GIGABYTE Launches H81 ‘Entry-level’ Motherboard Lineup, Boasts 7 Models

To help give those looking to upgrade to Intel’s latest and greatest CPU architecture a more affordable motherboard option, GIGABYTE has unveiled a slew of H81-based options. The biggest differences between the flagship Z87 chipset and the H81 is that the latter drops from 6 SATA 6Gbit/s ports to 2, and likewise from 6 USB 3.0 ports to 2. Also of note is that the platform supports just 2x DIMM slots, so for a lot of RAM, you’ll be needing to go the high-density route (eg: 2x8GB).

GIGABYTE’s H81 lineup:

• GA-H81-D3
• GA-H81M-S2PV
• GA-H81M-S2PH
• GA-H81M-DS2
• GA-H81M-HD3
• H81M-H
• H81.AMP-UP

All of GIGABYTE’s H81 options feature the Ultra Durable 4 Plus design, its new UEFI ‘Dashboard’ design (quite nice, and something I’ll talk about soon), High ESD protection for USB and a brand-new “App Center”, a one-stop shop for all things GIGABYTE utilities.

So far, the only H81 GIGABYTE offering we could find online is the H81M-DS2, an mATX option priced at $65. We imagine that the rest of the lineup will begin to trickle out over the next couple of weeks in good quantity.