GA-H55N-USB3: Mini-ITX mobo with USB 3.0
Designed to run home theater PCs, this Gigabyte motherboard also features USB 3.0 ports.
Spotted at Gigabyte's COMPUTEX 2010 booth was the GA-H55N-USB3, a mini-ITX motherboard designed to provide home theater PCs with enough power and a small profile. But the H55N elicits interest because of its generous provision of ports. You've got 2 USB 3.0 sockets complemented by five USB 2.0 ports. Rounding out this comprehensive line-up are eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, six audio jacks, a PS/2 port, and S/PDIF.
On the video front, the H55N can output HDMI, DVI-I, and D-SUB signals—but only if one of those new Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 CPUs with integrated graphics are used. Alternatively users can also use the PCI Express x16 slot for discrete graphics, if they can find a way to fit everything into the usually small cases of the mini-ITX format.
The H55N has four SATA/300 ports for storage components, and two DDR3 1666 MHz DIMM sockets. This puts the maximum RAM at 8 GB. According to Gigabyte, the GA-H55N-USB3 costs around $130 depending on the retailer. It should hit the market right as you read this, or within this month at the latest.


though $100 will be a much more favourable price of course
For gaming, this will not be enough GPU power. For htpc, which it was made for -- or even for a htpc / render station combo (which I'm looking into one for), this might be a perfect solution. The only thing I don't like is only having one pci-e port...but if you need more, then that's not what the mini-itx build is for; not a fault of its own, just not what you need.
As far as raid, well...there are esata solutions for that.
That is kind of a silly comment, since the mini-ITX form factor only supports one expansion slot. And a tuner is not essential for an HTPC. First, not everyone who has an HTPC uses it as a DVR, and second the HR-Homerun is an excellent HDTV tuner and work over your network. Does not require an PCIe slot.
I'd gladly switch to Intel with a mobo this *gasp* awesome.
From everything I've seen, full HD playback is not a problem. I believe I read the original articles at Anandtech...I'm looking at i3/ITX for another HTPC - seems very capable.
I think the ITX form factor is pretty limited in the number of slots it can have...for the small size, you have to make some sacrifices