ECS H55H-I mini-ITX Motherboard Review

Performance Analysis

Memory performance is a mixed bag really, with stock speeds generally not yielding the best results compared to the Zotac board. Overclocked, the slight extra frequency does benefit for Everest, but not so in Sisoft. SATA performance is fractionally better than the Zotac H55 mini-ITX board, generating a result high up the table of P55 and H55 boards, and USB 2 speeds are consistent with other products. ECS includes no USB 3 hardware here.

While the image editing performance is excellent with the Core i5-661, the video encoding is only slightly faster than the Zotac and multitasking drops again. With the i5-750, the ECS board is faster than the Zotac on all accounts, even if image editing and video encoding scores leave it quite far down the table compared to the fuller micro ATX and ATX P55, H57 and H55 boards.

For gaming, the ECS again performs well, especially when overclocked. It's consistently higher in average FPS compared to the Zotac board but about the same in minimum FPS. With the i5-750 installed at stock speeds it performs even better, with a high result up the table in both game benchmarks with again fast average FPS. Well done, ECS.

Conclusion

ECS has made a mini-ITX motherboard that's not only superb value but a decent overclocker for Core i3 and i5 Clarkdale CPUs. It may not have the features that Zotac offers on its H55 mini-ITX board, but judging from the US price, the ECS is up to 50% cheaper.

You don't lose out on performance, either - it's very good all round, even when it comes to gaming.
The ECS H55H-I is a great alternative for people interested in mini-ITX but who have so far been put off by the price, and just want a cheap, small PC.

The downsides are notable, but thankfully limited to a single area though: its BIOS. It's about as user friendly as a poorly photocopied, Mandarin language manual to Dr. Who's TARDIS, but couple that with potentially dangerous voltage options on a board limited in power provision, and it's a recipe for OC novices to be popping MOSFETs like firecrackers.

ECS desperately needs to up its game in the BIOS department: not only in clearly stating what the board can and can't do, but also introducing standard features available elsewhere: overclock failure reset, in-BIOS updating and profile saving are just a few examples. It's this reason that we still can't give the recommended stamp to this board.

While we can't yet get this board in the UK (we're pressuring ECS on this) our US friends can already take advantage of this sub $80 bargain. Combined with a trip to our Project Log forum for inspiration, for a second system project to play around with it's potentially a great backbone to a budget build.

• Performance
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• x
• x
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• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 4/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Overall
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• x
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• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

Score guide