Gigabyte H55M-USB3 - The Ultimate $100 H55 Board?

Rob Williams · 03-08-2010, 01:19 AM

Finding a great H55 board to match up with your Clarkdale CPU isn't hard, as the market currently has a great selection. But Gigabyte's H55M-USB3 stands out, as it has a superb feature-set for its ~$100 price tag, and also proves itself in our tests as being a great all-around board, and one that seems to have no limit in overclocking.

You can read our full review here and discuss it here!

Doomsday · 03-08-2010, 02:23 AM

wow! this really is a bang for buck mother board! Awesome!

Optix · 03-08-2010, 11:06 AM

Great little board. Classic Gigabyte all the way.

The only thing is I wonder how many people will jump at this board and pair it with a separate video card?

The P55M-UD2 has all of these features except for USB 3.0 and can, as one review site said "overclock the nuts off of an i5 750" at around the same price tag plus you gain RAID support.

I guess it comes down to what you plan on doing - RAID or connecting say and external HDD.

crowTrobot · 03-08-2010, 01:39 PM

This looks fantastic. I am looking at building an HTPC sometime (possibly a gaming HTPC) and these new h55 offerings are really enticing.

I'm surprised GIGABYTE still included an IDE and Floppy port on a micro-atx board.

Rob Williams · 03-08-2010, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crowTrobot

I'm surprised GIGABYTE still included an IDE and Floppy port on a micro-atx board.

So am I, and to be honest, I wish they were gone. I'd have to imagine that the number of people to ever take advantage of either of those is small, given that most people who buy this board won't be upgrading, but building a new machine. I just hate the look of the connectors... they remind me way too much of trying to fix bent pins on an IDE hard drive with tweezers. Not fun.

stevea · 09-19-2010, 05:51 PM

I've been running a home server off this board since January. Sweet board.

I had some fan control issues (always high), resolved by updating the firmware.

I'm using an i5-640 OC'ed to 4Ghz, and a Seasonic 200W 80+ PSU. The system idles at ~49 Watts, peak ~130W. This mobo is great for a low power system, so buy a PSU sized to the job, or expect to burn an extra 20+ watts.

Rob Williams · 09-20-2010, 11:39 AM

Whoa, that's nice. A CPU at 4GHz and the entire machine runs at just 130W peak? That's quite the setup!

03-08-2010, 01:19 AM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	Gigabyte H55M-USB3 - The Ultimate $100 H55 Board? Finding a great H55 board to match up with your Clarkdale CPU isn't hard, as the market currently has a great selection. But Gigabyte's H55M-USB3 stands out, as it has a superb feature-set for its ~$100 price tag, and also proves itself in our tests as being a great all-around board, and one that seems to have no limit in overclocking. You can read our full review here and discuss it here! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

03-08-2010, 02:23 AM	#2
Doomsday Tech Junkie Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: KHI, PAK Posts: 1,539	wow! this really is a bang for buck mother board! Awesome! __________________ PSU: Corsair AX850 - Case: Cooler Master HAF X - CPU:Core i7-2600k - Cooler: Cooler Master V6 GT - Motherboard: Asus Z68 Maximus IV Extreme Z - Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB-1600Mhz - GPU: AMD MSI R6970 Lightning - HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB, Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green - SSD: Intel 520 Series 120GB - K/B: Razer Lycosa Mirror - Mouse: Logitech G700 - MouseMat: Steel Series 4HD - LCD: Samsung 2333SW 23" - Speakers: Creative Inspire M4500 4.1 - Headset: Logitech G35 7.1 "Do not look at a man's prayers nor his fasts, rather, measure him by how well he deals with others, the compassion he shows his fellow man, his wisdom and his integrity" - Umar Ibn Al-Khattab

09-20-2010, 11:39 AM	#7
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	Whoa, that's nice. A CPU at 4GHz and the entire machine runs at just 130W peak? That's quite the setup! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

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03-08-2010, 11:06 AM	#3
Optix Basket Chassis Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 1,647	Great little board. Classic Gigabyte all the way. The only thing is I wonder how many people will jump at this board and pair it with a separate video card? The P55M-UD2 has all of these features except for USB 3.0 and can, as one review site said "overclock the nuts off of an i5 750" at around the same price tag plus you gain RAID support. I guess it comes down to what you plan on doing - RAID or connecting say and external HDD.

03-08-2010, 01:39 PM	#4
crowTrobot E.M.I. Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 99	This looks fantastic. I am looking at building an HTPC sometime (possibly a gaming HTPC) and these new h55 offerings are really enticing. I'm surprised GIGABYTE still included an IDE and Floppy port on a micro-atx board.

09-19-2010, 05:51 PM	#6
stevea Obliviot Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 1	I've been running a home server off this board since January. Sweet board. I had some fan control issues (always high), resolved by updating the firmware. I'm using an i5-640 OC'ed to 4Ghz, and a Seasonic 200W 80+ PSU. The system idles at ~49 Watts, peak ~130W. This mobo is great for a low power system, so buy a PSU sized to the job, or expect to burn an extra 20+ watts.