Computer Components

Motherboard Pci

MSI H61M-E23 (B3) Review – Is It The Best H61 Motherboard For You?

If you're looking for a cheaper alternative for the best H61 motherboard the MSI H61M-E23 (B3) is perfect for your needs. This is one of the cheapest motherboard that supports the Sandy Bridge processors at this point of time but, it will never disappoints you. Let see what this motherboard has to offer.

The Looks

The MSI H61M-E23 (B3) comes in a micro ATX form factor at 9.64 inch x 8.46 inch. A great looking board in black color with a blue combination of PCI-E slot. There's only two DIMM slot are available on the board which is the only thing you need for a basic setup.

There's 4x SATA port available for this board 2x in vertical position and 2x in right angle to make it more accessible. It also provides 1x PCI-E 16X, 2x PCI-E 1X and 1x PCI slot in good place. The 24/4 pin ATX power connectors are also well place without causing any distractions for neat wiring. The great thing about this board is the use of all solid caps, thus providing a longer life span and has the capacity to endure heat. Overall, a great looking motherboard.

Specs

Supports Core i7/Core i5/ Core i3 processors

Intel H61 Express Chipset

2x DIMM's slot Dual channel memory DDR3 1333/1066 MHz 16GB Max. in 1GB/ 2GB/ 4GB/ 8GB DRAM size

1x PCI-E @x16 slot, 2x PCI-E @ x1 slots and 1x PCI slot

4x SATA 3Gb/s connectors

Realtek ALC887 8-channel audio with jack sensing

1 x RJ45 LAN Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

10 USB 2.0/1.1 ports

Features

The MSI H61M-E23 (B3) has a very basic feature due to its H61 chipsets but it's got all you need in office and HTPC applications. A video output for VGA, DVI and HDMI v1.4 are very useful that gives you an immediate availability of ports whenever you need it, in this case you can fully utilized the QuickSync features of the Sandy Bridge processor's iGPU for unparallel Transcoding applications.

It also provides the new ClickBIOS for easy to use UEFI BIOS interface just like what we found in ASUS motherboards. Another great feature of this board is the OC Genie. When the OC Genie II is enabled there is an instant overclock on the CPU and on the iGPU. Although you can't do manual overclocking on this board but, the OC Genie can greatly improves its performance which is also good for novice user.

The MSI M-Flash features let you save on the USB drive all your BIOS settings as a backup in case it crashes. This has the advantage over the other motherboards having 2 physical BIOS at the same time you can be able to boot up your PC having restored your original settings.

The i-Charger feature lets you charge your iPhone and other tablets by automatically detects on the USB port, thus sending more power to the device for more charging capacity. The great thing about this is, a wider support from Win98/ME/XP/Vista and win7 32bit. Lastly, the Live Update 5 which is very useful in updating the latest BIOS and drivers.

Conclusion

The MSI H61M-E23 (B3) also comes in a very attractive price at $80 at this point of time, but it's got so many things to offer. The capability to overclock the CPU and iGPU using the OC Genie II is the best advantage for this board. The lacks of USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s and 2 DIMM's maybe a big loss for some but, bear in mind that, this is what the H61 chipset is made of.

Compare to Asus P8H61-M LE which is more expensive than this board but lacks of HDMI output and the MSI H61M-E23 would be a better choice for you. The MSI H61M-E23 is one the best H61 motherboard to consider if budget would be your main concern, but if you're primarily application is for office and HTPC applications this could be your best bet. Read more reviews of the Best Motherboards and discover the Top 3 Best H61 Motherboard for intel Sandy Bridge processors.

About the Author

Learn more about the H61 chipset and discover more reviews of the Best Motherboards for intel and AMD processors.

Motherboard specs say that pci is 32 bit maximum help with graphics card?

I want to install a nvdia video card in pci its 256mb and when i checked specs of motherboard pci it says 32bit maximum after it. Does this mean that I can't use video card? i don't want to get if it won't work.

You did not tell us which card you are talking about, you should make sure that it fits in a PCI, and its not an AGP.

But No it dose not mean you cant use the card, but 256mb is not much for a video card, and futher limiting it by using it in a PCI slot is not making it better.

I wont recommend anything less then ATI Radeon 9600XT, or geforce 5600, and i would recommend the agp versions. Some of the later games also plays fine on 9600XT, with about medium settings, dont expect games like GTA4 to run at all on those though.

The best appears to be HD4870 X2 at the moment. You should be sure to get a motherbord with PCI Express x16.

Try to get a card with 1gb, (2gb+ memory would be preferred). Remember that if a card with 2GPUs has 1gb, then its actually 512 for each GPU, the second just has a copy of the data on the other GPU.

So if you are going for a 2X card, then go for 2gb+ minimum.

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