Giada releases Mini-ITX Z68 motherboard

Giada, a sub brand of the Chinese company JEHE, has announced its latest compact Mini-ITX in Europe, the MI-Z68.

As you’ve probably guessed, this board is based on the Z68 Intel chipset and supports Core i3/i5/i7 but this Mini-ITX motherboard has no TDP restriction thanks to it full-fledged CPU VRM, which draws power from a 4-pin 12V connector apart from a 20-pin ATX connector, which any modern PSU will support. The board uses a 4+1 phase CPU VRM with a single phase memory.

For the memory, you’ll find two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel memory, while expansions is achieved through a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 so that, if used for an HTPC, you can fit it with a good VGA card to have even better graphics.

Connectivity wise, you won’t be missing much, the storage includes mSATA 3Gb/s, two SATA 6Gb/s (blue) and two SATA 3Gb/s while the rest includes two USB 3.0 (driven by a Renesas-made controller) on the rear I/O along four USB 2.0, one PS/2 keyboard port , Gigabit Ethernet (Realyek PHY driver) and 8-channel HD audio with optical SPDIF output. Display outputs for the integrated graphics include DVI and HDMI.

One of the things to note is the holes on the rear I/O over the four USB 2.0, most probably placed to give the possibility of installing a wireless mSATA card allowing more expandability and a wire-free internet.

The Giada MI-Z68 provides a lot more than what you’d expect from a Mini-ITX, all of which at a price of €88.

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