Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. The Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Motherboard4. The BIOS5. Testing Methodology and Overclocking6. 3DMark Vantage7. Super Pi8. SiSoft Sandra 20109. Cinebench10. KitGuru Photoshop Benchmark V1 (4)11. Media Encoding: Cyberlink Espresso 712. Grand Theft Auto 4: EFLC13. Closing Thoughts14. View All Pages

Here at KitGuru we have tested a whole host of motherboards from different manufacturers, encompassing all the major platforms on the market today.  One variety that we haven’t ever tested is a Micro-ATX form factor board on any platform.

Today we are going to look at the Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H motherboard which, as the name suggests, is based around Intel’s H55 chipset.  Having a Micro-ATX form factor should make it perfect for those looking to build a compact system or HTPC.  We look forward to seeing how it performs in our tests.

Specification

CPU	Support for an Intel® Core™ i7 series processor/Intel® Core™ i5 series processor/ Intel® Core™ i3 series processor in the LGA1156 package (Go to GIGABYTE's website for the latest CPU support list.) L3 cache varies with CPU
Chipset	Intel® H55 Express Chipset
Memory	4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory Dual channel memory architecture Support for DDR3 2200+/1800/1600/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules Support for non-ECC memory modules Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules * To reach DDR3 2200 MHz and above, you are required to use with Intel Core i7/Core i5 CPU without HD Graphics and install a discrete graphics card. When using Intel Core i5/Core i3/ Pentium CPU with HD Graphics, the maximum memory speed supported is 1666 MHz * Go to GIGABYTE's website for the latest memory support list.
Onboard Graphics	Integrated in the Chipset: 1 x D-Sub port (Note 2) 1 x DVI-D port (Note 2) (Note 3) (Note 4) 1 x HDMI port(Note 2) (Note 4) 1 x DisplayPort (Note 2) (Note 4)
Audio	Realtek ALC889 codec High Definition Audio 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel Support for S/PDIF In/Out Support for CD In
LAN	1 x RTL8111D chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Expansion Slots	*1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) (The PCIEX16 slot conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.) *1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4) 2 x PCI slots
Multi-Graphics Technology	Support for ATI CrossFireX™ technology
Storage Interface	Chipset: 5 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors supporting up to 5 SATA 3Gb/s devices 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 3Gb/s device JMicron JMB368 chip: 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices iTE IT8720 chip: 1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive
USB	Integrated in the Chipset Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (6 on the back panel, 6 via the USB brackets con- nected to the internal USB headers)
IEEE 1394	T.I. TSB43AB23 chip Up to 2 IEEE 1394a ports (1 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a header)
Internal I/O Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector 1 x floppy disk drive connector 1 x IDE connector 5 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors 1 x CPU fan header 1 x system fan headers 1 x front panel header 1 x front panel audio header 1 x CD In connector 1 x S/PDIF In header 1 x S/PDIF Out header 3 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers 1 x IEEE 1394a header 1 x serial port header 1 x clearing CMOS jumper
Back Panel Connectors	1 x PS/2 keyboard or PS/2 mouse port 1 x D-Sub port 1 x DVI-D port 1 x HDMI port 1 x DisplayPort 1 x IEEE 1394a port 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector 1 x RJ-45 port 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/ Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
I/O Controller	iTE IT8720 chip
H/W Monitoring	System voltage detection CPU/System temperature detection CPU/System/Power fan speed detection CPU overheating warning CPU/System/Power fan fail warning CPU/System fan speed control (Note 7)
BIOS	2 x 64 Mbit flash Use of licensed AWARD BIOS Support for DualBIOS™ PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b

The H55M-UD2H is supplied in a standard motherboard box which should ensure that it arrives with you damage free.  The box is decorated in an eye-catching red and white livery which is sure to make it stand out on the shelves.

The front has some large badges on the front which are filled with some basic information on the features of the board.  On the reverse of the box all of these features are explained in far more detail.

Gigabyte include all the items we would usually expect in the bundle with nothing especially worthy of note.  There are a number of user manuals in the box, including a simple-to-follow installation guide.  There are also two SATA cables, an IDE cable, an I/O shield and a driver disk.

Gigabyte have stuck with their trademark blue and white colour scheme with the H55M-UD2H.  The dark blue PCB is accompanied by light blue and white components, making for quite an attractive appearance overall.

The LGA1156 socket is positioned in the centre of the board, flanked by four DDR3 RAM slots.  These are located a little too close together for our liking as even medium-sized CPU coolers could obstruct one or more of the RAM slots.  We used a CoolIT ECO A.L.C. cooler for our testing to avoid this problem.

To the right of the RAM slots we find the FDD and IDE connectors alongside the 24-pin power connector.  We can’t see many people at all using the FDD and IDE connectors which makes us question why they have both been included on this board.  Sure there are some users who still use their old IDE hard drives but we would imagine that far more would prefer a larger gap between the CPU socket and the RAM to give room for a larger CPU cooler on such a small board.

Below these connectors we find the five SATA connectors and the Intel H55 chipset.  Although some people might be slightly disheartened about the lack of SATA 6Gbps ports, we can’t see this being a huge issue due to the low-mid end nature of the board.

To the left we find a single PCI-Express x16 slots, two PCI slots and a PCI-Express x4 slot.  These are what make this board a better choice for a HTPC build than a Mini-ITX board as you can hook up a dual slot graphics card, TV tuner and audio card at the same time, rather than having to choose between them.  The motherboard also supports ATI CrossFireX Technology.

The I/O connections could be more plentiful but the selection included should fulfil most users’ requirements.  They consist of a PS2 connector, an optical S/PDIF connector, a firewire port, six USB2.0 ports, an eSATA (3Gb/s) connector, an RJ-45 port and six 3.5mm audio jacks.  Gigabyte have covered all the bases for the onboard graphics, including a D-Sub port, a DVI-D port, an HDMI port and a DisplayPort connector.

The BIOS isn’t the most intuitive we’ve used but it certainly packs in all the features and options we could ask for from a budget board, and more!  One of the main features that we were excited to see on this board is the Q-Flash utility which lets us flash the BIOS quickly and easily.

We decided to use the popular i5-750 CPU for our testing as it should give us a good idea of the overclocking potential of the H55M-UD2H motherboard.  This was cooled by a CoolIT ECO A.L.C CPU cooler installed into a Corsair Graphite 600T chassis.

Test System

Motherboard: Gigabyte GH-H55M-UD2H
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 2.67GHz
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR3
PSU: Corsair TX650W
Chassis: Corsair Graphite 600T
Graphics Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 470
Cooler: CoolIT ECO A.L.C.
Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2
Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB (7200rpm)

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

3DMark Vantage

PCMark Vantage

Super Pi

FRAPS Professional

SiSoftware Sandra 2010

Cinebench R10

Cinebench R11.5

KitGuru Photoshop Benchmark 1(4)

Grand Theft Auto 4: EFLC

All the latest bios updates and WHQL drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru test all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.

For our tests, we overclocked the system to 4.00GHz using a base clock of 200MHz with a multiplier of 20x.  We were able to push the system to 4.20GHz but encountered stability issues in some of our more demanding tests.

Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7.  This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.

Overclocking the system shows a large gain in performance in 3DMark Vantage, with a significant increase in the CPU score.

Super Pi is used by a huge audience, particularly to check stability when overclocking processors. If a system is able to calculate PI to the 32 millionth place after the decimal without mistake, it is considered to be stable in regards to RAM and CPU.

When we overclocked the system, it reduced the time taken to calculate Pi to 32 million digits by a very noticeable 1 minutes and 39 seconds.

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.  Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Native ports for all major operating systems are available:

• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
• Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
• Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
• Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)

All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:

• SMP – Multi-Processor
• MC – Multi-Core
• SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
• MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
• GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
• NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
• AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
• IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit

Again, we saw significant performance gains when overclocking the system.  But the stock scores are very respectable as well for those that don’t want to tamper with the BIOS settings.

Cinebench R10 has since been replaced by V11.5, but many people have a better indication of relative performance by the results from R10 – after all it has been around for years. We will however include R11.5 results on the following page. For those who don’t know Cinebench is not just a mere synthetic benchmarking application, it is based on the rendering engine from Cinema 4D.

The CPU test renders a 3D scene photo-realistically while applying performance intensive functions such as area light sources, procedural shaders, Ambient Occlusion and multi level reflections. Especially when used on faster, multi core CPU systems, MAXON CINEBENCH R10 delivers much more accurate results.

Cinebench R11.5 is the newest revision of the popular benchmark from Maxon. The test scenario uses all of your system’s processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral “No Keyframes” animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various different algorithms to stress all available processor cores.

In fact, CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. The test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects containing more than 300,000 total polygons and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights and shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is given in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

Cinebench R10 shows us how much we benefit from utilising all four processor cores both at stock settings and when overclocked.  In both Cinebench R10 and R11.5 we saw significantly larger scores when the system was overclocked.

For as long as I can remember enthusiasts around the world have been keen to see how their systems perform with many commercially available benchmarks from such companies as

Futuremark.  While these applications are extremely useful to a wide audience sometimes it can be helpful to focus on a ‘real world’ application which many of us use on an almost daily basis.

You can get the KitGuru Photoshop Benchmark 1(4) here. Please note lower times are better as this means less time is taken by the system to process the commands.

	Stock	OC @ 4.00GHZ
1. Texturiser (1)	1.9	1.4
2. CMYK	2.2	1.5
3. RGB	2.3	1.6
4. Ink Outlines	38.9	29.3
5. Dust & Stratches	4.0	3.6
6. Watercolor	40.0	36.2
7. Texturiser (2)	1.9	1.6
8. Stained Glass	28.3	24.1
9. Mosiac Tiles	15.9	13.0
10. Extrude	185.1	176.3
11. Rough Pastels	14.5	11.9
12. Smart Blur	113.5	109.3
13. Underpainting	41.0	36.1
14. Mosiac Tiles	16.2	13.4
15. Spherize	3.3	3.0
16. Palette Knife	29.6	25.7
17. Sponge	56.7	54.9
18. Smudge Stick	8.3	7.6
Total	603.6	811.7

We were a little disappointed with the scores in the Photoshop benchmark as they fell a little short of what we were expecting.  There was a noticeable performance improvement when overclocked, though.

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.

Now you can easily playback and display your favorite movies, songs and photos not just on your on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.

New and Improved Features

• Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
• Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
• Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
• Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
• Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
• Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.

For our testing today we are converting a 1080P AVI file to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. We will also be converting a 15 track album from MP3 to M4A format. These are common procedures for many people and will give a good indication of system power.

The increases when overclocked with Media Espresso aren’t huge but will save a lot of time when you’re converting big files or large numbers of files at the same time.  Also, if you enable GPU processing, the speeds will be boosted further.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City is a standalone compilation of the DLC episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV, containing both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disc. It was released alongside the DLC release of The Ballad of Gay Tony on 29 October 2009 for the Xbox 360 and released on 13 April 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Playstation 3. It does not require a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV to play, nor is an Xbox Live or PSN account necessary (except for multiplayer).

The engine is still extremely demanding for this game – even months later for the newest hardware. The latest version changes some of the rendering calls and is used partially within the latest Max Payne engine.  We tested the game using maximum settings.

The i5-750 in conjunction with our Zotac GeForce GTX 470 graphics card managed to achieve a reasonable frame rate at maximum settings although for the best performance, we would recommend overclocking as GTA4:EFLC is very CPU intensive.  Gameplay was much smoother when the system was overclocked.

The Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H is a good all round board which is a perfect partner for a i5-750 or i5-760 CPU.  We managed to achieve a stable overclock of 4.00GHz which showed decent performance increases throughout all of our tests.

One of the main drawbacks of the H55M-UD2H is the close proximity of the RAM slots to the CPU socket which will inhibit the use of a large air cooler.  This isn’t completely a direct result of the small form factor as removing the FDD and IDE connectors could have created  more room.

At a shade over £60 from YOYOTech, the H55M-UD2H represents quite reasonable value for money.   We would encourage anyone looking for a Micro-ATX H55 board to consider this as it delivers a decent performance, good quality and pleasant aesthetics.

KitGuru Says:  Another quality board from Gigabyte that would be perfect for a HTPC.

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