Gigabyte Intel Core i7/ Core i5/ Core i3/ LGA 1156/ Intel H57/ 4DDR3-2200+/ATI CrossFireX/ HDMI/ USB3.0/ Raid Micro ATX Motherboard GA-H57M-USB3 Review

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(More customer reviews)Ordered on 6th feb, left Memphis TN on 8th, reached Miami FL feb 10 with free standard shipping from amazon and then I got it in Trinidad 2 days later via a skybox. The motherboard was the only item ordered and it came in a slightly bigger box with brown paper padding on the outer edges, I uploaded a pic of it here.

The board worked as soon as I powered it on. I first used a usb keyboard but when the system woke up from sleep the left side of the board would be messed up and show multiple keys in an area being pressed when only one was pressed, eg when I typed 'a' it would show 'as' in Word. The same keyboard works perfectly on every other system I have and it corrects itself if i unplug and replug it back in even if it is the same port. It is not just the usb 2.0 or just the 3.0 ports, I get the problem for all ports on the back, I did not try the front ports on the case. I have switched to a ps/2 keyboard and it works perfectly now.

Another issue is the 1 terabyte hard drive (WD1001FALS) I use makes a funny noise when plugged into any one of the blue sata ports, it sounds like it is shutting down but midway it spins back up again, it may be a power setting somewhere, but it is random and the sound comes every 5 - 10 mins whether I am using the system lightly on the internet, or doing nothing just staring at the screen. While gaming or watching a movie I have the music on loudly so I'm not sure if it happens then too. If I use either of the white sata ports the sounds never comes which is why I suspect it is a setting somewhere. The system never freezes or stalls, the mouse always moves smoothly with the funny sound on.

About a week ago after I was looking around the bios and the system restarted the system did not boot. The power led kept blinking as it normally did during booting (it does not stay steady as with most other systems) but it did not beep and never booted. To get the system to boot I had to unplug the power cable and pop the battery on the board out then let it sit for a few mins. I then updated the bios to f5 from f1 revision using the windows utility, the same thing happened the first time I restarted after the bios update but not since. The drivers on the CD included were installed with no problem. The Easy Tune 6 app does give an error message when it starts up but runs properly I think.

The board has all the necessary settings to overclock the cpu and the memory. The i5 steps down and back up in speed as necessary. I do not have any usb 3.0 devices to check the speed on the ports.My XFX 5770 which uses 2 slots just meets the top of the level of the first pci slot, so I consider it blocked, I would not squeeze a pci card in to block air for the fan on the 5770.

I am very happy with this build and I see it lasting me well into the future. When games get even more demanding I will use xfire and a SSD and mayb overclock.

NOTE: - Make sure you get an ATX V2.2 or 2.3 power supply with an 8-pin EPS connector as this board requires it.
- I had to choose 'Profile 1' in the bios under XMP profile for the board to recognise the memory as 1600mhz, 9-9-9-24, the default was 1300 mhz.System specs:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Intel Core i5 750 Processor 2.66 GHz 8 MB LGA1156 CPUI5-750BOX (quad core, turbo boost)
Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 XMS3 4 GB PC3-12800 Core i5 Memory Kit (1600mhz)
XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5 PCIE Graphics Card HD577AZNFC (1gb, DX 11)
Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 H57 motherboard (usb3, 7.1 audio, xfire, raid)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 32 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD1001FALS
OCZ OCZ600MXSP ModXStream Pro 600 Watt Power Supply (ATX12v 2.2, modular cables, 80+)
Thermaltake VI1000NWS M9 case (2 x 120mm fan, toolless, bought locally)
IDE dvd burner
Logitech MX 518 High Performance Optical Gaming Mouse (Metal)
Dell S2209w 22" LCD (5ms, 1080p, DVI-D)
Logitech x530 speakers (5.1, 70w rms)
MS Keyboard
Sony MDR-XD200 headphones
500VA UPS
HP 3050 AIO

Windows Experience Index Ratings:
Processor: 7.3
Memory:7.7
Graphics:7.4
Gaming graphics: 7.4
Primary disk:5.9

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Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 Intel Core i7/ Core i5/ Core i3/ LGA 1156/ Intel H57/ 4DDR3-2200+/ATI CrossFireX/ HDMI/ USB3.0/ Raid Micro ATX Motherboard

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