ZOTAC H55ITX-A-E LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: 14 USB 2.0 + WIFI + 6 SATA 3GB/S + 1 PCIE2 + SIZE + CPU compatibility. Overall Im satisfied with the board I think its great that you can have so much packed into a board that is the same size as your entire hand (my hands aren't too big). It is overall a great board.

Cons: I wasnt too fond of the stuff supplied with the board. The board came with 3 out of 6 orange sata cables, wifi antennas, and cd. HOWEVER they did not include any mother board screws and the bracket for the wifi that is supposed to screw down to the back of the board didnt fit(holes didnt line up to the holes in the board at all) I ended up re drilling the bracket a couple millimeters back for the holes to line up with the ones on the board. Ontop of that when everything was set and done, it wouldnt power up which stressed me out after spending 2 hours with wire management and organization. I actually had to remove the CMOS battery and put the jumper in diagnostic mode for it to turn on. So overall it was not a pleasant/painless install. Another is that you cannot setup hardware RAID without a RAID controller since the H55 chipset does not support RAID. So you have to choose between an OS RAID or sacrificing your only PCIE slot for a RAID controller.

Other Thoughts: They should include screws, 3 more orange sata cables, and a better properly measured wifi antenna bracket. More 3 pin power for fans.

Pros: Itx
lots of usb
gig ethernet
takes pci 16x great for gpu's
great overclocking allowed

Cons: the gig lan drivers were not detected by windows 7
some games require you to enable stereo mixing read other thought.
Drivers have to be updated

Other Thoughts: For the drivers if your using windows xp then the drivers must be installed by the supplied disk, otherwise windows 7 picks up most of them.

When you install the sound driver some games like bishock require you to enable stereo mixing in order to hear sound in the game. this drove me nuts until i did some research and low and behold sound in the game.
In windows 7 right click sound icon then click playback devices then click recording then right click anywhere inside the box and click show disabled devices then enable stereo mixing.

Note when you install all drivers you might see pci controller with a ? in device manager. Just do a simple search for MEI_ALLOS_6.1.0.1042_PV thats the driver for that incase you cant use the supplied disk.

Note that if you want to make an ISO of the driver disk on another computer you might run into problems, suchs as the pc hangs or does not see the zotac disk. I dont know why but it only works on whatever the mb is installed.

Enjoy!!!

Pros: If you want small rig this is the best choice.Never have a problem so far,(hope never will).

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: my rig:SN-S083F/BEBE(slim dvd burner),300Gb velociRaptor,intel core i7-870,MSI N460GTX cyclone,Zotac h55itx-A-E,SG05BB 450,MushkinEnhancedSilverline 8GB,Coolit System Eco-r120,etc

Pros: Excellent motherboard with more than enough options! I have been an AMD user forever but I must say I am highly impressed with this Intel board using an i3 processor. Great quality construction and custom feature options.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I am using this board in a mobile PC set up so the 14 USB ports and built in WiFi was an instant attraction. Also the HDMI and Toslink ports cinched the deal!! This motherboard handles everything I have thrown at it with ease!!

Pros: This board has everything you could want

Cons: DOA, when I got it out the box

Pros: As a embedded developer I've worked a lot with ITX form factor. This board is absolutely amazing. The mini-PCIe with a atheros base wifi card already in it is totally over the top. I love having a full blown LGA 1156 with all the perks of the H55 chipset.

Cons: If this was a nominal to sub-standard motherboard, I wouldn't have written anything.

Other Thoughts: ITX and a lot of the embedded form factors can typically take some know how on where and what drivers to use. With linux this could mean some kernel hacking. With this jewel I installed Ubuntu 10.10 x64 with no hiccup at all. I'm going to buy another one when i get a chance to make a Mythbuntu system.

Pros: ITX board with everything you need on board for just about every applications. Also you can remove wireless mini PCIe card and rear ports if you don't want the wireless feature. For the price, this board is practically a bargain.

Cons: Power LED, HDD LED, and audio header are right next to PCIe slot, they may be hard to use if you have a PCIe card installed. -1 egg for this. Also memory slots are a bit closer to CPU than on typical ATX board, some aftermarket cooler may not fit. Also no scantily clad lady on the box cover but that's ok I can just print out suitable picture from the internet and glue em on the box. ;)

Other Thoughts: Obviously on board video only works with i3 and i5 600 series (Lynnfield core). Clarkdale core (i5 700 series and i7) would not be able to use onboard video because the CPU does not have the required graphic core, and the rear video port would not function at all. Just heads up if you're trying to minimize components and lower power requirement. This board does work with my i5 750.

I had to modify the power and HDD LED plug to make them fit under the video card. I didn't use the onboard audio header for front ports as this case I got is small and light enough I could just reach for the rear audio port instead.

I got this mainly to build a small portable gaming machine with NVidia GTX 450 card, 2x 2GB Ripjaw series memory sticks, and a spare 500GB hard drive I had around.

Pros: PCIe x16 for full graphics. Lots of usb and built in wireless. Quality product.

Cons: Windows 7 built in driver for the wireless was terrible. Windows 7 didnt have the lan driver either on fresh install. THe driver disk that came with the mobo was bad.... had to use another computer to download the drivers for the lan and wireless to use the internet...

Other Thoughts: 1 egg off for the bad driver cd

Pros: Looks like a great combination of features. Too bad nobody can make it work.

Cons: This board seemed to work for the first few minutes, but then it froze solid, so I had to shut it down. Same thing for the next few tries. Eventually it just stopped working altogether. It will only stay lit up for about 5 seconds at a time now, and customer service doesn't have a clue what to do about it.

Other Thoughts: I don't think me or anyone else I've told about this is going to be buying Zotac goods any time soon.

Manufacturer Response:

Sorry to hear you are experiencing issues with our product. ZOTAC has technical support available 24/7 to fully assist you in diagnosis and possible replacement if needed. If you believe your product is defective, you can also request a RMA directly from ZOTAC. Motherboards are covered under a standard one year warranty, extended with registration within 30 days.

External Link(s):

ZOTAC Warranty|

ZOTAC Technical Support|

Pros: The board works great and I can't believe how much they can pack in such a small package. They actually ship this board with two different WIFI cards. I received a board with a Ralink chipset and I needed one with the Atheros chipset. I contacted Zotac and within 1 day after contacting them they replied that they would send me the correct card that I needed. This obviously shows how much importance they place on customer service. So far the board has worked better than I expected.

Cons: None so far

Other Thoughts: I can't say enough great things about Zotac's customer service. As always Newegg was great!