Gigabyte H55N-USB3 : Mini-ITX done the Gigabyte way...
by Rajinder Gill on June 15, 2010 7:49 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Gigabyte
- Mini ITX
|
Testbed Setup Overclocking / Benchmark Testbed |
|
| Processor |
1 x Intel i7-875K ES CPU 2.93GHz, 8 Threads, 8MB L3 Intel i5 661 ES CPU 3.33GHz, 2 Cores 4 Threads 4MB L3 |
| CPU Voltage | Various |
| Cooling | Intel air cooler, Heatkiller 3.0 waterblock, PA120.2 radiator and DDC ultra pump (with Petra top), 1/2 ID tubing for watercooling. |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX950 |
| Memory |
Corsair Dominator GT 8-8-8-24 2200MHz 4GB kit G.Skill Perfect Storm 8-8-8-24 2200MHz 4GB kit. |
| Memory Settings | Various |
| Video Cards | MSI 275 Lightning (stock clocks) |
| Video Drivers | nVidia 195.62 WHQL |
| Hard Drive |
Western Digital 7200RPM 1TB SATA 3/Gbps 32MB Buffer OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD |
| Optical Drives | Plextor PX-B900A, Toshiba SD-H802A |
| Case |
Open Test Bed - Dimastech Benching Station Lian-Li V2110 |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64 bit |
| . | |
We utilized memory kits from Corsair and G.Skill to verify memory compatibility on our test boards. Our OS and primary applications are loaded on the OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD drive and our games operate off the WD Caviar Black 1TB drive. We did a clean install of the OS and applications for each motherboard. We used Intel's stock cooler for the stock comparison testing, while water-cooling via the superlative Heat Killer 3.0 water block was utilized for overclocking. For graphics duty, MSI’s GTX 275 Lighting GPU was used to provide performance comparisons between boards during gaming benchmarks.
For our test results we set up each board as closely as possible in regards to memory timings. Otherwise all other settings are left on auto. The P55 utilized 8GB of memory where possible, while the X58 platform contained 6GB. The P55 and X58 DDR3 timings were set to 7-7-7-20 1T at DDR3-1600 for the i7-920 and i7-870 processors at both stock and overclocked CPU settings.
We used DDR3-1333 6-6-6-18 1T timings for the i5-750 stock setup for all system benchmarks (non-gaming tests) as DDR3-1600 is not natively supported at a stock BCLK setting of 133. For our Clarkdale i5 661 and i3 540 CPU’s, we used 7-7-7-20 1N timings at DDR3-1333MHz with 8GB of memory (4GB on the Mini-ITX boards).
Power Consumption
Our power consumption testing utilizes the same batch of components under similar circumstances in a bid to monitor variances between idle and CPU load conditions. We install the vendor supplied power saving utilities on each board and enable power saving modes that don't involve any kind of underclocking or CPU core frequency modulation in order to run an apples to apples comparison.
ATX PSU switching losses are absent from our figures because we monitor power consumption directly at the DC rails of the PSU. These figures measure only the CPU, motherboard and memory DC power draw and exclude any other peripherals, such as cooling fans and hard drives etc. Actual AC power consumption for the motherboard will be anywhere from 15~40% higher than these figures depending upon the efficiency of your power supply.
The H55N-USB3's idle power consumption is excellent, although you lose out on efficiency under load compared to boards from Intel and ECS. We suspect this is due to Gigabyte's choice of a more robust VRM to aid in overclocking. The Intel DH57JG does not support Lynnfield processors, while ECS's model is confined to a 87W TDP cap.
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ReaM - Thursday, June 17, 2010 - link
For Gods SAke do not overclock a mainboard that doesnt have MOSFET cooling. It will die after 20 minutes prime or lynx.Put a fat, bold DO NOT OVERCLOCK into overclock section.
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, June 17, 2010 - link
Heat is NOT the absolute killer of mosfet's on motherboards- it's current. Most mosfets will handle junction temperatures of 150~170 Celsius before they suffer a breakdown. What boards need are properly implemented OCP which on the face of it this board has.Later
Raja
play2learn - Thursday, June 17, 2010 - link
Did anyone find any information about Sound through HDMI ?Rajinder Gill - Thursday, June 17, 2010 - link
Sound through HDMI works fine into my Sony TV. As part of the power consumption test I run 1080P video and I did not get any glitches.just4U - Thursday, June 17, 2010 - link
It's a pricey board.. I was thinking it would be under $70 not over a $100.Faxfane - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
Under 'Gaming and 3D Performance', section: AutoCAD, there is this part: 'ECS holds and advantage'. 'And' should be 'an', something easily auto-corrected by the brain, but is still unbecoming of such a professional site. Otherwise, this was a very informative and pleasurable article.shady28 - Saturday, June 19, 2010 - link
Lets get real. The main problem with ITX is the confined cases with poor cooling and small power supplies. This review is done without a case on a test bench, a high power high hea GTX 275, and with a 950W full size power supply.
What we really need to do know is what you can practically do with this ITX board. Some poor slob is going to run out and build an ITX box and high end GPU only to find his P/S keeps tripping or worse, something gets damaged and he's out a few hundred bucks.
Rajinder Gill - Sunday, June 20, 2010 - link
The Lian Li case listed in this review (PCQ08B) can hold a full sized ATX PSU and a full length graphics card. The PSU is only going to trip if you decide to buy an under-powered one.Regards
Raja
paihuaizhe - Sunday, June 20, 2010 - link
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staryoshi - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
I am currently using this board with an i7 860 and a Corsair H50. I simply clipped off the bulk of the retention bracket such that only the studs and their surrounding plastic remain. It does not contact any of the vulnerable ICs and I get my precious H50 performance. It fits beautifully in the Sugo 05.I am superbly satisfied overall, but I have run into a problem:
I can't get any changes to memory timings (G.Skill ECO DDR3-1333 7-7-7-21) to stick. It tells me that their has been an overclocking failure and it defaults back to 9-9-9-24. It acknowledges the XMP profile but will not use the timings. Is there some setting I'm overlooking?