GIGABYTE GA-H77N-WIFI LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: I bought this to make a super router running pfsense. Both onboard ethernet ports are recognized out of the box by pfsense.

I was able to fit 4 laptop sata drives mounting 2 on the top and botton of included backets, but didn't include the screws to do it.

The board itself does what is says, but only with windows no other OS.

This also works with freenas.

This also works with proxmox as hypervisor.

Cons: The onboard wifi is NOT recognized and does not work with pfsense (freebsd). So if you are buying this to use as wirelss router, you will need to hook up another router as an access point.

The on board hardware raid seems to kick out of raid mode every 10 reboots or so.

The on board video seems to get scrambled every 10 reboots. Turning off and on the monitor fixes this.

I think the last 2 can be fixed with bios update. But I never buy a product hoping for a fix.

Other Thoughts: In order to get wireless on pfsense with this board, you need to run another cheap wireless router and use it as an access point. Whats the point then, speed slow down if you do that.

I would have like a physical on/off button next to the wifi antenna outs so that I can physically turn off the wifi, that would help when installing pfsense and getting wifi to work with it.

Pros: Windows 8 Compatible out of the box, no drivers needed for WiFi or BT.
WiFi antenna are not directly connected, so they can be moved to get better reception.
I'm not using the 2nd NIC, WiFi, or BT, but I'm happy to see those options included.
UEFI support out of the box.

Cons: May have issues with bigger heatsinks due to CPU location...but I'm running the stock heatsink

Other Thoughts: I'm glad to see Intel WiFi instead of Broadcom, Atheros, Realtek, etc. But, that's just a matter of personal preference.

Pros: Before I go into the pros and cons I would like to point out that I bought this board to use with my ESXi build and so I am basing my review off of its incompatibility with ESXi.

- Both NICs are recognized by ESXi (main reason why I bought it). It also comes with a wifi adapter but ESXi doesn't recognize it but I knew it wouldn't anyway.

- The on board chipset (H77) works well with ESXi.

- The board supports E3 Xeon processors. I'm currently running a Xeon E3-1245 v2.

- Good location of the 24pin, SATAs, and USB 3.0.

- Everything is black! The PCB is flat black and looks amazing.

- It comes with dual HDMIs and one DVI. They completely got rid of the VGA port.

Cons: My cons aren't focused on my ESXi build, they are focused more on if I were to by this for an everyday build or a lan rig.

- The cpu socket placement is in a location to were you can't use a large heatsink like a NH-D14. I mean, you could use one if you didn't use the PCI-E with anything. Connected the 4pin CPU power to the board would be difficult too. I would assume that people that buy these ITX boards are going to use a closed loop system anyway and from the looks of it, it will work just fine.

- I wish they would have given me four SATA cables instead of just two. I mean, it only has four SATA ports anyway so they might as well just included four SATA cables.

- The location of the USB 3.0 header is great but I just wish they would rotate it 45 degrees so that you can run it just like everything else (24pin, SATAs, etc).

Other Thoughts: Overall it's a great board. The cons are minor things. If I could give it 4.5 eggs I would.

System Specs:
Case: Fractal Designs Nod 304
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1245 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI ITX
Memory: Patriot Viper 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600
Heatsink: Stock
Boot Drive: Samsung 840 250GB SSD
Additional Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 400W Modular 80PLUS Bronze

Pros: Great Mini ITX Motherboard with lots of features.

Cons: Location of CPU slot is bad, could not place an aftermarket heat-sink/fan combo cooler without blocking the PCI-E slot. I had to purchased self inclosed water cooler and had to mod my Mini ITX case.

Other Thoughts: If you are going Mini ITX form factor, be sure to purchase the right case for the right application. Especially if you are planning to install an over sized graphics card.

Pros: Bells and whistles. Ivy Bridge. GIGABYTE brand. The manual is excellent as usual. I gave it one egg because it does work but is unusable for me and many others because of the inability to fully scale H/V screen size. This is a shame because GIGABYTE has been my favorite board manufacturer for some time. But the ball has been dropped. CPU is Celeron G1610. No OC.

Cons: Will not allow Horiz and Vert scaling necessary to get desktop to fit on DLP screens, projectors and other display devices that over scan but do not have dot for dot options. Intel drivers do allow for this adjustment but not on this board. Layout of board is poor for many small HTPC cases but can be made to work.

Other Thoughts: The Horiz and Vert scaling option is not available using the drivers that came with the board or those available from GBs website or from the drivers from Intel's web site. Contacted GB by email and still waiting. Chatted with Intel and, of course, they said the video bios on the MB was at fault and to use GB's bios update. I did so and the board still works but no Horiz and Vert scaling option with any of the available drivers. I have wasted a lot of time on this board.

Manufacturer Response:

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

Your Celeron G1610 has not been validated on this model motherboard. For a list of validated processors, please see:

http://www.gigabyte.us/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4338

Further, the Celeron G1610 may not support some GPU features as other Intel HD Graphics cores. Please see the complete supported features here:

http://ark.intel.com/products/71072/

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013032202 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: Small and packed full of features I need for running the lights for an entire concert

Cons: The motherboard will not post. It gets stuck in a boot loop.
trouble shooting steps:

Removed ram / used one ram stick= Still stuck in boot loop and no post
tried completely different power-supply = stuck in boot loop and no post
Removed board from case and placed in test bed= stuck in boot loop and no post
removed cpu =stuck in boot loop and no post
nothing attached to the board but powersupply =stuck in boot loop and no post
Tried flusing cmos =stuck in boot loop and no post

Stays on for about 5 seconds. turns off. turns on again

The Board appears to be DOA. Just bought it from newegg.com this week.

Other Thoughts: Well Not to happy at the moment with it. Had to have this build together and shipped out this next week. Looks like that is not going to happen.
I bought this board because of the lack of bad reviews and issues. Sorry to be the first to have one.

Manufacturer Response:

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

Please be sure your components are on our validated list:

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4084#dl

Also, be sure to connect both the 24pin power and the ATX12V power cables.

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013031101. Include your complete system configuration.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Thick, matte PCB
Intel WiFi
Dual LAN

Cons: Would be better if they move chipset and wifi down and cpusocket up...CM GeminII M4 blocks PCI-E.

Other Thoughts: 16GB Corsair XMS3
CM GeminII M4
Mushkin 120GB SSD
Xeon E3 1245 V2

Pros: This worked absolutely perfect for my hackintosh build that dual boots windows 7, other than the wifi. Bluetooth and wake from sleep work perfect for OS X, and everything on Windows 7 works absolutely perfect. Running a Intel Core i7 3770 with 16bg of SDRAM with a 129gb SSD drive and this thing runs super duper fast and smooth. Almost nothing bad to say

Cons: Not a big fan of the UEFI BIOS but when you get used to it, not really a big deal

Pros: Has everything you need in a motherboard, cool dope bios. Works perfectly for a hackintosh, everything except wifi, it even comes back from sleep mode

Cons: Placement of CPU, and front panel headers is kind of weird.

Pros: - high quality components
- well laid out
- excellent bios, all the settings you need
- sturdy io shield, not flimsy
- intel wifi
- good drivers

Cons: - none

Other Thoughts: I was using biostar and intel for my mini-itx builds, but I'm so impressed with this, that it is now my first choice.