Choosing a right gaming motherboard is somehow complicated if you are not a real hardware freak. Locating the right bus interface, CPU socket, amount of gpu you can use, etc are prime aspect directly connected to the performance. And the other side of coin “overclocking”. Gaming and overclocking goes hand to hand. Better graphics needs more processing power. Where the CPU, ram and graphic card altogether work hard. While a motherboard act as a platform of delivering performance. This makes quiet necessary for a gamer to go for the right board. Leaving a high end board aside, we are going to stick with a mid range gaming board by Foxconn. The model is H61MXE-S. This board offers you all mid level solution for pc gaming. Foxconn H61MXE-S provides support for LGA1155 sockets.
You can use Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors on it. For ram it offers you dual channel DDR3 support up to 1333 MHz. As usual you cannot use above 16GB. Being a mid range product it offers you single PCI 3.0 slot only. No more SLi/Crossfire. But for audio it offers a 5.1 Audio Channel. At least there is a better audio output on speakers. Foxconn H61MXE-S is still hard to find on online retailer, while some international vendors are selling it for $62. That shows it as a budget board. Compare to H61 chipset, Z87 and Z77 are counted as most powerful for gaming. Also they are used on extreme level. While Foxconn H61MXE-S is a H61 chipset board with LGA115 socket offering you to use the latest Core I series processor. Compare to the price of H61 chipset if checkout properly out on sites of online vendors, then we can found a reasonable Z77 chipset board at inflation of 20 to 30% under MicroATX form factor via different manufacturers. Manufacturers like Gigabyte, MSI, AsRock and Intel are the one who had maintained a low price profile.
We will move ahead in checking out more aspect of Foxconn H61MXE-S Motherboard. We will find why this board is good and what its drawback are. Whenever a mobo is sold via gaming tag line my first preference goes with dual gpu. Hooking multiple video cards on high bus interface with multiple monitors and reasonable overclocking to get the best. But when I got H61MXE-S, the output is already limited due to single pci slot. As per my analysis this microATX form factor board is idle for budget gaming system and htpc. Before coming on any final conclusion let’s move ahead to check out more aspects in detail.
Chipset:
H61 chipset is meant for day to day pc work. Ideal for desktop platform it works well with 2nd Generation Intel Core CPU. At a time on a ram slot it supports 1DIMM up to 1333Mhz. Being a mid- range chipset it does not lacks feature for advance computing. Like Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology. H61 also enable PCi 2.0 graphics connected directly with the CPU at 16gbps bus. The chipset itself come with 2 DIMM slot support only. While higher chipsets offer more ram support. Being low on ram slot still they are powerful enough to handle 8GB ram sticks each. Powered by 20gbps DMI you can simply expect great HD output from it. While for connectivity it does not lacks anything. You get an hdmi port directly on the board itself. For data transfer it is configured for 10 USB 2.0 ports. While as per the specification the board offers 8 usb 2.0 connectors and 2 usb 3.0. Gigabit LAN delivers good transfer speed over LAN network and 4 3gbps sata port are enough for day to day use.
In this way you can see Foxconn H61MXE-S takes major advantage from the H61 chipset. While compare to the same if you are looking for a more powerful board with additional ram slot, more dmi, then going for Z77 or higher is always good. LGA1155 socket makes it useful for Intel Core series processor belonging to Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge Processors. Recently Intel has already announced Hashwell CPU. Offering more optimized power usage and performance for all kind of system. Even Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge are no bad. So in terms of CPU the board does not lack behind. It is near to the latest. For RAM slots as mentioned above the H61 chipset offers support for two slots where you can use a single stick up to 1333 MHz of 8GB each. 16GB is the last RAM support. Being a MicroATX board many would be thinking this can’t stand high end gaming performance. Well to some extent you are right. But if you can afford a good gpu then this budget board is capable of competing with some high end models in the market. While for overclocking you have nothing here.
Design:
In terms of look and elements from which it is made up of, it looks cheaper. The board features a complete blue PCB on which ram slots are painted as blue and pci as yellow. The caps on board do not really look durable and the same is applicable to the PCB. Now being a budget board it is not fair to expect too much from it. But still I believe when we talk about gaming we need a powerful board. Usually what happen, when you are playing games your system components are heated instantly. That is due to high processing usage. AT that point good ventilation protects the system for getting damage. But it is quiet necessary that the caps must be a bit durable to withhold more extreme power usage. Or else the board can get instantly damage due to minor stuff like humidity, dust, etc. I prefer to hook this board under a miniATX board with gpu and pack it well. So that it can stay safer from outside humidity. Adding a 1GB DDR5 gpu will be enough for playing any regular game on mid resolution settings. The board has a bit less space due to microATX form factor.
Once the gpu is connected a few amount space is left to connect 4 hard drive on sata ports. Smart cable management is needed here or else wires can easily crumble with CPU fan. This same for gpu also. A full size graphic card simply covers a major part from the backside towards front. Dividing the board into two parts. It will be really complicated to hook everything on mini chassis. While for CPU the socket is placed at the center top. The space is consolidated for regular air cooler. I do not think you will be able to add a bigger CPU fan or liquid cooler if the graphic card is connected. A special chassis can only help you in getting everything hooked together properly. All connectivity ports lies on the backside. They are easily accessible. There are additional connectors on the board for usb and audio. There are only two fan connectors available. You will need to rely on psu for additional fans. It also provides you a single COM1 connector a kind of serial port. The onboard video is powered by Intel HD graphics. In terms of look the board looks relatively simple. It is designed with minimum needs. The PCB looks less than standard.
BIOS :
As technology is changing in motherboard, so the bios are getting better upgrades. Time has gone when we see a blue white bios UI with limited feature. Manufacturers are opting to give a more interactive menu this time and that also loaded with additional features. High end board bios are the complete set of solution to manage board features and also to perform effective overclocking. The bios of Foxconn H61MXE-S look reasonably great. It has transparent layout with simple navigation features. The board has Winbond chip which holds the bios program. That looks to be removable but might be risky if touched. The first part obviously offers you complete detail on the system.
Foxconn H61MXE-S BIOS has a unique section called as F-Center. It is a control center type of stuff that helps you to protect your bios from different change. When it is enable you can block bios modification. It has options like Smart Bios, Fox Intelligent Stepping, CPU configuration and Performance Tuning. Here Smart Bios is to lock the bios for getting modified. Like Smart Power LED and Smart Book Menu. When Smart Power LED is enabled the board uses the front led of CPU chassis to give you proper error indication. That makes easy for a person to identify the issue with board. Like the power led on chassis if blinks continuously then it means there is a ram issue. In the same way if blinks at a interval of 2 seconds then it means there is a display error.
While Smart Boot Menu adds the Dell, F7 keys on the screen. If you disable this those keys will be not visible. Another powerful section here is CPU Configuration. This section allows you to modify advance cpu settings like for Intel AES-NI, Intel XD Bit, Limit CPUID Maximum, Intel Virtualization Technology, etc. While even being a mid range boards it comes with Performance Tuning. Where you can play a bit with your system hardware. There are only options available here. CPU configuration and Northbridge configuration. There are not special settings available to control the CPU clock rate or voltage. As this board is not designed for overclocking. Additional features it offers are Trusted Platform Module support, Network Stack, CSM parameters, etc.
Ports :
For connectivity Foxconn H61MXE-S offers everything which is needed. IT offers you two PS2 slots. A single VGA and HDMI slot for display interface. As per the H61 chipset all video processing is handled by Intel HD graphics. You can also add a gpu and use it as your default video output. There are total 6 USB ports available in the backside. Among which 4 usb ports are 2.0 which are painted in black and 2 are usb 3.0 painted in blue. A high speed Gigabyte LAN port for better LAN work and gaming. And set of audio jacks. While additional usb connectors on the board allows you to hook more usb headers. In terms of connectivity Foxconn H61MXE-S is a standard board. I had seen recently in ample of MicroATX model manufacturer are also adding Wi-Fi. Which his extremely useful. When you get an integrated wifi chip on the board itself, a need of router is eliminated. That also saves money.
Foxconn H61MXE-S does not have a wifi support. The connectivity panels are settled on the backside. I was expecting a set of more usb 3.0 ports here or a better audio jack panel for 5ch audio output. Through VGA you can use it on any tradition monitor while the output on HDMI is simply great. But adding a gpu is must. I saw a set of test videos on YouTube based on gaming. The videos show reasonable graphic output on the board when used with a gpu.
Conclusion
Foxconn H61MXE-S can be a mid range gaming micro atx board in terms of features and performance. What matters here is getting the same performance at a very reasonable rate. Now there are ample of people who are not really serious about spending exclusively on each and every hardware. They need a ready to use machine with budget configuration on which Foxconn H61MXE-S fits well. It can ideal for htpc where you can simply create your own portable media server and stream video content. While for gaming you need a good gpu. But as the board is limited in feature you cannot take maximum benefit out of it. Foxconn H61MXE-S is also great for day to day work. Hooking up 4GB RAM and 1TB storage can make it a reasonable performance pc. It is essential that you must use a microatx board on the same. If you are having a gpu then try to use psu around 400w or above.
Assembling is extremely simple here. 4 3Gbps sata ports look to be enough for handling large amount of data. While usb 3.0 ports offers faster data transfer speed. The bios of Foxconn H61MXE-S have some smart features making this board a bit superior over others. Overall Foxconn H61MXE-S is a wise choice for Sandy Bride and Ivy Bridge processor. The exact price of this motherboard in India is still secret as the board is not available at any online vendors. While some internal sellers are selling it for $62.
Pros:
- Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPU Support
- Smart BIOS
- Onboard HDMI and 5ch Audio output
Cons:
- Single SATA Port
- Less Durable PCB
- No Dual Bios
