Getting a page not found message right now, hope it gets fixed.
Edit: fixed now thanks.

I put together one PC with it recently. You can ask me, but I don't have access any more.

Fan control worked. If I remember correctly every "temperature" entry on "Fan Control & Real-Time Monitoring" in BIOS (page 2 in review) leads to sub-menu displaying the target temperatures. For my i7-3770s fan speed maxed out at about 90°C.
Some things to consider: No internal USB 3.0 for front ports (bought Silverstone EC04 for this), on back only 2 audio ports (one is SPDIF-combo), audio codec ALC892 not top-notch. Later BIOS will not accept CPU off the compatibility list.

I don't have this motherboard to test but all the recent Intel board behave like this, so I agree with jojo4u.

And the temp and responsiveness settings are present when I opened the bios in the ITK :

I think you missed some key points of this motherboard design. The Thin ITX with an LVDS is so you can attach to a display internally. An all-in-one (AIO) for example. There are DIY AIO monitors now from CTL, Loop, LG, Gigabyte, ECS, etc. that this mobo is designed for. These AIO's have the LVDS connection internally so you don't have to route a video cable of some sort on the outside.

The odd placement of the CPU is so you can use the Intel HTS1155LP CPU Cooler. The Lian Li PC-Q05, Morex 887 and most AIO's are designed with this type of CPU cooler in mind.

There is nothing wrong with the cpu you used in the test. But in my opinion the i3-3225 with it's HD Graphics 4000 is a better choice. Especially for HTPC applications. And it still has a 55W TDP.

Otherwise I enjoyed the article. After studying this mobo for a while I finally know what that connector is on the underside.

I tried to use this for an HTPC build with a Streacom FC5, but ran into problems with the CPU placement and had to abandon. I was prepared for that and had a mini-server build waiting that I could use it for instead.

Generally I've been happy with it, the only remaining issue is that only one of the Gbit Ethernet ports work reliably, forcing me to use USB2 to connect a DroboPro instead of iSCSI - not an ideal solution. The other port just stops working (regardless of used for LAN or iSCSI), forcing a reboot once a day or so. No driver updates (from the official Intel ones) has helped.

CPU cooling is from a Thermalright HR-02 Macho which cools the whole thing with an i7 3770S passively. And looks cool towering above the low profile board.

can the on-board power circuits handle 4 hdds?

Yes. There is a hefty 12v regulator on the board and if you look at it carefully you can see that the 19v in from the power plug is routed on multiple traces directly to the regulator and then directly to the power plug.

I don't recall the exact amperage - though it is specified in their technical manual on line. It is plenty to spin up 4x 5.25 inch drives, much less the 4x 2.5s or 4x SSDs you'd more likely see attached.

Updated: the DQ77KB can deliver 29.15 watts of max SATA power. Plenty for 4x 2.5s or 4x SSDs - might be pushing the envelope for 4x 3.5s (ok for running them, but not enough to spin-up 4 at the same time). See http://downloadmirror.intel.com/21339/eng/dq77kb_TechProdSpec04.pdf

Nice review. I use a DQ77KB in my home server/router. I am surprised your idle power consumption is as high as it is though, mine idles at 16w, with a similar WD Blue HDD and constantly running both ethernet ports and a mini-pcie wireless card in access point mode. I always thought my Dell AC adaptor was inefficient, but I guess not as inefficient as that great wall ac adapter.

You get 16W, we got 17W -- not sure how this can be considered significant; most AC measurement devices don't have better than 1W resolution.

I'm just surprised because I always assumed that everyone else had lower power numbers than me. Other people on these forums always seem to post lower power numbers than what I have. Plus WiFi accounts for about 2W and each network adapter plugged in usually adds a Watt too, that is why I expected your numbers to be lower.

particleman: I see that both of your Ethernet ports seems to work fine. Which operating system do you use?

I use Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, make sure you update to the latest bios. The October 2012 bios fixes an issue with LAN packet loss.

About This Release:
• Date: October 31, 2012
• ME Firmware: 8.1.2.1318
• Integrated Graphics Option ROM: 2137 PC 14.34
• SATA RAID Option ROM: v11.5.0.1111
• LAN Option ROM: v1376 PXE 2.1 Build 090
• MEBx Code: Based on Version 8.0.0.0066
• 3rd Generation EFI driver: 3.0.1018
• 2nd Generation EFI driver: 3.0.1018
New Fixes/Features:
• Added Trusted Platform Module Presence option in Setup.
• Removed "Generate New Platform Key" option in Setup.
• Fixed issue with LAN packet drop.
• Fixed issue with IDE-R.

Just out of curiosity, what happens when you open the end of the PCIe slot? Many cards will work with a reduced lane count, so some people just remove the little bit of plastic on the end of the slot and plug in bigger cards. There's plenty of cards that are bigger then x4 that people might want to use, even if it's not with optimal bandwidth.

This seems like an odd product to review for SPCR. There's nothing inherently low power about the motherboard, and more traditionally arranged socket 1155 mini-ITX boards may be more suitable for the typical desktop build.

Here's an idea of how a slim HTPC is built using these low profile boards and the Intel CPU cooler in the Morex 887 chassis. I believe the motherboard in this photo is the Intel DH61AG, a predecessor of the DQ77KB.

Thanks - I've been running with the new BIOS for three days now, without issues.

I have mine installed in an Antec ISK 110 case.

The original power board has been removed from the case and that space now houses a USB TV tuner. A TV aerial cable just fits into vacant power plug hole. An old internal USB cable connector is plugged into the single onboard socket and provides the connection to the TV tuner.

This TV tuner is USB2 and will not work with the rear USB3 sockets - Black screen of Death using Windows 8.

The following items work with this board - printer, USB3 hard drive, USB2 BluRay, USB2 memory stick, USB wireless mouse & keyboard, USB WiFi.

It is powered by a 120w generic plugpack. The only other extra is a 80mm fan sitting over the Mini card slot area - it helps cool the Mini SSD, SO-Dimm memory, VR, PCH and the onboard HD.

This motherboard seems very relevant to me: mini-ITX form factor, mSATA slot for a SSD boot drive, single 19v power input rather than an ATX connector, takes standard SandyBridge/IvyBridge CPS rather than Atoms. I can choose cooling and case requirements to suit my needs.

Bill

yes, the 19V input is the most interesting thing on this board. Otherwise similar low-power ratings perhaps could be achieved on the DH77DF or DH77EB?

Here are a few pics of a DQ77KB build I did recently. I modded the case to support 2 hard drives and a SSD. The thing I love about this setup is that it is absolutely silent, except for the rare click from the hard drives. I'm running ESXi 5.1 with no problems so far, although I hear some people have trouble with the secondary NIC (I haven't tried).

Here is the part list:

• Intel i7-3770S
• CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8G) SO-DIMM
• 2 x WD 750GB Black 2.5" drives
• Intel X25M 160GB SSD
• Panasonic Slim OD DVD-RW drive
• In-Win K1.Basic Slim Mini-ITX Case
• Intel HTS1155LP CPU Cooler

Cabling was a PITA because there is very little clearance as a big metal plate gets fitted over the motherboard area. I probably spent $100 trying to find the right SATA cables. In the end, I took my dremel to the included SATA/power cables.

Its a great board for certain uses, its hard to find anything close to it in power/features/price for a DIY micro server. (not atom, not soldered overpriced laptop cpu, truly VT-d capable) The dual intel nics is a huge space saver, although the 82579LM has driver concerns for some stuff.

The only similar stuff I've seen is a small 1U supermicro barebones with mobile i7, QM77 and ECC, but totally different price class.

Another caveat, if you plan to use expansion cards make sure yours is compatible. I ran into issues with server NICs (even intel chipset) for example: my 82571 dual and quads work, 82575/6 does not. Planning to test an i350 soon.
Not sure if anyone has tried a LSI controller yet, but that would be another big one to check. (2008 most common) Then again the drive power limit might be why no one has.
Intel won't help on this kind of stuff if it doesn't work, its specifically under their desktop and NOT server style support, something to keep in mind.

If it could do ECC it would be the golden gift to super SFF servers, one can dream. (e.g. a full blown fairly powerful production ESXi box you could throw in a briefcase)

I'm surprised it's silent with that blower fan. My experience with those things in 1U servers has been that they're very loud.

That's what I thought as well but it is indeed silent, even after 12 hours of Prime95. The spec sheet says the PWM FAN rotates at 1180-3380 RPM.

Thanks for this interesting tidbit of information! I got this board before Christmas, and paired it with an i5-3470. After Windows was installed, I updated the BIOS to the latest version and afterwards, the board was dead. I suppose this is caused by the BIOS now rejecting my CPU? After the board 'died' I made an RMA and just got my money refunded. Still have the rest of the parts, so I guess I'll have to give it a try again with a new DQ77KB board.

Do you know if anything has changed related to the BIOS updates and 65W+ processors?

There is a bios changelog here:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/22409/e ... eNotes.pdf

The biggest fix in the bios revisions was the packet loss fix IMO.

Just got rid of the i5-3470. Next attempt will be with the i7-3770S. If I power the board with a 130W Dell power supply, will it be sufficient to power up 2 x HGST 5K4000 4 TB drives and 2 x WD Green 2 TB drives?
If it's impossible, I could keep the HGST drives external, or go for the WD Green WD20NPVT 2 TB, which is 2.5" and has very low power requirements.

Be careful about the power useage figures. Hard drives often use more power when they are spinning up. (5-10 watts more than the seek power) The CPU may also use more power during the boot up phase than it would later. You can observe that behavior with a power meter like the kill-a-watt device.

The 130W power supply should be fine with a low power CPU and 1 or 2 low power hard drives. I would not use such a power supply with 6 hard drives.

Bill Hunt

Thanks for the explanation Bill. I'll check with a power meter how much power Draw is during boot- and spinup. Might have to go down to the i3-3225 to get a little extra power budget for the harddrives.

WD Greens use 1.75A as +12V at the startup. 5K4000 requires 1.2 (+5V) & 1.5 (+12V). That means 2x1.75x12 + 2x1.5*12 = 78W / 6.5A are the startup requirements on the +12V line. Add to that around 20W on the +5V line, and you used around 100W just for the drives. Sure, it is only for a short period of time (around 1-3 seconds), but if you add the CPU load you have a problem.

There is a solution called for this called staggered spin-up, but don't ask me how can you use it on this board, if it is possible at all.

That's a lot of power for start-up. Seems to suggest it's better adapting the external HDD-cases for SATA connection, and using the external brick connected to the external drive. Has anyone tried connecting multiple harddrives to the DQ77KB?