Gigabyte H81M-S2PV review
This micro-ATX's H81 chipset is fairly limited, but its budget price makes it a good choice for a very simple, entry level PC
Specifications
LGA1150, microATX, Intel H81 Express chipset, supports: 4th generation Intel Celeron, Pentium, Core i3/i5/i7
Ports are limited, but you still get two USB3 and two USB2 ports, with another four USB2 ports available through its internal headers, VGA and DVI-D display outputs, a serial port, two PS/2 ports for a mouse and keyboard, a Gigabit Ethernet port and three 3.5mm audio jacks. It’s a shame there’s no HDMI port, but at least you can use both video outputs simultaneously if you have two displays.
We tested the H81M-S2PV with a Core i5-4670K and 4GB of DDR3 RAM running at 1600MHz. It didn’t perform quite as well as we expected, scoring 108 overall, which is four points behind our reference Haswell system. Fortunately, its intuitive UEFI BIOS is easy to use if you want to overclock your processor to increase its performance.
The Gigabyte H81M-S2PV isn’t as sophisticated as other small LGA1150 boards, but at this price it’s hard to begrudge its limitations too much. Its lack of expansion slots and SATA3 ports won’t suit everyone, but if all you’re looking to build is a simple PC with a single graphics card and one main SSD, the H81M-S2PV is decent choice.
Basic Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Rating | **** |
| Processor socket | LGA1150 |
| Form factor | microATX |
| Size | 244x180mm |
| Processor support | 4th generation Intel Celeron, Pentium, Core i3/i5/i7 |
| Processor external bus | 100MHz |
| Chipset north bridge | Intel H81 Express |
| Chipset south bridge | Intel H81 Express |
| Passively-cooled north bridge | yes |
| Integrated graphics | No |
| Supported memory type | DDR3 |
| Maximum memory speed | PC3-12800 |
| Memory slots | 2 |
| Maximum memory | 16GB |
| Dual-channel support | yes |
Buying Information | |
| Price | £39 |
| Supplier | http://www.dabs.com |
| Details | www.giga-byte.com |
Internal Ports | |
| Power connectors | 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 8-pin ATX |
| PCI-E x16 slots | 1 |
| Dual graphics architecture | none |
| PCI-E x4 slots | 0 |
| PCI-E x1 slots | 1 |
| PCI slots | 2 |
| Fan headers | 2 |
| Floppy ports | 0 |
| IDE ports | 0 |
| Serial ATA ports | 2 |
| RAID chipset (max disks) | none |
Features | |
| Wired network ports | 1x 10/100/1000 |
| Sound (ports) | Realtek ALC887 (3x analogue out) |
| USB2 ports / headers | 4/4 |
| Firewire ports / headers | 0/0 |
| Legacy ports | 2x PS/2, serial |
| Other ports | VGA, DVI |
| Cables included | 2x SATA |
| Brackets included | none |
| Software included | none |
Setup and Overclocking | |
| Voltage adjustment | CPU/RAM/Chipset |
| CPU clock max adjustment | 8,000MHz |