Intel H55 chipset is a single-chip solution. The basic features provided by this chipset include six SATA-300 ports (no RAID support), no support for parallel ATA (PATA) ports, 12 USB 2.0 ports supporting port disable, embedded Gigabit Ethernet MAC (Medium Access Control) and six x1 PCI Express lanes.

EVGA H55 provides eight SATA-300 ports, six controlled by the chipset and two controlled by a JMicron JMB363 chip. The six SATA connectors controlled by the chipset and the available PATA connector are installed on the edge of the board, rotated 90º, so the video cards (if you install one) won’t block them. The other two SATA connectors are located on the left edge of the motherboard, in a position where they won’t be blocked by expansion cards.

The two SATA ports controlled by the JMicron chip are red and support RAID (0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD).

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Figure 4: SATA ports.

Even though Intel H55 chipset does not provide a parallel ATA port, EVGA H55 has one, controlled by a JMicron JMB363 chip.

This motherboard has all the 12 USB 2.0 ports supported by the chipset, eight soldered on the rear panel and four available through two motherboard headers. Two FireWire (IEEE1394) ports are available, one on the rear panel and one through an internal header, controlled by Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A chip. This motherboard comes with an I/O bracket containing one FireWire port and two USB ports.

Differently from other H55-based motherboards we’ve seen so far, this motherboard does not support legacy parallel and serial ports.

Audio is generated by the chipset using a Realtek ALC889 codec, which is a professional-grade component, allowing you to professionally work with this motherboard for audio editing and conversion (e.g., converting LPs and VHS tapes to digital format) without the need of an add-on audio card. The audio section provides 7.1 audio with 24-bit resolution, 108 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs and 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs.

EVGA H55 doesn’t come with on-board SPDIF connectors, which is flaw for a motherboard on this price range. You can, however, install these connectors by buying an I/O bracket containing them and connecting to the SPDIF out header available on the motherboard. Since this board does not provide an HDMI output, this motherboard simply doesn’t come with any on-board digital audio connection.

Analog audio outputs use completely independent jacks, so you can hook-up an analog surround speaker system up to 7.1 without needing to “kill” the line in and/or mic in jacks.

EVGA H55 has a Gigabit Ethernet port controlled by a Marvell 88E8057 controller, which is connected to the system through a PCI Express x1 lane, thus allowing this port to achieve its maximum performance.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel with keyboard PS/2 connector, eight USB 2.0 ports, clear CMOS button, DisplayPort output, VGA output, DVI-D output, FireWire port, Gigabit Ethernet port and independent 7.1 analog audio jacks.

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Figure 5: Motherboard rear panel.

This motherboard comes with the three types of video connection, VGA, DVI-D and DisplayPort. We think that this motherboard should have come with an HDMI connection instead of a DisplayPort one, as currently HDMI is more popular than DisplayPort. You can still easily hook up your computer to your home theater system by converting the DVI-D output into an HDMI output, which can be easily accomplished by using a cable with a male DVI-D connector at one end and an HDMI connector at the other hand, however you will also need to buy an I/O bracket containing SPDIF connectors in order to be able to connect your computer to your home theater system.