Gigabyte Introduces Intel H81-Series Motherboards

Gigabyte is joining other manufacturers, as expected, in the release of its H81 series motherboards for Intel's 4th generation of core-series processors. The motherboards, of which Gigabyte has announced eight, have a number of features that are not found standard on all H81 series motherboards.

On the software side, Gigabyte's new motherboards have a number of positive attributes. First, they feature a customizable BIOS environment, have Gigabyte's new App Center and, of course, there is not only one, but two BIOSes.

As for hardware, the motherboards also have a number of nice additions. They feature another USB 3.0 controller, equaling a total of six USB 3.0 ports aboard. The motherboards also feature native 4K support, which can be displayed through both the HDMI port and the DisplayPort connector.

The motherboards are also built with full solid capacitors as well as low RDS MOSFETs. Both of these allow the motherboard to have a longer lifetime, as they are rated to withstand operation at higher temperatures than cheaper alternatives.

The entire lineup of H81 motherboards from Gigabyte includes the H81-D3, H81M-HD3, H81M-S1, H81M-D2V, H81M-D3V, H81M-S2PH, H81M-DS2, and the H81M-S2PV. All the motherboards with an M in the name are Micro-ATX boards; so far, there are no further revisions of any board beyond revision 1.0. There was no direct word on what each of the boards would cost, nor was there any information of availability specifically per board. That said, we can't imagine that it'll be long until all of the boards hit shelves. A small handful of them can already be spotted at select retailers.

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Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.