Intel BOXDH77DF LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Great board when it's not DOA.

Cons: My second DH77DF board. First one running FreeNAS, is fantastic. The second one came in DOA. Won't power on with memory installed. Tried mem, cpu in other boards both are fine. Just DOA board. Since I bought it over 30 days ago, now I can't RMA it to NewEgg.

Pros: This is a compact board with a lot of great features. It has been a solid performer. It fits well in my Silverstone SG06 case. I am running Windows 8.

Cons: I am using the VIA FireWire port on this board to communicate with a software defined radio with a 192KHz sampling rate. This does not work with the Windows 8 FireWire driver so I have to load the legacy FireWire driver from Windows 7, sign the driver, and use BCDEdit to put and keep the system in test mode.

Then everything works great except I get a test mode message on the bottom-right of my display that is difficult to remove without having negative effects with Windows 8.

For now I live with the test mode message.

Other Thoughts: I wish the board had a TI FireWire chipset.

I wish Microsoft would provide the legacy FireWire driver for Windows 8.

Pros: - mSATA support
- Well thought out board design in terms of location of the connectors, etc (but maybe I got lucky due to the case I bought)
- nice generic looking boot screen and bios sans wild colors or 'teh awesome extreme!' type branding
- Intel build quality
- If you choose to install them, the Intel utilities don't look like they were designed by a 5 year old

Cons: - What is with only *one* company selling the CIR receiver? And why not just include the thing in the box? That's a hell of a lot more trouble to find than SATA cables Intel... For those of you looking for it its here: http://shop.inteset.com/intel-cir-receiver
- mSATA port only seems to support SATA II standard (3GB).

Other Thoughts: The mSATA port is on the slower controller. Seems strange to me because even Intel doesn't sell a mSATA device that doesn't support SATA III, so why would they put the mSATA interface on the slower controller knowing that any of their own hardware will have to run at a slower speed? I doubt it would change the performance of a Plex/XBMC client anyway -- but it just doesn't make a lot of sense. They don't really call it out in their documentation, but the mSATA drive will work fine as a boot device.



I grabbed all the drivers from Intel's website, updated the BIOS then used those drivers in lieu of what was on the CD. I had zero issues and had Plex/XBMC up and running multi channel audio and vido over HDMI out to my receiver. Not sure why there are so many people complaining about the quality -- maybe there was a bad batch. I pretty much use Intel boards/components exclusively and have never really had a problem, but I guess everyone's mileage will vary.


Intel i7-3770k
Intel mSATA 60GB
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 Low Profile
IN WIN BQS656.DD120BL Black Mini-ITX Case

Pros: Full of cool features and they all work great.

Cons: For passive cooling you might want to consider changing the stock H77 heatsink with something better.

Other Thoughts: Intel quality. I for one I am sorry Intel is leaving the mobo scene.

Pros: Was nice when it worked. No issues running Ubuntu Linux or Windows 7 64-bit. No issues getting XBMC to work; primary use for this build. Intel IvyBridge based graphics work just fine with XBMC 12.0 and video quality is very good to excellent on a large 1080p 120Hz flat screen TV.

The Intel LAN chip was/is the major attraction for me since LAN chips from other vendors seem to have strange issues in Windows and Linux no matter how many different versions of the vendor's drivers are used.

Cons: No longer working. Will not boot to working system. When it does try to boot, get 1 beep and no video and no keyboard input. Usually I don't get any beeps at all along with a black video screen.

Cannot drop into the BIOS at all.

Outside of 30 day exchange policy with Newegg.

No visible physical damage at all. problem happened after powering down, removing AC power, and remounting the hard disk.

Other Thoughts: Still trying to troubleshoot while deciding if it's worth the RMA hassle with Intel. Might just run down the road to the local major electronics retailer and get a different brand board that works with my Intel 3225 CPU.

Heard Intel is getting out of the desktop motherboard business. If that is true and my experience is indicative of how far their build quality has sunk, I won't miss them at all.

I can only speculate on which major motherboard manufacturer is actually making these boards. If my guess is true, then this experience matches up to the bad reviews I read about the manufacturer's own "branded" products.

Wish I could give this board zero eggs now.

Pros: Has a lot of advanced state of the art features. SATA 6Gbps, USB3, various display interfaces

Cons: It runs Win7 only. Don't try any other OS; drivers exist for Win7 only.

Other Thoughts: Like the small size. Am looking for a replacement of our company's mid-tower computers; something that could fit behind the monitors and not on the floor. However we will be running WinXP for at least several more years. That's just reality. Have been unable to install WinXP. Thought I would try a couple of other OS's for fun. Win Server 2012=NO, CentOS=NO. Drivers just don't exist. I just wish Intel would have notes on their website in VERY LARGE PRINT saying that you shouldn't even try other OS's. They imply that XP might work. They mention USB3 not supported in XP, but even disabling it in the BIOS, the XP install disk is BSOD.

Pros: What is not to like here:

Variety of connections: USB 2.0 (Internal & External), "high power" USB 2.0 (Internal & External), USB 3.0 (Internal & External), FireWire (Internal & External), 2x SATA-II, 2xSATA-III, 1xeSATA-II, PCI-Ex16 3.0, mini-PCI-E (mini and full-length modules)

Support for a wide range of Intel 2nd and 3rd gen CPUs using LGA1155 socket.

Dual independent video displays. Tested using HDMI for TV and VGA for 15 inch monitor; works. Must use Intel app for this.

Intel monitoring app ("IDU") to examine CPU temps, voltages, etc. is very useful. Download it from Intel web site.

3 year limited warranty (per label on box).

Cons: None of the following issues cause me to "drop" any eggs:

Can be cramped to work on connections to this board when stuffed in a tight HPTC case.

When loading Windows 7, use the supplied Intel drivers CD as soon as the OS is accessible. Sure, the drivers on the CD might be "out of date" (mine were 6 months old), but it will get various things working correctly, namely the Ethernet port; Windows 7 RTM does not have drivers for this Ethernet chip.

Board (per box label) and BIOS were at least 6 months old. Take the time to update the BIOS before doing any OS configuration customization. My BIOS upgrade changed the BIOS menus around ('original' v65 compared to 'updated' v105), but I really like the 'v105' format.

Other Thoughts: I used this board as the basis of a HTPC build:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit with XBMC 12.0-rc2
RAM: 8G Kingston DDR3 1333, N82E16820139075
CPU: Intel i3-3225, N82E16819116774
MOBO: (this review) N82E16813121597
HDD: WD 320G Black "laptop" drive
Case: RAIDMAX HTPC, not from Newegg
Fans: all Silenx brand, not from Newegg but Newegg stocks them
P/S: Pico-PSU, not from Newegg

Stock CPU fan is decent. No overclocking in this build.

This system is "dead silent". It is so quiet that I have to look at the front panel power LED to see it if is "on".

System power consumption is extremely low; around 20 watts according to my UPS when "idle". Consumption increases slightly (maybe 10 watts at most) when playing videos. Power-on surge is about 30 to 40 watts at most.

Gorgeous looking Intel 4000-series video from CPU ("warm looking colors") compared "side by side" to a HTPC build based on AMD Phenom II cpu and Radeon 6570 video ("cold, harsh looking colors"). Could be due to a Radeon driver setting somewhere since no changes were made to the TV setup.

Did not test this combination using any Linux variants so I can't speak to that.

Overall, if the need occurs, I would build another machine using the parts list shown here.

Pros: Full of features. Firewire, USB3, Intel NIC.
Pretty energy efficient.
With a Sandy Bridge CPU (G630T) + 80PLUS PSU, it idles around 20W at AC without disks. (I'm a little disappointed. I expected even less.)
16GB max memory.
I'm using this for FreeNAS home server. Between USB3 and Firewire, moving large data out from the box is relatively painless.
Ivy Bridge ready.

Cons: It cannot take the CPU cooler with back plate because of the surface mount components on the backside of motherboard interferes with it.
I was planning to use a large cooler as passive, but I had to use another cooler that uses push-pin style. (I don't like Intel's push-pins.)
I'm using ARCTIC Freezer 11 LP, and it's tight but works.

Other Thoughts: I have no need for video, I cannot comment on that. I hooked up monitor while setting up BIOS and first boot, but after that, it's monitor less.
Being unable to use the planned cooler was a mild annoyance. Looking at the back of motherboard now, I realize that there is no space for the back plate that exists for microATX and larger boards.
Live and learn.

Pros: This is just a quick update to my last review. Intel raised the RMA request to a higher team, and after 3 weeks approved my RMA and is sending out a new board. I'm glad to see them standing behind their product, even if there was a huge delay. I gave them 2 eggs back for their support.

Cons: Took 3 Weeks to approve the RMA.
The mSata port still only supports 3Gbit.

Pros: What's not to like. I have a tiny htpc running an i3 with 16GB of RAM. Runs quiet runs cool.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: My parts
RAM-N82E16820239291
CPU- N82E16819116774
Case-N82E16811154091