With the imminent release of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors, motherboard manufacturers have begun to release the details for their LGA1155 socket motherboards. Included in the Sandy Bridge compatible boards from ASUS is their new P8H67-I model, a mini-ITX form factor board featuring SATA 6.0 Gbps and USB 3.0.
ASUS also chose to include two SO-DIMM slots. It will be interesting to see if a standard develops for high-end mini-ITX boards as manufacturers are split on the issue. Some, with Gigabyte H55N coming to mind, are offering standard DIMM slots and others, like this ASUS, choosing the space saving SO-DIMM slots.
The ASUS P8H67I mini-ITX board also includes onboard WiFi (occupying the mini-PCIe slot) and Bluetooth, both a welcome addition to a setup with no room for additional components. Other standard connections include gigabit Ethernet and D-Sub, DVI and HDMI video outputs.
For the ITX gamers out there, it’s nice to know that the big manufactures are realizing the potential of the mini-ITX platform. When Sandy Bridge processors start to drop early in the New Year, we know that we’ll have a selection of good boards to plug them into.