| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe mini-ITX H67 Motherboard |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Motherboards | |
| Written by Hank Tolman | |
| Thursday, 16 June 2011 | |
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ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe mini-ITX Motherboard
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by ASUS. By now we have all heard of the media capabilities of the Intel H67 Chipset. With so much going for it in this aspect, it seems like an H67 motherboard would be great as a starting point for the perfect Home Theatre PC. ASUS has decided to take this idea to the next level with the ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe mini-ITX motherboard. In this article, Benchmark Reviews will break down all the special features ASUS has included in the P8H67-I Deluxe motherboard to see if it is ready to provide a comprehensive solution for the HTPC enthusiast. I love my HTPC. I always have. I have gradually updated over the years, constantly trying to find anything and everything that would make my HTPC better at what I want it to do; provide me with a comprehensive Home Theatre solution. Originally, I started my HTPC days with a Pentium-4 laptop stuffed under my entertainment center and hooked up to my TV. I soon found that situation to be lacking, so I added an external hard drive, a PCMCIA TV tuner card, a webcam... well, you get the idea. Later on I upgraded my entire system using a socket 775 mini-ITX motherboard with an E-6600 CPU. I put it all in an awesome little case by SilverStone and I was ready to go. By that time, my wife and I had decided to give up conventional TV, relying on Hulu, Netflix, and other online streaming sites for our TV and movie needs. So far, that HTPC has worked very well for us. One of the things I love about my HTPC is how it makes all of my photos and home movies so readily available. Have you ever noticed that you never develop or even look at all those digital pictures you take? Mine now constantly scroll across my screen as the background of Windows Media Center. Sometimes I find myself just sitting and looking at them instead of watching anything else.
Anyway, when I got the chance to take a look at ASUS' P8H67-I Deluxe mini-ITX motherboard, I was really excited. I have tested the H67 platform and found it to be extremely media centric. I am very excited for the prospects of an HTPC running on a Sandy Bridge CPU. It should take me a fraction of the time now to convert my entire Disney DVD collection to digital video for my home use or portable devices.
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Comments
And I suppose the heat is really low because of 32nm chips? I guess I'm more amazed at the newer CPUs out now and the low heat they put out. But I'm pretty damn impressed all around. I've always loved small everything. I just sold my 2007 Toyota Tacoma Access cab 4WD and bought a brand new Nissan Cube (actually traded it car for car plus 860.0). I'm just going into a small is good frame of mind, and that's because small means efficiency, and who in the know doesn't like that?
I can see myself building something like this, but not the HTCP model MB, with my next upgrade. I can see I'll probably be using a mini case or at least small too. Pretty exciting.
Thanks for the review.