Microcenter I3 2100 plus micro-ATX board for $99.99

[ces]

Microcenter two core I3 2100 plus micro-ATX board for $99.99

The board is an MSI board that uses what appears to be a new low wattage Intel H61 chipset that uses a maximum of 6.1 watts
http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=52773

Why even think about an AMD fusion when you can get a Sandy Bridge plus a motherboard at this price?

http://www.microcenter.com/specials/ema ... g0325.html

Does anyone know the story behind the H61 chipset? Any reason why you wouldn't want it.

Seems to have a few less PCI lanes.... so what? Less electronics to waste electricity on.

[ces]

I noticed this board only has Sata II instead of Sata III. It also has only USB 2.0 instead of USB 3.0.

Using it with a Generation 2 Intel SSD doesn't seem so bad.

[ces]

Anyone know where to get the list of approved memory for this board? I went to their site... but I can't seem to find it there.

[wtouist]

New at this, and this is guess, going by onboard memory control, any 1.5 volt 1333, 1066 Intel I5, I6 approved memory should be fine. I'm seeing this from $40 for 2x2 4gb. Or less (15% off 48 hour sale).
On P67 people are using memory up to 1.65 volt.
Also overclocking. VERY little info on H boards, especially H61.

[ces]

There is just too much goofiness with memory. I always like to buy something that the board maker has tested and approved.

[lodestar]

The H61 chipset was announced for future release at the time of the Sandy Bridge launch. It was stated then that it was going to be a 'value' alternative to the H67, and seems to have been delayed until a B3 version was ready. My local hardware dealer is listing boards from MSI, Gigabyte and Asus already, all are the B3 revision. The prices look extremely competitive, even for one of the somewhat more costly but fully featured boards such as the Asus P8H61-M. And I note that the manual for this board does list compatible memory although I suspect that H61 is not going to be at all picky in this respect.