Intel DH57JG “Jet Geyser” - Intel's First Mini-ITX H57
by Rajinder Gill on March 1, 2010 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Conclusion
Overall, the DH57JG is a balanced performer in almost every department (apart from slow USB throughput) and like most Intel desktop boards it’s geared for conservative use. In this instance we think that Intel made the right choice, because we haven’t seen anyone execute mini-ITX well enough for heavy overclocking. On the face of it, all three mini-ITX boards we’ve looked at over the past few months have similar limitations in power delivery. Out of the three vendors though, it seems Intel have put more work into planning what can and cannot work well over the long-term and have trimmed the DH57JG BIOS accordingly without the need for a bout of public beta testing first.
Most of the BIOS menus are well laid out and uncomplicated, which makes things less daunting for users who lack experience. It's also pleasing to know that we did not encounter a single instance where the board refused to work with any of our test peripherals. The only bone we have to pick with current BIOS functionality is with regards to CPU multiplier ratio control for Clarkdale processors – we can only use the stock CPU multiplier ratio, and we can’t understand why that’s the case when you can adjust multipliers on Lynnfield processors.
There’s also the looming issue of price, $125 for mini-ITX seems a tad expensive when you glance over the feature sets of similarly priced (or cheaper) m-ATX boards. Of course, we need to factor the questions of product reliability, long-term support, validation processes for updates and ease of use, areas where third party vendors seem to come up short in some instances. Perhaps that’s the positive element of investing in the purchase of an Intel motherboard - you're guaranteed long term support.
To sweeten the deal further, we’d like to have seen USB 3 or some kind of wireless capabilities at the $125 mark, and it would be nice if we don’t see retailers charging early adopter premiums on that figure because you’ll be paying more than the board is fundamentally worth.
The alternative to the DH57JG is Zotac’s H55-ITX, which is more 'enthusiast' oriented (you get 10 USB ports on the rear I/O and WiFi capabilities), although you have to pay $145 for the whole experience. We’re hopeful that other manufacturers will jump onto the mini-ITX bandwagon and help drive these prices down.
In fact, if all vendors adopt Intel's no-fluff desktop board approach and focus R&D/support departments on the basics, we're sure they'd be able to deliver products that are just as if not more functional than what Intel are offering at $125. As such, it's probably wise to wait a couple of months and see how things pan out. If waiting is not an option though, and all you need is a plug and play stock-runner, rest assured that the DH57JG will certainly deliver over the long haul.
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Forgetsalvation - Thursday, March 25, 2010 - link
I talked to Intel presales support, i was informed that essentially this motherboard's BIOS has been locked down so that it will not support the core i7.unfortunately i did not discover this until after i purchased this motherboard and a i7-860.
I was very hopeful when I saw this review showed a i7-860 that worked, how ever i still can not get my system to boot.
Do the moderators have any suggestions for me, i very much want to run this combo but I am running out to time to return these parts if they will not work
Erick Thompson - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
I would love to use the M350 case from mini-box, but the largest power supply I can get is 102 watts. With this board and a i3 530 (using integrated graphics), along with a SSD drive, it seems like 102 watts would be enough, if pushing the edge a bit. Any thoughts?fbd - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link
Yeah im interested in that also... I see that actually u tested a Core i7 in the board but i read in the documentation of the board that it is designed to support cpus up to 87W TDP only, while the i7 has 95 W. What does that mean? Is some kind of hardware part ( e.g. circuitry) of the board not sufficient to support an i7 or what? Or does it support it only at lower speeds? Im a bit confused. What does this mean: "We managed to get the board to post at 21X150 BCLK, but found processor core frequency throttles down to 3GHz or so under full load to ensure safety for the CPU VRM". Does it mean that if u put a stock core i7-860 into the board it wont be able to operate over 3ghz? What about turbo boost then? It cant go over 3ghz either? Thx for any reply.abnderby - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
Inoticed your comment about not reviewing many intel boards. Yes I do agree with you on the fact that they do not offer the best package of thrills and frils. But it has been my experience with many of the other manufacturers that the quality and length of service of their boards are no where near that of Intels. I have run into many issues with other boards after a year of 24/7 use. Some of the board components would fail or the boards would die.Over the last 12 years I have only had 2 Intel boards die with less than 5 years of service. None of which were my workstation/server boards or high end PC boards. Intel does put in a tremendous amount of quality that lasts.
Currently I run 1 dual xeon that is 6 years old with 2 3.6 GHz xeons with 64 bit Windows 7. It stills runs flawlessly. I run a core 2 on intel uBTX 3 years now flawlessly.
So please your crowd out here is not just enthusiests that like or have to overclock everything. Many of us want the high quality and long lasting systems. Intel boards must be in that mix.
Duane
MamiyaOtaru - Friday, March 5, 2010 - link
Jet Geyser is one of my favorite thermal features in Yellowstone. Around the corner from the Fountain Paint Pots. It's not a very big one though. Wonder if Intel had it in mind when naming their boardmschira - Monday, March 1, 2010 - link
HiI love these powerful low power systems!
I would be very interested in tests of a file server based on these board.
Like using a Highpoint RocketRAID 2322 system.
Cheers
M.
AmdInside - Monday, March 1, 2010 - link
The P45 based mini-itx board from Intel had a lot of issues. I am not sure if I would jump on this one myself.hnzw rui - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - link
As far as I'm aware, Intel doesn't have a P45 Mini-ITX board. They do have an Intel DG45FC which is a G45 board.play2learn - Monday, March 1, 2010 - link
Usb 3.0 and 32 nm graphics...Then maybe!blyndy - Monday, March 1, 2010 - link
It looks like m-itx is the new m-atx, which is great.