realtek Codec for audio rather than using the VIA VT1705 we saw used on the H55H-M model earlier this year.
Component choices elsewhere on the board are pretty much the norm at this price, so we don’t have any real nit-picking to do.
What’s in the box?
- 2 SATA Cables
- 2 Manuals
- Rear I/O Shield
An unremarkable bundle, It's exactly what we expected to find. We’d probably have liked a couple more SATA cables, but won’t beat ECS up over it because RAID is off the menu with H55.
Software
The only thing included on the driver disc as an extra is ECS’s eJiffy:
eJiffy features a web browser, photo editing and chat functionality without having to boot into your primary OS. Before eJiffy can be used though, you have to install it onto your hard drive via your primary OS. Once you've done that, you'll find it takes just as long to boot into Windows 7 as it does to boot eJiffy - we fail to see the appeal of this software.
BIOS
There’s nothing remarkable to report about the BIOS. It’s fairly basic but could be laid out a little better. The CPU C-State options are under the Advanced Setup menu, while all the overclocking stuff resides under the MIB II (Motherboard Intelligent BIOS II) section. Having both in one area would make a more logical choice.
Curiously ECS opts to switch Turbo mode off by default, we’re not quite sure why this is the case, because it’s a stock supported parameter. If you want Turbo mode to function on supporting processors you’ll have to turn it on yourself.
The MIB Overclocking section offers control of BCLK, CPU Vcore, VTT, and VDIMM. Voltage scale settings for VCore and VTT rails are in 63 incremental steps, using 0.01V increments to a maximum over-voltage of 0.63V. VDIMM gets 0.1V steps to a maximum of 1.8V. There’s no control on offer for QPI multiplier ratios, IGP voltage or IGP clock multiplier ratios which will limit BCLK overclocking somewhat (although BCLK overclocking is hampered anyway - see below).
An option to change CPU multiplier ratios is present, but does not work; the board won’t POST if you use anything other than the stock multiplier. We saw this issue on the H55H-M we reviewed a couple of months ago, so are not sure if ECS will ever bother to fix it.
Fan control is available for the 4 pin CPU header only and only works with PWM fans. The range of control on offer is very granular allowing manipulation of the ramp slope per Celsius increment, as well as the ability to offset the temperature sensor. A voltage control mode for 3 pin headers would have been a nice touch, although we’re willing to overlook that given the small footprint of this board is best suited to Intel’s stock CPU cooler.
One last gripe we have is that ECS do not provide any kind of built-in BIOS flashing routine. BIOSes must be flashed from within the OS, or by using a bootable USB drive.
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yyrkoon - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
Like the subject line says. I have this CRAAAAAZY idea. How about instead of trying to OVERCLOCK the dammed board. How about you try and do something insane such as use the board for it intended purpose, and *maybe* underclock / undervolt the board ?
But Gee, I guess that would make too much sense eh ? Just because you can try and do something. Does not mean that you *should* do it.
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
I had flashes of those ideas too. They were swiftly tempered when i found that the BIOS has no undervolt options, a minimum BCLK of 133 and broken control of CPU multiplier ratios.With regards to underclocking and undervolting; power gating on C-States is pretty good, so there's not much if any saving to be had in very light load situations when you've got no effective multiplier control and a minimum BCLK of 133. Best thing you can do with the board in its current state if you want to encourage ultra-low power consumption and low levels of heat is to use Windows power options to set a high load threshold for SpeedStep ramping (low multiplier VID is programmed around 0.85V on the Clarkdale CPUs).
Hope that helps.
Raja
xrror - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - link
I have this crazy idea too, that this is the first time I've seriously considered an ITX board because ECS was cool enough to allow real overclocking. I also find it pretty great that they do allow you to overspec the power. I wish there was some way to send a "bravery" award to the BIOS engineer(s) who slipped that through.So either heatsink like mad and hope you can stave off burning the power section with your 4.5Ghz i7 - or admit the fact that burning up 2 of these boards is STILL CHEAPER than most other ITX boards that don't even have this much overclocking flex.
Wow, really ECS maybe IS getting back to it's overclocking roots. ECS boards were common overvolt-mod fodder because of this. Which is a good thing - just to clarify that I'm NOT slamming ECS.
Since otherwise it's just time to get a Dell.
cjs150 - Friday, May 7, 2010 - link
At least for me as I am about to build a home server box.Boards like this are perfect. Stick a RAID card in the PCI-Ex16 slot then add 4x2TB HD and works just as I want.
Now all I have to understand is how to set Linux as my primary domain controller for a network of Windows box (window 7, vista and XP pro) and I will be rocking
jillsean - Friday, May 7, 2010 - link
Just a quick one Raja.Would you say this is a better board than the Zotac H55 mini ITX, especially when it comes to overclocking and stability? Also, do you know if you can change the IGP clock ratio on the Zotac H55 board?
Many thanks in advance.
Rajinder Gill - Friday, May 7, 2010 - link
Hi,Assuming ECS don't back-track, the H55H-I is probably a tad better for overclocking Clarkdale processors. Zotac's board is limited to using stock VTT.
If you can look past the overclocking/underclocking stuff, the only reason I can see to buy the Zotac relates to the additional USB ports on the rear I/O panel (10) and the inclusion of WiFi. Otherwise, it's ECS all the way.
Raja
jaydee - Friday, May 7, 2010 - link
What does it take to switch between a graphics card and the IGP? If you have a discrete card in, but want to use the IGP (for power savings), can you reboot and change something easily in the BIOS? With monitors coming with more than one DVI or HDMI input, this would be handy.Or is it the case, that as long as the discrete card is detected, it will always be on, no matter what?
Rajinder Gill - Friday, May 7, 2010 - link
Hi,As soon as you plug a discrete card into the PEG slot, the IGP switches off - and there's now way to activate it again unless you remove the discrete card. BIOS does not offer any option for switch-over unfortunately. I don't have a discrete PCIe soundcard here, but suspect that would have a similar effect on this board too (I should have a soundcard here soon I can test this).
regards
Raja
Rajinder Gill - Friday, May 7, 2010 - link
As soon as you plug a discrete card into the PEG slot, the IGP switches off - and there's *no* way to activate it again unless you remove the discrete card.strikeback03 - Friday, May 7, 2010 - link
Really? That would be a massive mistake if plugging in ANY PCIe device kills the onboard video, a discrete GPU isn't the only thing a user might want in that slot.