SPCR

Thanks for the review! Looks like a basic but solid board, would definitely pick for an office type build. Having any sort of fan control is a positive surprise, and the Intel card is definitely the high point of the package. Every wireless solution by Asus has so far been a disappointment.

Actually, I would pick this over the Z77 sibling even for myself - I game a lot and haven't had any need to overclock the CPU nor have I longed for SLI. Even games like Guild Wars 2 and Battlefield 3 ran smoothly with stock CPU and an overclocked 460 GTX, though of course I didn't run full detail. Putting in an extra 50% JUST to get CPU overclocking and SLI support just doesn't seem worth it.

Great review. Also great to see a focus on the fan controller, something that I feel has been missing from previous reviews and contains details that are otherwise hard to come by (particularly the ability to be controlled using SpeedFan as well as the ability / inability to use PWM / voltage control).

The only thing missing that I would have liked to see is CPU cooler compatibility, both with and without a card fitted to the PCI-E slot, including clearances. I have found that with these mini-ITX boards that have the CPU socket next to the PCI-E slot, even a couple of mm can make a huge difference and even though they all look similarly placed, the fact is that they aren't the same between boards.

For these reviews of Mini-ITX mobos it would be great if you could post photos of the underside of the board as well. Some times there are components very close to the CPU mounting holes that make it tricky to mount a heatsink, such as the heatsink used by the HD Plex cases. With my build using an Asus mini-ITX mobo I had to use a dremel to trim the underside mounting washer/nut so that it didn't crush a surface mounted component.

With a 120mm tower cooler, (Hyper 212 evo) the fins overhang the PCIe slot's centerline by about 4mm. This cooler is symmetric, there are a few that have things offset just a bit, where you might be able to turn it one way or the other and get it to fit.

A 92 to 100mm wide cooler would fit with no problems. I'm going to swap the 212 evo with a CoolerMaster Vortex Plus, which is 100 mm wide and blows down to cool the power regulators on the motherboard.

GentleGiant wrote:With a 120mm tower cooler, (Hyper 212 evo) the fins overhang the PCIe slot's centerline by about 4mm. This cooler is symmetric, there are a few that have things offset just a bit, where you might be able to turn it one way or the other and get it to fit.

A 92 to 100mm wide cooler would fit with no problems. I'm going to swap the 212 evo with a CoolerMaster Vortex Plus, which is 100 mm wide and blows down to cool the power regulators on the motherboard.

Thanks for the heads-up!

This review was the only place I could find documentation of the actual SATA chipset used on this board (Intel 7 Series/C216). Even the manual for the thing is frustratingly vague.

Thanks!

The SATA controller is part of the H77 chipset as far as I know, so no separate controller.

http://ark.intel.com/products/64018/Intel-BD82H77-PCH

Megaweapon wrote:This review was the only place I could find documentation of the actual SATA chipset used on this board (Intel 7 Series/C216). Even the manual for the thing is frustratingly vague.

Thanks!

Yeah it's complete ass trying to find the exact controller model in case of Intel. Especially fun when installing on a system that won't detect your SATA drive!

I've got the Z77 version of this board and while the fan control works well, I'm having trouble with the PCH(?) heating up to 52+C which is by no means hot but enough to cause the rear case fan to spin a bit too fast... it also takes ages to get the temp back to low 40s. I wonder if there are any suitable passive PCH heatsinks available for it?

Smanci wrote:I've got the Z77 version of this board and while the fan control works well, I'm having trouble with the PCH(?) heating up to 52+C which is by no means hot but enough to cause the rear case fan to spin a bit too fast... it also takes ages to get the temp back to low 40s. I wonder if there are any suitable passive PCH heatsinks available for it?

It looks like a standard push-pin type of deal. I've had success using Zalman heatsinks, such as http://zalman.com/global/product/Produc ... hp?Idx=133. They also used to sell the pincushion type, but I found the flower to work better because it's slightly slimmer (although taller). The improvement won't be much since it's just a chunk of aluminium with pushpin retention, but at least it catches more air than a flat chunk.

If you have to get serious, there's the Thermalright HR-55: http://www.thermalright.com/html/produc ... hr-55.html.