Intel H57 is a more “complete” version of the Intel H55 chipset, supporting RAID, 14 USB 2.0 ports (against 12 on H55), and eight PCI Express 2.0 x1 lanes (against six on H55). H57H-MUS from ECS comes with two PCI Express x1 expansion cards to add USB 3.0 ports and SATA-600 (a.k.a. SATA 6G) ports on the motherboard. Let’s what you should expect from this product.

This motherboard supports integrated video, but it is important to understand that with socket LGA1156 CPUs the integrated video is produced by the processor and not by the motherboard chipset, as it occurred until now. There are processors with integrated video and processors without this feature. The board has only the interface and connectors necessary to route the video signal generated by the CPU. You can install CPUs with an integrated video processor or without, but with CPUs without a video processor you won’t have on-board video, needing an add-on video card. Of course with a processor with integrated video you still have the option to install an add-on card and disable its video engine. For a more detailed explanation, please read our Core i5-661 review.

In Figure 1 you have an overall look from H57H-MUS and, as you can see, it is a microATX board.

click to enlarge
Figure 1: ECS H57H-MUS motherboard.