H55 / H57 mITX boards: post them here

Mine dis not come with any screws or speakers .. but I'm not sure why you're concerned. No motherboard that I've seen for the last many years came with screws (some had a buzzer installed on them, but Zotac H55 has no space for it). Screws and speaker come with the case, not with the mobo.
 
IsLNdbOi said:
For those who got a Zotac h55itx-a-e, did yours come with a bag of screws and a motherboard / case speaker?

I purchased two from Amazon.com and neither came with the bag of screws and motherboard / case speaker.
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Huh? Dude, that stuff comes with the case....
 
I only mentioned it because someone on the Zotac forum said theirs came with the speakers and screws. I know some cases include those.
 
Been doing some thinking :D

Most H55/H57 boards had a crappy layout. but now as the SG07 is here it has room for towercoolers (I think) and they would fit just great on these boards.
 
Anyone else here with a Zotac H55ITX-A-E?

I just put my system together and Windows 7 Ultimate x64 doesn't have a driver for it's NIC. Can someone please go into Device Manager and see what model the NIC is? I think it might be a Realtek.
 
Mine is RMAed at the moment ... did you have S3 wake-up and turbo-boost issues resolved on yours?
 
Turbo boost by using cpuz and looking at frequency while loading just 1 core.

S3 going to sleep and trying to wake from an USB keyboard.
 
Ok, how do I load just one core?

Can I test the S3 with a USB mouse? All I have is a PS/2 keyboard.
 
Can't test it then. I have an i7-860s which Intel's site says has Turbo-Boost.
 
Ok, gadget installed.

Looks like Turbo Boost is working for me. As soon as I opened Internet Explorer, my i7-860S (stock clock of 2.53GHz) jumped up to 3.33GHz. Intel's site says Turbo Boost for my processor can go up to 3.46GHz.
 
Great, can you please also test S3 wake-up issue and tell us when and where from you got your board?
 
S3 is working fine as well. Start Menu -> Sleep

Waited a couple of minutes then pressed one of the buttons on my Logitech Performance MX. Turned the computer back on.

Got my board from Amazon.com a week and a half ago.
 
My BIOS version is not the latest one though. The boot screen shows:

BIOS-N-32M 2K100302


CPUz and Everest shows:
American Megatrends Inc.
080015
03/02/2010

Additionally, Everest shows:
A130PA17


The latest one I can find from Zotac is A130PA19.
 
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Thanks for the BIOS info (I guess this is what I was asking with "when did you buy it?" question) Do you mind sharing where you bought the mobo from?
 
It's a dual, and an unlocked multiplier one at that.

Even the Zotac H55 and the ECS H55 got +4Ghz on dualies. I got 3.960Ghz (180 BCLK) with an i5 [email protected] on my DFI board, temps even for the PWMs were fine but i didn't want to kill the board. It's not that the boards can't go higher. It's the power circuitry not being able to cope with the power delivery required for quads. Hopefully this one can deliver more than the DFI board but at that point the PSU will become the limiting factor if it's an SFF case or SFF PSU. At 180BCLK with a Quad I was pushing 343w from the outlet!

Hopefully I can get one soon :D with that ST45SF and maybe just maybe a GTX470
 
wow, I just read through that thread @ zotac.
Zotac has completely lost any interest I may have had in their products.
here's a timeline of recent events (not counting the original issue with usb s3 error)




27 February: ...........Forum post describing issue recognizing pci-e devices after s3 resume.

2 April .................. zotac support informs user through tech support chat that the pci-e slot will not work with tuner devices in s3, and instead of s3 he should try hibernate instead.

10 April: ............... zotac acknowledges there is a problem, and they are fixing it, through forum moderator's post.

23 April: ............... zotac silently releases a bios update without renaming the file download or changing the description on the web site. Someone on the forum discovers it by accident.

24 April: ............... first forum member post that after updating the BIOS (FROM DOS) his motherboard is bricked.

24-28 April: ........... several more people brick mobos after updating (mostly using the AMI tool from windows 7)

28 April: ............... forum moderator notices that multiple members are bricking their boards and notifies tech support.

28 April - 9 May: .... More users brick their board.

10 May: ................. forum member is told by tech support to RMA his mobo.

13 May: ................. Several members track down an independent AMI bios recovery tool that fails.

17 May: ................. Member asks if anyone has tried from DOS, this is affirmed (see 24 April).

19 May: ................. At Last! Zotac Moderator passes on wisdom from tech support: "It is recommended to do the flashing in DOS." ............FACEPALM. The first member to report bricking was using DOS...

9 June: ................... No additional response. no word if the faulty BIOS has been taken down or remains for more users to brick their board.
 
Yikes, that Zotac forum timeline is NOT pretty...

I always found Zotac a little "off" when it came to support and Q&A (too many "ups, we didn't really thought about that, let us just launch another hardware revision to address that issue"), but that timeline REALLY sucks... So, what now? Is there another revision out, or what?
 
fr500 said:
It's a dual, and an unlocked multiplier one at that.

Even the Zotac H55 and the ECS H55 got +4Ghz on dualies. I got 3.960Ghz (180 BCLK) with an i5 [email protected] on my DFI board, temps even for the PWMs were fine but i didn't want to kill the board. It's not that the boards can't go higher. It's the power circuitry not being able to cope with the power delivery required for quads. Hopefully this one can deliver more than the DFI board but at that point the PSU will become the limiting factor if it's an SFF case or SFF PSU. At 180BCLK with a Quad I was pushing 343w from the outlet!

Hopefully I can get one soon :D with that ST45SF and maybe just maybe a GTX470
Click to expand...

He tested both i5 Dualcore and i7 Quadcore.
 
I don't get it: IsLNdbOi got a working Zotac H55, with none of the usual problems. Then he proceeds to update the BIOS, even with all the reports of dead boards after flashing. As expected, the previously working board is bricked.

Then, just for kicks, he flashes another Zotac H55 he has lying around - despite his previous experience - and bricks another board. (see Zotac forums)

Why? Just to see what would happen? The changelog for the new (broken) bios shows only "fixes" for problems that his boards didn't have. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I'm getting the H55 later this week, store says turbo boost works, guaranteed. Having the PCIe slot work only with graphics cards is not an issue, since I'll only be using a graphic card. S3 sleep problem isn't an issue for me either, I almost never turn it off, and when I do, I hibernate. I won't be flashing my BIOS.
 
I tried updating the BIOS because someone on the Zotac forum PM'd me saying that the newest BIOS also ads the feature that allows you to power on via a key combo using a PS/2 keyboard.

I really need that feature. So I tried the BIOS update via DOS and then via their Windows flashing program. Neither worked so now I'm just waiting on my Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3.
 
^ local store here in the Philippines. Says I can return it if Turbo doesn't work.
 
@IsLNdbOi

Ah, I see why.

I'd have gone for the Gigabyte board as well instead of the Zotac, but I can't find it locally (yet). Let us know how your Gigabyte board performs.
 
Who has a Corsair H50 on a Zotac H55-ITX?

On my corsair backplate, the corner nearest to the chipset sits on top of some tiny components on the motherboard. Is this safe?

I read about the DFI P55 board having problems because the backplate dislodged one little piece off the back. I haven't read anything about the Zotac on this issue. Could tightening the bracket cause the board to break?
 
r8dhex said:
Who has a Corsair H50 on a Zotac H55-ITX?

On my corsair backplate, the corner nearest to the chipset sits on top of some tiny components on the motherboard. Is this safe?

I read about the DFI P55 board having problems because the backplate dislodged one little piece off the back. I haven't read anything about the Zotac on this issue. Could tightening the bracket cause the board to break?
Click to expand...

I had the Zotac H55...until I bricked it over a month ago. I'm still not scheduled to get it back till next week at the earliest...but that's another story...

As far as the H50 on the H55, it does work, and yes, what you're describing is normal, but did not affect my performance at all. Just tighten the heatsink down with little to no force, so that you're not cranking down on it, but it fits on snug. Keep going until the screw starts requiring that extra push of force to tighten, and that's when you know when to stop so as not to break anything. Worked just fine for me.
 
When I was placing the H50 backplate on my Zotac H55ITX, I didn't see any ICs or components that were in the way / beneath the backplate.
 
I don't know what those little ant-sized rectangles are called, wish I had a picture, but I'm at work now... It's not the slightly bigger black ones. just little tiny nubs.

But yeah, it's the flower shaped thing with holes, on the corners of the backplate. The one nearest to the chipset is covering some of those rectangular bits, so it doesn't lay perfecly flat like the other corners.
 
IsLNdbOi said:
Anyone else here with a Zotac H55ITX-A-E?

I just put my system together and Windows 7 Ultimate x64 doesn't have a driver for it's NIC. Can someone please go into Device Manager and see what model the NIC is? I think it might be a Realtek.
Click to expand...

For all those trying to track down wireless LAN drivers for this card, I traced the model numbers back to an older Asus laptop (W90V) that they still support the "azurewave wireless drivers" (there is also a pack for the AW-NE771, which is the card on my H55ITX-a-e) on their download site. I'm going to put my box together this afternoon (as soon as the case shows up, fedex, lol), but will test them out and report back.
 
On my Zotac H55 ITX, my 2x2GB ram shows up as 4059MB in POST, shouldn't it be 4096MB (4x1024)?
 
Lethal Jelly said:
What would people say is the best mITX board for gaming? building a compact rig to carry back and forth between Japan and the UK. Tom's Hardware did a group test back in February and said the ECS H55H-I

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h55-h57-motherboard,2555-22.html

but a fair few board have been released since then.
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Anandtech apparently liked the Gigabyte H55N-USB3 a lot, the only problems being AHCI issues with ODDs on the current BIOS and a "multiplier hole" for unlocked ("K-series") CPUs.

Plus, it already has USB3 on board, so you won't be missing much for quite a while (unless, of course, you're an SSD user that upgrades a lot and might actually need SATA3...).

I've had good experiences with Gigabyte (I currently own a P55 uATX board), so it seems a solid option.
 
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