The MSI H81M-P33 is a very cheap microATX LGA1150 motherboard, but a very cramped design limits its appeal @ MrPassingham - 21 Mar 2015.
If you’re looking to build a powerful but small media centre PC or compact workstation, the MSI H81M-P33 microATX LGA1150 motherboard certainly looks tempting, particularly at this low price.
Specifications
- Processor socket : LGA1150
- Dimensions : 226x173mm
- Chipset : H81
- Memory slots: 2
- PCI-E x16 slots : 1
- PCI-E x1 slots : 1
- PCI slots : 0
- USB ports : 4x USB
- 2x USB3
- Video outputs : VGA, DVI
The problem is made worse again by a bootup bug that resulted in error "9C" when we had USB devices connected in certain combinations: a USB disk and a USB keyboard and mouse plugged into various USB and USB3 ports meant our motherboard wouldn't POST and left us scratching our heads.
There's no relief mid-board, either: there aren't any USB3 headers so you'll be stuck with slow USB connectors even if your case's front panel has USB3 connectors.
There's a PCI-E slot that runs at x16 speeds for a graphics card. Even if you install a double-height card, the PCI-E x1 slot situated below it is not obstructed, so you'll easily be able to fit a PCI-E wireless card or other expansion hardware, although it's a bit of a squeeze.
There are two RAM slots for up to 16GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory running at a maximum of 1600MHz, which slot in snugly next to the processor and heatsink mounts. There are two SATA3 ports for high-performance storage such as SSDs, and a further two SATA2 ports for drives that don't need the 6Gb/s transfer speeds offered by the newer specification.
Performance from our benchmark hardware was as expected, with our Intel Core i5-4670K managing an overall score of 100. The UEFI BIOS isn't particularly complex to use, but if you decide to overclock the processor, you'll be on your own because there are no automatic overclocking tools on this cheap board.
It's hard to complain about the MSI H81M-P33 when you consider it's very low price, but given the problems we had with USB connectors, there are better boards on the market for only slightly more. The Asus B85M-G is a better all-round motherboard.
Hardware Specifications
- Processor socket - LGA1150
- Form factor - mATX
- Dimensions - 226x173mm
- Processor support - 4th generation Core processors - (Haswell)
- Processor external bus - 100MHz
- Chipset - H81
- Supported memory type - DDR3
- Maximum memory speed - 1600MHz
- Memory slots - 2
- Maximum memory - 16GB
- Motherboard power connectors - 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 4-pin 12V
- PCI-E x16 slots - 1
- PCI-E x4 slots - 0
- PCI-E x1 slots - 1
- PCI slots - 0
- Motherboard fan headers - 3
- SATA II ports - 2
- SATA III ports - 2
- RAID support - None
- Wired network ports - 1x 10/100/1000Mbit/s
- Motherboard sound (ports) - Realtek HD Audio - (3x 3.5mm analogue ports)
- USB ports - 4x USB, 2x USB3
- USB headers - 4x USB
- Video outputs - VGA, DVI
- Other ports - 2x PS/2
- Cables included - 2x SATA
- Motherboard clock adjustment - CPU/RAM
- Motherboard voltage adjustment - RAM
- Details - www.msi.com
- Intel Chipset Driver - Win7 32 -
- Intel VGA Driver - Win7 32 -
- Realtek High Definition Audio Driver - Win7 32 -
- Realtek PCI-E Ethernet Drivers - Win7 32 -
- Intel USB 3.0 Driver - Win7 32 -
- Intel Management Engine Driver+Microsoft hotfix - Win7 32 -
- Intel Smart Connect Technology Driver - Win7 32 -
- Live Update 6 -
