The Overclocked Performance of the mini-ITX H55 MB form ECS H55H-I

As a result of power-efficient, internet-capable motherboards, such as Atom and ION, coming onto the scene over the last one or two years,
the computer market has changed so that internet PCs that save energy and conserve power are now quite common.  
Prices are also lower than the average PC, and are approaching those of notebooks.  
Numerous brands are releasing ITX motherboard products this year, which is driving the evolution of this technology.  
In the past, consumers who wished to purchase an ITX motherboard almost always needed to buy a brand-name PC with ITX specs.  

In addition, ITX motherboards are comparatively smaller.  
Most of the products are similar to notebooks in that there are no changeable settings in the BIOS.  
It seems that many motherboard manufacturers became more interested in the ITX market after DFI introduced the ITX P55.  
After I published the article on the ITX P55, certain consumers are more interested in the internal IGP H55 series.

The main player this time is the mini-ITX H55 chipset product, the H55H-I released by ECS.  
It seems to me that I have bought several ECS products before, but that was many years ago during the K7 motherboard era.  
My friends and I bought and used their products because they were cheaper than other brands.  
Later it seemed ECS left Taiwan for a period of time,
but you could still find news online that said that ECS was one of the top three motherboard manufacturers based on their product shipments.  
In the past year, ECS has wanted to re-enter the Taiwanese market.  
It is my hope that they will bring cheap but good-quality products to the market.  

First we looked at the product packaging.
Since it is a product with mini-ITX specs, the packaging is more compact.  
It is blue and black in color and the design and feel of the package are not bad.


Enclosed Accessories
Product manual, quick installation guide, motherboard driver disc, IO partition plate and cables.


ECS H55H-I
The major part of the product uses solid state capacitors while other parts use electrolytic capacitors.


Green PCB is not commonly seen in the consumer market.  
If it was changed to black PCB, I believe it would have a better feel.


1 X PCI-E X16, allows VGA installation to enhance 3D performance.
Realtek ALC892 audio chip, which supports 8 channels and High Definition Audio technology


4 X orange SATAII, Intel H55 chipset, no RAID functions
24PIN power source input, red is Clear CMOS Jump


2 X DIMM DDR3, which supports 1066/1333, DDR3 capacity that can support up to 8GB


IO
6 X USB 2.0
1 X eSATA
1 X S/PDIF Fiber optic / coaxial output
1 X RJ-45 LAN port
1 X D-SUB
1 X DVI
1 X HDMI


LGA 1156 CPU installation base, three CPU power supplies


Below the black heat sink is the H55 chip.  The 4-PIN power source input port is to the top-left.


BIOS Main Interface


M.I.B II mainly serves as a page for adjusting the clock rate and voltage functions


CPU.CPU VTT.DRAM Maximum added voltage of 0.63V


DRAM options 800/1066/1333/1600
Since i3/i5CPU support is different, only DDR3 1066 or 1333 can be used.


PC Health Status


For an ITX motherboard, the BIOS options available on this ECS product are quite plentiful.  
All appropriate overclocking settings are available so that the user can adjust them at will.
The overclocking ability won’t be weaker than a normal ATX/MATX H55.  
With the internal IGP, the CPU can still overclock to 180MHz and remain stable.  

Testing Platform
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core G6950
MB: ECS H55H-I
DRAM: CORSAIR CMD8GX3M4A1600C8
VGA: Intel Clarkdale 533MHz
HD: Intel X25-V 40GB
POWER: be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER DELUXE 400W
Cooler: Intel Cooler
OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit


CPU used Intel Pentium Dual Core G6950, the current most rudimentary 32nm CPU.
Core is Clarkdale, clock rate is 2.80GHz, L2 2 x 256KB and L3 3MB


Default Value Test
CPU 133 X 21 => 2893.3MHz
DDR3 1064 CL6 6-6-18 1T
IGP 533MHz

Hyper 2 X PI 32M=> 15m 02.414s
CPUMARK 99=> 430


Nuclearus Multi Core => 10050
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 8.00/3840


CrystalMark 2004R3 => 108881


CINEBENCH R11.5
CPU => 1.76 pts
CPU(Single Core) => 0.91 pts


PCMark Vantage => 7268


This performance is, of course, much more powerful than the commonly-seen LGA 775 Atom framework.
Although the Intel G6950 is the most rudimentary of its kind, its new framework enjoys a high clock rate and L3 enhancement.
In terms of CPU performance, it is also a little better than the Core 2 Duo platform used by most mid-tier ITXs.

3D Effects
3DMARK2006 => 1751


StreetFighter IV Benchmark
800 X 600 => 20.41FPS


The G6950’s GPU clock rate is 533MHz, which is a little lower than the 733MHz of other 32nm Clarkdales.
However, the G6950’s 3D performance is superior to the previous generation G4X series.

Heat Test
System Wait Time - 31/36


Intel Burn Test v2.4 - 57/59
Stress Level Maximum


The bare machine reached nearly 60 degrees at full speed in a room temperature environment of 25 degrees.  
This temperature is considered reasonable.

Power Consumption Test
System Wait Time - 38W


OCCT full speed - 73W
Intel Burn Test v2.4, Stress Level Maximum


Power consumption is a proud feature of the 32nm CPU.  
It only uses 73W when the CPU is at full speed.
Hopefully we will see Intel using 32nm CPUs in its 4 cores soon.

DRAM Bandwidth Performance
DDR3 1064 CL6 6-6-18 1T
Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 9097MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read - 7614MB/s


DDR3 1444 CL7 7-7-21 1T
Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 12742MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read - 10210MB/s


The DDR3 performance of the Clarkdale platform was not as high as that of top-tier i5/i7 CPUs, because of the Clarkdale’s internal IGP.
In terms of DRAM bandwidth, the Clarkdale performed slightly better than the same-brand LGA 775 and the competitor’s AM3.
The voltage performance of the new framework is better than past platforms, with DDR3 voltage usually only needing around 1.5-1.7V.

HDD Test
With Intel’s value SSD, X25-V 40GB


The texture of the back casing would be much better if it were polished.


HD Tune Pro 4.01 Benchmark
Average 195.2 MB/s, Access Time 0.1ms
CrystalDiskMark read at 190.3 Mb/s, write at 43.47 MB/s
When the ATTO DISK Benchmark is tested at 128k and above, a highest read of 196 MB/s and write of 43 MB/s can be achieved.


EVEREST Read Test Suite Randon Read 281.3 MB/s
FDEBENCH Test achieved read at 187.2 Mb/s, write at 42.8 MB/s


X25-V official specs are 170/35 MB/s; During the tests of the H55 chipset, most reached a standard of 190/40 MB/s or above.
The greatest advantage of the Value model X25-V SSD is that the RAID 0 performance seems to have doubled,
while the price remains about the same as buying a single X25-M 80GB.

Overclock Efficiency Test
CPU 180.5 X 21 => 3790.4MHz
DDR3 1444 CL7 7-7-21 1T
IGP 533MHz

Hyper 2 X PI 32M=> 11m 11.456s
CPUMARK 99=> 585


Nuclearus Multi Core => 13572
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 10.79/5179


CrystalMark 2004R3 => 134258


CINEBENCH R11.5
CPU => 2.40 pts
CPU(Single Core) => 1.23 pts


After overclocking, the CPU performance test was improved by about 20-30%, while only 1.212V were used.
For the original heat sink, Dual Core with a 32nm CPU has a high overclocking ability.  
External viewing of 180MHZ or more requires an external VGA.
Other H55 motherboards, used previously, had an internal IGP which could not be turned on if overclocking was set at 170-175MHz or more.
The overclocking ability of the ECS H55H-1 is quite good.

Heat Test
System Wait Time - 37/41


Intel Burn Test v2.4 - 70/72
Stress Level Maximum


When overclocking at 3790MHz with the original heat sink at full speed, it reached a temperature of around 72 degrees.
Standby and full speed temperatures are around 5-10 degrees higher than if overclocking was not used.

Power Consumption Test
System Wait Time - 49W


OCCT - 100W
Intel Burn Test v2.4, Stress Level Maximum


To compare power consumption before and after overclocking, the CPU at standby was 11W, and only 73W at full-speed operation.
Hopefully, we can soon see Intel able to use 32nm CPUs in its 4 cores so a lower temperature,
lower power consuming CPU will become common in the market.


ECS H55H-I
Strengths
1. The color of the external packaging gives a good feel to the product.
2. ITX motherboards rarely have many so BIOS options.  The voltage range is large, and the external viewing and adjustment option are numerous.
3. With the internal IGP, the CPU can overclock to 180MHz, which is higher than many ATX or M-ATX H55s.
4. The overall performance of the ITX platform can be increased using the H55 chipset with newer CPU support.

5. Price is around US$80.  With ITX motherboards usually being more on the expensive side, the C/P’s pricing is reasonable.

Disadvantages
1. The outer appearance would have a better feel if the PCB was black.
2. Changing to all solid state capacitors would make consumers have more faith in the quality of the product.
3.CPU-Z and EVEREST are still unable to acquire the proper CPU voltage for the H55H-I



Performance         ★★★★★★★★★☆
Components         ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Specs                 ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Appearance        ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Price                 ★★★★★★★★★☆

In terms of CPUs, the Intel Pentium G6950 follows the Core i7 high-level framework, even though it only has Dual Core and L3 3MB specs.
Its performance is not inferior to Core 2 Duo CPUs.  
The 32nm CPU allows for a wider overclocking range, and also effectively reduces temperature and power consumption.
Even more importantly, the 32nm CPU enjoys higher performance and better C/P values when coupled with an IGP platform,.
The Core i5 level 32nm is currently priced a bit higher.  
If the price is lowered in the future, consumers will be able purchase high-performance HTPC platforms more easily.

As a result of the release of the H55 chipset, which replaced previous generation Intel G4X chipset products,
early this year, the overall 3D performance of PC platforms was increased.  
In the current market, the H55 is a very popular among products with M-ATX specs.  
Motherboard manufacturers are now successively releasing various models of H55 motherboard products.
In the past, rudimentary versions of the ITX motherboards were about TWD4500 (US$143) or more, which is quite expensive.
Industrial ACP-level ITX motherboards mainly use high-quality components, and if coupled with a GM45 chipset, cost US$300 or more.
ITX products are generally more expensive than ATX/M-ATX products and seem to be on the path to even higher prices.

The ECS H55H-I follows the trends of the average consumer market,
so when the mini-ITX spec H55 motherboard was released, it is more favorable in terms of pricing.
Due to its adoption of Intel’s newest IGP chipset, the commonly-seen BIOS overclocking options won’t lose out to other large-size H55 motherboards.
If ECS were able to further improve the components  it uses,
I believe it could provide consumers with an additional option for affordable, high-performance motherboard products. 

Analytic cooler for the best buy of Intel Micro ATX with Core i3-530

In the past as far as built-in GPU platforms were concerned, Intel usually used “G Series” to name its products.
G45 or G41 as Intel’s main chipset were commonly seen in the market in the last generation.
At the beginning of 2010, Intel released new “All in one PC” structure, and firstly introduced the new technology that GPU was directly built in the CPU.

Moreover, Intel improved its CPU to 32nm process, and also released a series of CPUs that support the platform.
At present, there are 6 CPUs in the market: low-level Pentium G6950; mid-level Core i3 530/540; and high-level Core i5 650/660/661/670.
As to MB chipset, Intel released H55/H57 to support new CPU design, and the main difference was with and without RAID function.

Therefore, this time I am going to build a Micro ATX PC based upon Intel’s new structure.

As to CPU:
I choose Intel Core i3 530, with 73W and the latest 32nm process.
The code name is Clarkdale, with clock 2.93GHz, L2 2 x 256KB and L3 4MB. The price was about USD about 120.
The OEM coolers of Clarkdale series are all non-copper bottom design, so I infer that copper bottom is not definitely necessary for dual-core CPU with 32nm.


The main difference between Core i3 530 and Pentium G6950 is that the former supports HT technology;
higher-level Clarkdale i5 also supports TurboBoost auto-overclocking technology.


As to DRAM:
I choose American brand CORSAIR TWIN3X4G-1333C9A.
Its capacity is 2GB X 2, and the clock 1333 CL9 9-9-24 1.50V. The price is about USD about 75.


CORSAIR has unique DDR3 heat sink, and the appearance and quality are also good.


As to MB:
I use H55 chipset—BIOSTAR H55 HD, with higher C/P.
There are no whole solid capacitors, no USB3, and no sumptuous material on this mothboard,
but the price of the product is the lowest in H55 market, about USD 57.
BIOSTAR has another TH55B HD, with 4 DIMM DDR3 and high C/P, and the price is only USD 90.


Recently BIOSTAR seems to like using red as material colour, making products more impressive.


If this H55 MB can adopt Japanese electrolytic capacitors, I think this product can be more perfect.


As to Power Supply:
Judging from Intel’s latest 32nm platform, because of built-in GPU, I observe the power consumption of the whole system is low.
Antec’s latest Neo ECO 400W is chosen, so the power supply will be enough to add VGA card higher than mid-level.
The price is about USD about 55.


The power supply uses Japanese high-performance capacitors and quiet 12-centimetre fan with 2 Ball Bearing; this product is also 80 PLUS certified.


Test Platform:
CPU: Intel Core i3 530 ES
MB: BIOSTAR H55 HD
DRAM: CORSAIR TWIN3X4G-1333C9A
VGA: Intel Clarkdale 733MHz
HD: WD 6400AAKS 640GB
POWER: Antec Neo ECO 400W
Cooler: Intel OEM Cooler
OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit


Default Performance:
CPU 133.8 X 22 => 2942.9MHz
DRAM DDR3 1337.6 CL8 8-8-24 1T
GPU 733MHz 128mb

Hyper 4 X PI 32M=> 20m 12.640s
CPUMARK 99=> 452


Nuclearus Multi Core => 10881
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 11.18/5367


CrystalMark 2004R3 => 128706


CINEBENCH R10
1 CPU=> 3982
x CPU=> 9236


PCMark Vantage => 5541


The platform based upon Core i3 530 basically has great performance, so it can easily deal with most software making CPU high loading.
It also has excellent performance to deal with HD 1080P films or file converting.

3DMARK2006 => 1751


StreetFighter IV Benchmark
800 X 600 => 27.80FPS


3D performance of Intel Clarkdale structure has been almost the same as that of 785G.
Intel Clarkdale can easily deal with many introductory 3D games.
3D requirement of StreetFighter IV is more than mid-level, and the software can run nearly smoothly.
As far as built-in GPU standard is concerned, 3D performance is good.
To those who prefer small PC machine, they can consider buying Intel’s new structure if needing higher-performance 3D platform.

Temperature Test:
System standby: - 24/26


OCCT full loading: - 55/52


After all, the default clock of the dual-core CPU is near 3GHz, and the temperature is quite low with OEM thin Cooler.
And, the temperature is also acceptable even if CPU is full loading.

Power Consumption Test:
System standby: -39W


OCCT full loading: - 82W
Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level High


With 32nm new technology, Intel has an advantageous position in the aspect of power consumption.
After overclocking, power consumption is 39W under stand by, and only 82W under full loading.
Clarkdale structure’s low power consumption is satisfactory.

Overclocking Performance Test:
CPU 180.3 X 22 => 3966MHz
DDR3 1802.6 CL11 11-11-30 1T
VGA 945MHz

BIOS Setup Utility:






BIOSTAR H55 HD, like other mid-level H55 products, also has many options for user to overclock.
However, as an introductory product, the range of voltage is not wide, 3~6 levels at most.
But the product still shows great overclocking performance, in any case.
CORSAIR DDR3 also has good performance with overclocking, and the setting 1.60V can run 1800 CL11 steadily.

Hyper 4 X PI 32M=> 16m 10.000s
CPUMARK 99=> 612


Nuclearus Multi Core => 15424
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 15.02/7207


CrystalMark 2004R3 => 169052


CINEBENCH R10
1 CPU=> 5448
x CPU=> 12447


PCMark Vantage => 7307


After CPU and GPU are overclocked, we can observe from previous software that performance improve 30% ~ 50%.
Furthermore, with OEM Cooler, 3966Mhz can also be steady under 1.212V; 32nm-CPU also shows excellent overclocking ability.

3DMARK2006 => 2170


StreetFighter IV Benchmark
800 X 600 => 34.31FPS


The clock of Clarkdale GPU from 700Mhz to 933Mhz is to be some help on 3D performance.
As for test results from previous two software, 3D performance leaves about 20% to be desired.
But if you still need more 3D performance, I recommend that buying VGA to upgrade your system is a better choice.

Temperature Test:
System standby: - 38/33


OCCT full loading: - 68/62


In the test what I install is OEM cooler, and the above temperature values are low.
If you install a higher-level cooler, the result which is less 10℃ ~ 20℃ than the above temperature values may appear.

Power Consumption Test:
System standby: - 63W


OCCT full loading: - 105W
Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level High


If you don’t install VGA or too many other computer peripherals, the power consumption of 32nm-Clarkdale normally doesn’t exceed 100W.
Although overclocking results in a bit more power consumption, the range observed from the test is not high.

DDR3 Bandwidth Test:
DRAM DDR3 1337.6 CL8 8-8-24 1T
Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 11169 MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read - 8746 MB/s


DDR3 1802.6 CL11 11-11-30 1T
Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 14851 MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read - 11310 MB/s


DRAM DDR3 1602 CL8 8-8-24 1T
Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 15509 MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read - 12131 MB/s


As far as DDR3 bandwidth is concerned, Clarkdale platform doesn’t show better performance than 45nm Core i5/i7.
However compared with LAG 775 and AMD’s two platforms, Clarkdale is still better.
And about voltage, Clarkdale is better than the previous platforms; DDR3 1800 can run steadily under only 1.60V.
After the test of CORSAIR’s introductory DDR3 product, I find it has nice overclocking ability.

With the limit no more than 1.308V, CPU still can be overclocked to 4.2GHz with OEM cooler.
Hyper 4 X PI 1M=> 16.109s
CPUMARK 99=> 647


Intel Core i3-530 CPU has very high C/P, and its performance, temperature, and power consumption are satisfactory.
Especially overclocking, the clock raised to about 4GHz need not too high voltage and higher-level cooler.
The process technology of 32nm makes Intel CPU products more competitive. I sincerely hope Intel releases quad-core CPU with 32nm soon.

Most prices of H55 MB are about NT$3500 ~ 4200 (about US$110 ~ 113).
If MB manufacturers can lower prices 10% ~ 20%, I believe H55 MB will be more popular and universal.

BIOSTAR products mainly focus on parity and overclocking.
This time the price of BIOSTAR H55 is also friendly, deserving much praise.



Intel releases the latest structure IGP platform in 2010, and releases a series of many product lines so that consumers have more choices.
At present the prices of H57 chipset and high-level i5 CPU are too high, but H55 and introductory Pentium G6950 or Core i3 530 still have very high C/P.

After the appearance of Intel Clarkdale platform, one condition has changed in Micro ATX PC market for a few years:
in the past if consumers wanted to choose IGP with higher 3D performance, they usually intended to choose AMD platforms.
But now in 2010 Intel begins to focus more on this market, and also has excellent competitiveness.

Besides some products I use in this test, you can buy HDD and case so as to build a nice small PC machine.
Every consumer of course has his or her favourite brand or budget concerned, so building a PC can be adjustable according to marketing sale.

Finally I hope this article can be a good reference to this kind of product information. Thank you!