Choosing the Best H55/H57 Motherboard - Part 1
by Rajinder Gill on January 31, 2010 11:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
This concludes part one of our coverage today. We've still got plenty of testing to do over the next few weeks, as there are a few areas we'd like to explore on some of these boards - namely Lynnfield overclocking, which we have not had enough time to perform on the H55/H57 chipsets just yet. The boards all POST when a Lynnfield processor CPU is inserted; we need to find out how well the cheaper boards handle a quad-core HT enabled CPU for overclocking, and if it's worth saving some money over entry to midrange P55 boards by using H55/H57 for the same task.
We're also looking at adding in some USB 3.0 testing in the near future; it's a matter of getting the right equipment in the lab to test these features in a meaningful way and to make sure that the boards work as they should.
Testing of the next four boards is already underway, and we're aiming to have something up in a couple of weeks. By then, we should be able to draw a firm conclusion of which board delivers the best functionality, performance, and overall feature set. The four boards we'll be looking at in the labs over the next two weeks are the Gigabyte H57M-USB3 and H55M-USB3, the BIOSTAR TH55HD, and finally the ECS H55H-M. Stay tuned….
Assuming you can get past Intel's kicker of locked single card GPU support on these boards and you really must buy now, then based upon our experience with the four boards we've looked at today you've got two reasonable choices. If your budget will stretch far enough, go for the ASUS P7H55D-M EVO. It's the smooth-operator of the bunch and should give you a trouble free time if you plan on any overclocking.
If you're after cheap and cheerful, the ASRock H55M-Pro will get the job done. The remaining quirks are a matter of overclocking preferences and overclocking functionality more than anything else. The current release BIOS has not given us any issues in normal usage scenarios at all so far and seems to make for a very stable PC build.
In closing, one thing we have noticed in our Clarkdale testing is that the CPUs overclock memory better when placed in some of the mid-high end P55 motherboards. It's not a huge gap but it becomes readily apparent at higher memory frequencies (over DDR3-1800MHz). We're not sure if this is due to vendors not having a full grip on the H55/H57 chipsets yet, or if it's down to design compromises on the H55/H57 motherboards we've tested - it's probably safe to say it's a bit of both. It'll be interesting to see how things develop in this regard over the coming weeks. This is another reason why it might be wise to wait a while and see how things pan out, depending on what you're looking for from the Clarkdale platform.
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Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Hi Rick,I have not heard of or seen anything that offers 10 onboard SATA ports on H55 yet. If I hear of anything, I'll let you know.
regards
Raja
Rick83 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Many thanks :-)marc1000 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Bottom line: DON'T BUY anything from Intel this generation. If you are not an advanced user who knows exactly what you are doing, then it is best to skip completely the current products.I'm saying this because there is a great chance you will pay more for something that offer less, or will get a crappy product, or will buy something believing it was "awesome" only to latter find it was actually "mediocre".
This is because the RIDICULOUS naming scheme Intel has chosen to use in the current CPU+Chipset.
Like some other user pointed here already: there is not ONE way to know if you are buing a dual or quad-core CPU simply by looking at it's name. You MUST know the exact specification based on model number (that does not mean nothing more than an obscure performance indicator).
And the trend seems to continue with the chipsets... you get a chipset that is more expensive and with less resources but the name makes it "look" like it is better!
HobHayward - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Unless I'm mistaken your description of the instant boot utility is misleading. At least on my ASRock x58 extreme, the instant boot function overrides the standard shut own procedure, and instead causes the system to restart, boot all the way back into windows, and then put the system into sleep mode. This way you have a fresh boot when you return to your computer, without having to wait for a full boot.Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Sorry, you are correct, I've added some text. The latter feature is akin to hibernate (suspend to disc) for fast boot.michal1980 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
I'm waiting for an editorial. The fact that you had to wait for multiple bios revisions for a STABLE build, is imho unaccetable.I almost bought one of these boards, and then remebered my rule, wait at least 6 months. Because mobo makers release CRAP. And no one in the industry seems to call them on it. People that work for anandtech have an insider edge for support, end users get fu*ked with shitty parts.
Is it really that hard to launch with a stable OS? If the end user is to be a fu*king beta tester, then I want free boards.
YellowWing - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
I am interested in seeing more power figures for these boards with only the IGP. One of the unknowns in building a small HTPC with these boards is sizing the power supply. Many of the smaller cases come with small wattage power supplies.Power figures for each board with only the IGP will help size the minimum supply needed for these boards.
I would also like to see the figures for the i3-530, which may be the most popular CPU for a HTPC build on Clarksdale
Bloodx - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link
1080P/24 does not work correct. Until Intel releases a driver that corrects there is no point using this for an HTPC.piasabird - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
So why not just use an E7500 and an integrated MATX motherboard?I have not seen any real comparison between that and an I3 entry level processor. My guess is besides HDMI there is not much difference. One advantage is with an older chipset you have more stability.
hyvonen - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Why i3/i5 + H55/H57?1) Higher performance (both CPU and IGP).
2) Lower power consumption at load.
3) DTS-MA/Dolby TrueHD Bitstream support through HDMI.
4) Dual hardware HD decoding.