Hardware ECS H55H-I mini-ITX Motherboard Review

We review ECS' own cheap and cheerful mini-ITX H55 motherboard for Intel LGA1156 CPUs.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/05/14/ecs-h55h-i-mini-itx-motherboard-review/1

 

Looks perfect for a mini-Lan Box....../plot

 

When oh when will the good boards come out ?

Mini ITX plus 5/6 internal SATA, and Raid 5 ? please ?

I'm sure its deliberate so we all buy the hideously expensive NAS boxes out there instead of building our own..
Mini ITX was made for a sweet home server.....

 

Any date on a UK release?

 

Not to mention the price of a decent mini-ITX case. Most cost more than the rest of the build put together.

 

This would be close to perfect for a future Media Centre / NAS build in the works. However no raid kinda holds back the usefullness as a NAS. No option to install a RAID card either in my build, as the X16 slot would be taken up by a tv tuner card.

The price savings over other boards such as the Zotac is very nice, but one in the middle would be nice, same as this but with in built Wireless. The increasing popularity can only be a good thing though, with more and more manufacturers producign boards for the form factor.

 

Pff RAID. Don't bother unless you're putting an x8 card in that PCI-E slot. 6 SATA? Look at the Zotac mini-itx we reviewed before.

 

Raid 5 for redundancy.

I had previously found this : Zotac NM10-DTX

http://pden.zotac.com/index.php?pag...&category_id=7&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

But it now no longer shows it as capable of Raid 5...

The Zotac you mention here : http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mo...zotac-h55itx-ae-mini-itx-motherboard-review/1
Its only lacking the Raid5 for me. If it had that, I would buy one or two of them.
If they could swap the WIFI for Raid, would be better. For me anyway....

 

Intel probably wants to get its Atoms into NAS devices, so they are limiting the functionality of the mini-ITX boards maybe....

 

Most likely the other way around, why sell a cheap Atom when you can sell a much more expensive i5?

And that Fractal Array case you mentioned was epic!

 

Because the Intel H55 chipset lacks RAID 5. No one uses the P55 (except DFI, but try finding THAT mini-itx board for sale!) because it's more expensive and designed for Lynnfield Core i5/i7 CPUs, but due to size constraints you cant fit enough power hardware physically on board to use them.

WiFi is a separate chip entirely, it doesnt take space away from RAID potential.

You could use unRAID and just do it via software if you really wanted. Or, use a USB TV tuner? There's plenty available these days.

 

H57 does Raid.
No, the WIFI adds to cost. Less WIFI more Raid.

Its just a shame that Intels Raid 5 has been around for quite some time now, and that it would be nice to have ONE mini-Itx board with 5/6 Sata and Raid 5 support.

With a bit of luck, AMD will come out with an 890G/GX mini-Itx board with the SB750/850...but they might not.

 

H57 is more expensive (same cost as P55) and the proportion of users who want onboard RAID is exceptionally small, let alone RAID in an already small form factor market.

Unless you can find a J&W 785G board, or they make an 880G with SB850, you won't get an AMD mini-ITX either sorry: again, lower market demand depicts economics.

Even the old G45 Intel boards only used ICH10 iirc. No RAID there.

Seriously, just change your plans to use a RAID card

 

to be honest fellas i cant imagine many if any mini-itx builders want to overclock their systems, especially as mini-itx cases are normally air-flow limited.