ASUS H97I-PLUS mITX LGA1150 H97 1PCI-E16 DDR3 SATA3 DVI HDMI USB3.0 Motherboard

Comment:
This is a for a second mitx build using an Asus mobo. The first utilized the very H81 chipset. Asus enables moderate CPU overclocking even on the most basic H81. This has enough settings for tweaking allowing for moderate OC. Board layout is generally the same as the H81 counterpart. I am glad that the 6GB Sata ports are now located "outside" of the RAM sticks. This means that I do not have to cross over the RAM when plugging in SATA cables. Front panel headers are in an awkward yet still accessible area of the motherboard. There are 3 PWM fan headers but they have been relocated towards the back of the motherboard. This made my front fan wire a few inches too short.It is good to have mSata support but due to the limited space on the topside of the mobo, this has been relocated on the bottom of the board parallel to the pcie slot. This means that to add or replace an mSata SSD, the board needs to be detached from the tray. The HD audio / AC97 front header is also in an awkward location. This is sandwiched between the rear audio port and LAN port. This makes inserting a front connector difficult (and almost impossible if you have connectors that use individual / universal plugs instead of the single 9-pinThis is the first time I have seen a foam padded I/O shield. This makes aligning the rear ports more difficult, and once you've screwed down your mobo to the tray, it actually bends / pushes out / deforms the thin stainless plate. It was also strange to find a single USB 2 header on the motherboard compared to two headers on the cheaper H81 board.This is still a good overall board. I havent purchased a CPU for this yet but fired it up and tested it with an existing i5-4570 haswell without any issues. The mini pci slot is currently populated by a Atheros B/G/draft-N adapter taken from a retired laptop and works without any problems. My only issue with the port is that it physically supports very short cards only (about an inch long). I would have preffered to use another broadcom B/G/N with integrated bluetooth but that adapter is too long to fit. I actually gave this board a 3.5/5 due to some design and port placement issues. However, functionality is not affected by the design and having a black pcb and grey slots is a big welcome (aesthetically) compared to its H81 sibling.

Comment:
Not as happy as I thought I would beBad board design. The placement of the power connectors for the power button and leds is very odd.For a mini itx board to help with cable management it would be better if they paid attention to the designHad issues with RAM. Would not post. Once I got it to work it was ok

Comment:
Didnt like the placement of the HD audio pins. Cable from case has to reach over the board. Wish it is at the side instead. Other than this, this board is awesome