GIGABYTE GA-H61M-DS2 LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: nothing at all

Cons: nothing but trouble since installing it. Just plain sucks !

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. Honest and constructive opinions are always welcome. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product.

Since you do not list your specific issue, please contact us for further assistance at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013041701 in the subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue as soon as possible.

Please contact our Live Technical Support at 626-854-9338, option 3 if the matter is urgent.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Cheap. Got the job done. Until I tried to add another hard drive, and then found out Rev. 1 didn't support Ivy Bridge

Cons: So due to the poor placement of the sata connectors under my gpu I had to unplug my disc drive to fit in my new hard drive. Well the problem is, when I went to do that, the whole connector was yanked out. Very poor design. Along with that, my revision doesn't support Ivy Bridge. Which sucks but understandable.

Other Thoughts: You're paying for what you get.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. Honest and constructive opinions are always welcome. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product.

Ivy Bridge processors are supported out of the box depending on when made your motherboard purchase. Since you have Rev 1.x, you most likely purchased your motherboard before Ivy Bridge processors were officially released, and of course will not be supported. If this is the case, GIGABYTE does offer an updgrade BIOS. Ivy Bridge processors are supported with Rev1.0 BIOS F4 released on Feb/2012, and Rev1.2 BIOS FC released on Feb/2012.

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3970#bios
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4021#bios

Be sure to use the correct BIOS version according to your motherboard Revsion.

The blue colored SATA cables included with your motherboard accessory package is designed with a metal locking tab as to prevent loosening during movement or shipping of build systems. To remove the SATA cable from the SATA port on the motherboard, you must grasp the silver metal tab and squeeze before pulling the blue SATA cable. Not doing so may result in damaging the SATA port or removal of the SATA port connector on the motherboard entirely, as you seem to have described.

Normally, this is physical damage and not covered by warranty. However, if you submit your warranty claim with the case number 2013040104, we will honor warranty repairs.

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number2013040104. Include your complete system configuration.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Solid board for the price, though I did not purchase through newegg. Booted first time and ran like a champ. Initially paired it with a Pentium G860 which handled everything great except some of the more demanding games of today.

Cons: I looked at the cpu's this board supported on the gigabyte website and decided to go with an i5 3570 (non-K). I saw that it needed a bios update to do so, which is no big deal. What I didn't realize is there are 3, yes 3 revisions to this board. I had rev 1.0 which will NOT IN ANY WAY support the i5 3570 (non-K) ivy bridge part.

Also, whoever designed the SATA layout needs to be publicly shamed. It's not a problem if you use a small GPU or onboad graphics, but my GTX 560 covers ALL FOUR PORTS. Luckily I had a couple of low profile 90* SATA connectors laying around and it was more of an annoyance than a show-stopping problem.

Other Thoughts: If you think you may upgrade to a different cpu, CHECK YOUR REVISION NUMBER!!! I had to buy a new motherboad since I couldn't send the CPU back because I already used it. Guess you live and learn. I'm temped to give it only 3 eggs simply for asanine placement of the SATA ports and horrible revisioning, but those have noting to do with how well the board performed.

Pros: Solid Caps, low rDS(on), better ESD protection. Perfect for an inexpensive htpc board. Gigabyte quality.

Cons: If you use a large GPU you may lose access to 2 SATA ports.

Other Thoughts: You could always use a 90degree SATA cable and only lose 1 port if you use long dual slot GPU's

Pros: Nice little 1155 matx motherboard for the price, cant go wrong with the gigabyte brand.

Cons: None so far... keep on truck'n!

Other Thoughts: Dont expect much from this basic motherboard when it comes to overclocking, the BIOS is limited, but functional. I too had a problem when using a lengthy video card, it hovered over two of the four sata ports, so i just used the uncovered ports(2/3), my sata HDD and sata DVDRW works just fine.

i5-2500k @ 3.4g
Gigabyte H61M-DS2 v2.2 (F7)
Gskill Rip Jaws 2x4gb pc3-1600
Zotac Amp 460GTX 1gb
Seagate 500gb sata2
Corsair vx550w
Windows7 Home Premium Sp1 64bit

Pros: cheapest 1155 from a top tier manufacturer

Cons: I had driver issues until I got online

Other Thoughts: I've got a $150 1155 board and this thing is pulling down the same benchmarks as it, so... who cares. save $100

Pros: Cheap and reliable. All of my builds over the past 3 years have involved Gigabyte main boards. I am typing this review from a machine running a Gigabyte board that is 4 years old and has been running 24/7/365 (I literally never turn off my computers) since I installed it.

Cons: You get what you pay for and it's not a world-beater as far as performance.

Other Thoughts: You pay more for performance so get a better job if thats what you want.

Pros: None, wouldn't even post. Replaced with an ASRock and my system booted right up. I do have a GB board my XP box and like it a lot. This board is poorly laid out as others have noted (video card & SATA cables). It might have been a nice board, but I don't have the option of finding out... it is dead.

Cons: DOA

Other Thoughts: I did neglect to build the system until about 3 months after purchase - I'm just used to things working. But if I had bought a high-end board I probably would have checked it sooner. This is just for a school/dev linux system.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. Honest and constructive opinions are always welcome. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product.

You mention that your original purchase was 3 months ago? The most likely problem is older inventory. Your version motherboard may not have the supporting BiOS for the current Ivy Bridge core processors, and thus appearing to be DOA.

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2012111201 in the subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue as soon as possible.

Please contact our Live Technical Support at 626-854-9338, option 3 if the matter is urgent.

Gigabyte VIP Support Team

Pros: -Great deal for the price
-Absolute tank (see other comments)
-Does what they say it does

Cons: None, I bought this knowing there were only 2 RAM slots, 4 pin CPU connector and 1 PCI 2.0 lane.

Other Thoughts: I used this board temporarily when my gaming rig was down. I wanted something cheap that would work while I'd wait a month for ASUS RMA. This is an absolute tank in the way I accidentally dropped it once, no damage at all and it works like a charm.

People that complain about no overclocking and only 2 RAM slots need help. It's obvious you can't overclock a $55 board, what would you expect? You should know what you are buying if you want to overclock and have more RAM slots.

Now the one thing I don't like (which I knew it had) was how when you have a dual slot video card, it covers the main SATA connectors. Not a big deal if you have a right angle set of SATA connectors, and if you get anything decent then you should.

Oh and one last message to the people who want to overclock: If you want to overclock, you can't get a cheap motherboard like this. It's common sense. I thought people would know what they are buying, and be expecting premium product features.

Now this is a long review, sorry, but I just am wanting people to get the right things when they go and buy things instead of read faulty reviews and get terrible products.

Pros: Great H61 board for low end use. This board was in a computer built for just surfing the web and using word and excel. In almost a year the user I built it for has been super happy.

Cons: No PCI slot, I could have reused the customers PCI Wireless card if it did. No eggs off though.

Other Thoughts: With a Pentium G620 this board is great for basic use.