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ECS' New H410 Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard Doesn't Need a Power Supply

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Fitting for compact PC builds

ECS H410H6-TI2 (Image credit: ECS)

ECS (via Hermitage Akihabara) has cooked up the H410H6-TI2 motherboard for PC builders that want to build an AIO or slim system with Intel's 10th Generation Comet Lake-S processors.

ECS advertises the H410H6-TI2 as a thin Mini-ITX motherboard with the LGA1200 CPU socket. The motherboard still measures 170 x 170mm but comes with the novelty of having a thinner body. Thin Mini-ITX motherboards can be up to 40% slimmer than your typical Mini-ITX offering. 

The H410H6-TI2 draws power through a 19V DC-in jack at the motherboard's rear panel, eradicating the need for a power supply in the system. However, there are some limitations here. Due to the lack of proper power connectors and modest power delivery subsystem, the H410H6-TI2 can only house Comet Lake-S CPUs with a TDP (thermal design power) up to 65W.

ECS H410H6-TI2 (Image credit: ECS)

But motherboard vendors have to make a lot of compromises to keep the thickness down on thin Mini-ITX boards. There are no heatsinks or power connectors, and the standard DDR4 RAM slots are usually replaced with SO-DIMM variants.

The two SO-DIMM DDR4 memory slots on the ECS H410H6-TI2 accept DDR4-2933 modules with a capacity up to 32GB. Storage is a bit limited too, as the motherboard only supplies two SATA III ports that are connected with the H410 chipset. However, there's one M.2 slot for an M.2 2280 SATA-or PCIe-based SSD and an additional M.2 slot for a M.2 2230 wireless card.

ECS' new motherboard features the Realtek ALC662 audio codec and has two 3.5mm audio jacks. There's one Gigabit Ethernet port available powered by the Realtek RTL8111H controller.

Display outputs on the H410H6-TI2 come in form of a HDMI port and a D-Sub port. The rear panel also exposes two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports and two USB 2.0 ports. Should you need more USB ports, the motherboard offers one USB 3.1 Gen 1 header and one USB 2.0 header for expansion.

The ECS H410H6-TI2 has yet to hit the hardware shelves, so pricing is currently unknown.

Topics
Motherboards
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SonoraTechnical 24 June 2020 19:20
    It needs 19v... It can't get that 19v from Mains power.. .Therefore, it needs a power supply... it's just in the form of an external brick (like a laptop). a powersupply by any other color is still a powersupply. :)
    Reply
  • drtweak 24 June 2020 21:27
    Yeaaa ummm. It still needs a power supply. And there are dozens of boards and OEMs who do this exact thing so yea not new at all. LOL
    Reply
  • jakjawagon 25 June 2020 00:44
    How would connected SATA devices be powered?
    Reply
  • bit_user 25 June 2020 00:52
    jakjawagon said:
    How would connected SATA devices be powered?
    If you click the zoomed view (grey icon in the corner, with the 4 arrows), you can see a connector labelled SATA_PWR in the second row of connectors from the bottom edge.
    Reply
  • bit_user 25 June 2020 01:13
    I was going to complain that this article is lacking pics of any sexy thin mini-ITX cases. However, I'm having trouble even finding any, so I guess that's fair.

    Still, some of the most un-PC looking cases I've seen are thin mini-ITX cases.
    Reply
  • bit_user 25 June 2020 01:18
    drtweak said:
    Yeaaa ummm. It still needs a power supply. And there are dozens of boards and OEMs who do this exact thing so yea not new at all. LOL
    You're right, but the question I have is whether this is actually part of the thin mini-ITX spec.

    From what I can tell, it offers an internal and external option for power input, though both are 19 VDC.

    https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-specifications/thin-mini-itx-based-pc-system-design-guide-rev-1-2.pdf
    Reply
  • Olle P 25 June 2020 07:44
    Is it expected that suitable cases come with built-in CPU coolers? Otherwise the low profile of the motherboard would be of little use, right?
    Reply
  • Chung Leong 25 June 2020 08:48
    Isn't 19V DC what most LCD monitors need?
    Reply
  • w_barath 25 June 2020 12:13
    SonoraTechnical said:
    a powersupply by any other color is still a powersupply. :)

    I think the author's point is that it doesn't require a standard ATX power supply.

    Most of us have 2-3 retired laptops that we can pilfer the 19V charger from. The main problem is the compatibility of the jack, and can be solved easily enough by chopping off the plug and soldering it directly to the mobo, or splicing on the appropriate plug.

    This isn't a mainstream product. It's basically for people who want to hide a PC in something slim, so simple mods like that will be well within the comfort zone of the target market.
    Reply
  • nofanneeded 25 June 2020 13:41
    ECS' New H410 Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard Doesn't Need a Power Supply

    so an external power supply is not a power supply now ?
    Reply