Thread: Asrock - H55DE3

Along with the promotion of the Clarkdale Core i3 as well as i5 CPUs previously this year, Intel has also declared three innovative chipsets. As with the present P55, the H55, H57 also including Q57 all make use of the socket 1156 but vary by their insertion of video outputs to sustain the GMA-HD.

As the board is being fitted by an Intel's incorporated graphics chip which is being fixed just below the heat spreader of every Clarkdale CPUs as well as presents a number of essential multimedia-centric upgrades in excess of its predecessors. As its given name suggests, the H55 is the entry-level produce in this recent family as well as vary from its more extensive stable-mates in three ways.

At first the board does not include a RAID mode on their local SATA controller, instead of which it is being offered by an AHCI as well as IDE modes. And the second fixation is that the number of PCI Express 1x lanes has been decreased from 8 to 6. And lastly there are almost 12 instead of 14 USB ports supported.

And it features a trio of display outputs in the type of DVI, VGA also including HDMI as well as boasts a complete ATX form factor. As you'd imagine, this means there are countless of expansion choices, with two full-length PCI Express slots, including two PCI Express 1x slots along with two legacy PCIs. The second of the full-length slots can only work at 4x mode due to chipset limitations which means that the board is not companionable with Crossfire; it certainly won't be well-suited for a pair of high-end video cards.

Oddly, these two ESATA ports double up which are being enhanced by an USB ports plus are joined by four more USBs, Gigabit LAN, along with analogue audio outputs including an optical SPDIF connector for attaching the board up to a hi-fi. The board is also outfitted by an PS2 connector for legacy keyboards which will be welcome if you just can't bear to restore your older 1992 spring-loaded IBM keyboard.

Asrock - H55DE3 features - Verdict

The board is one of the rock-hard as well as elegant, reasonable for those searching to take the most out of the benefit from the Intel recently offered range of dual core CPUs.