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
We start with the same old "swings and roundabouts" in performance figures that you’ll never notice in real world usage:
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.
Overclocking
Using the stock Intel cooler with our 661 sample, we managed achieve around 4.2GHz Linpack stable:
The Clarkdale IMC isn’t ideally suited to high memory bandwidth, so we settled for a perfectly respectable DDR3-1640 with CAS 6-7-6-18 timings using our high-end Corsair Dominator kit whilst keeping QPI and CPU frequency in sync. This overclock was held stable by using 1.31Vcore (load voltage is likely a lot less as we kept Vdroop enabled), a set VTT of 1.31V and VDIMM of 1.65V.
Pushing higher than this would be possible with improved processor cooling, but as a side-effect requires more VTT if QPI and memory frequency is not relaxed - and we’re already setting 1.31V which seems to be the upper limit of what the VTT VRM can handle. Setting a higher voltage results in the board shutting down during Linpack, which confirms OCP does work on this particular rail.
We also checked out possibilities with a Lynnfield, using our 875-K sample to see what the board can handle:
3.66GHz is the upper level of what is achievable during Linpack with a HT enabled i7 processor. It’s not the greatest overclock, but is better than what some of the other H55 mini-TX boards can manage and is competitive with DFI’s MI-T36, aside from it being easier to cool the processor on the latter due to a better layout. Out of interest, we did attempt multiplier only overclocking too, but found that same overall CPU clock speed limit – any higher and the board shuts down during Linpack.
Should you opt for an i5-750 Lynnfield, CPU speeds up to 3.8GHz should be sustainable, provided you can find a way to keep the CPU cool enough under heavy loads.
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Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
I've just searched the web and found reports of TV tuner cards working with the Intel DH57JG with a Clarkdale CPU. Hope this helps shed a bit of light. I'll get some PCIe cards in to help out with testing this end too.I will contact Gigabyte for you first thing. Which motherboard is it?
Regards
Raja
ajp_anton - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Motherboard: ga-h55m-ud2hTuner: pxdtv 2300h
Doesn't really matter to me now, I sold it and went for AMD instead.
Khenke - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Was planing to build an ultra compact gaming rig (and build a case my self) with this moderboard an i5 750 and HD5850. My aim was to OC the 750 to 3.8GHz and use the H50 to cool it, but thanks to you guys I now know I have to wait until Asus releases a mini-itx card and do it right.But what would be nice is if you could test any other cooling on it that fit (so we know if any coolers at all fit), preferably low profile coolers as I want my case no thicker than 12cm :)
Thanks for en excellent review.
Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
If you're willing to do a bit of DIY, you can trim the mount of the H50 down a bit to fit the hole. Not ideal I know. I'll see if Gigabyte have a list of low-profile coolers that will work (or if they'll put a list together) - any updates and I'll post back here.-Raja
forumator - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Nice, would be great to have that info, thanks Rajinder.Khenke - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Ah. Thanks Raja.Since I'm planing to make an all aluminum 19x27x12cm (inner size so add max 1cm for the material) case a little work on the H50 wont be much of a problem :)
But I am very interested in a list with low-profile coolers too, since I could slim it down 1cm then.. :)
The H50 was the solution for a very bad placed cpu socket.
Been hunting some info on compatible coolers but with no luck so far.
I so want to get my gaming rig in a backpack..
Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Off the bat, anything push-pin will work. Not sure how many push pin type coolers there are that make any sense over the Intel cooler though.Anything with a screw clamp fitting will need to be assessed on a case by case basis, as there are also some SMT resistors and a couple of what look to be feedback compensation capacitors to the left of the hole (near the circled transistor). You really don't want to knock those off or damage them.
I'll ping GB in the morning and see if they want to put together a list for their homepage - I suspect a lot of people will appreciate the info. I only have a couple of old tower sinks and the H50 at hand, so I've either gotta scour around the web hoping I call it right, or enlist some help :)
-Raja
jaydee - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
I am glad you posted results from "AutoCAD 2010 x64—Cadalyst 2008" with both the IGP and the discrete video card. Is there any chance we can see this benchmark on video card reviews (Ryan)? I'd be really interested in seeing a comparison of 3D benchmarks as well as games across the video card spectrum.forumator - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Would have liked more info on what aftermarket coolers will fit with a graphics card in the pcix slot...especially ones that would fit in a small case, this is a MITX board after alljaydee - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
I would think that'd be way more dependant on the case, than it would be the motherboard.