MSI H61MA-E35 H61 mATX LGA1155 DDR3 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 SATA3 USB3 HDMI DVI VGA Motherboard
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 Rating: Review Date: 02/20/12 |
MSI H61MA-E35 H61 mATX LGA1155 DDR3 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 SATA3 USB3 HDMI DVI VGA Motherboard
Cons:Bios update default is IDE instead of AHCI.
Pros:VGA output, HDMI output, DVI output. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/12/12 |
MSI H61MA-E35 H61 mATX LGA1155 DDR3 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 SATA3 USB3 HDMI DVI VGA Motherboard
Cons:You can't set RAM higher than 1333MHZ in the BIOS!, high price vs other H61 (but it's worth it if you need the extra features)
Pros:The only H61 board I could find with both SATA3, USB3, and 8-channel audio. Great alternative to H67, few useful differences but much cheaper. Has all the most useful features of H67 but at the much lower price of H61. Comment:
A great motherboard that most likely has all the features you wish the other H61 boards had and is missing all the stuff on H67 boards that you don't actually use. That makes it a great price for what you get compared to other H61 and H67 boards. Some of these features include SATA3, USB3, 8-channel audio, support for the 3 most common video outputs (VGA/DVI/HDMI), and a good amount of USB ports and USB headers.This board took over 3 weeks to arrive, which may be a rare situation, but keep it in mind when ordering a board that isn't very common.I bought 1600MHz RAM thinking that the board would allow me to set it that high but simply doesn't provide official support for it (like with most over-clocking), however it's impossible because the BIOS will not allow the RAM to be set higher than 1333MHz. This should be more clearly explained in the product description.I'd buy it again if I was building another budget Sandybridge system but still wanted to have most of the modern motherboard features. |
Ok so I realized that the Bios update changes the settings to IDE instead of AHCI.After flashing with the new Bios, Windows 7 wouldn't start up. So I went ahead and reformatted it.Then later I realized it was just this small little setting that was not allowing Windows to load.The fan control software provided by MSI, i.e. Control Center 2, cannot reduce the fan speed of the Tower Fans. I can only reduce the CPU fan speed.I am not sure if Asus Motherboards can do that, as it seems that another user (as mentioned on NCIX forums) was able to control all the fans using Asus Fan Xpert on his Asus motherboard.I tried setting it to 50% voltage but it did not do anything for the tower fans.But I am happy that I can do multi-monitor and use the integrated graphics card and the GT 520.You need to download the VGA drivers from MSI to do this, and change some settings in the BIOS.I really like that this Motherboad has a VGA output, HDMI output, and DVI output, for using integrated graphics.