In the past six months, we often saw a lot of news about Intel 32nm CPU on the internet;
more information was about Core i7-980X, also LGA 1366 6 physical cores + 6 virtual HT cores (12 Threading).

The orientation of 32nm CPU belongs to Intel future highest-level LGA 1366 platform,
which most consumers show less interest in because of higher price.

Now take a look at Intel LGA 1156 platform.
About this new product line, there will be some 32nm CPU products put on sale,
including Core i5 6XX and Core i3 5XX series, and named Clarkdale.

The market orientation of these two series is different from previous Intel CPU.
The main reason is that Intel defines new CPU structure, not putting GPU into chipset like before but into CPU directly.
Intel’s such new design will affect PC market style “All in One MB” is becoming the future.

On chipset side, Intel releases H55/H57 to support new CPU design, and main difference is with or without RAID function.
Same as P55 chipset, a single-chip is adopted in the new chipset;
I assume Micro-ATX form factor will be the main design for H55/H57 motherboards.
Of course, some manufacturers also released ATX form factor for higher-level H57, seeming to direct compete with AMD 785G/790GX.
Especially, Micro-ATX products of AMD hold a special attraction for consumers for a quiet sometime now.
Therefore, Intel wants to increase his market share counting on this new product line this time.



This time I used BIOSTAR T-Series TH55XE as my MB platform,
which using Intel H55 chipset without RAID function, and its street price is around US$115 (about NT$3750).

Firstly, we can see the black is the main colour for the package.
I think the matching colour is exactly moderate, and package design is very special.


Product manual, driver CD, related cables and IO panel are attached.


BIOSTAR TSERIES TH55XE itself




Intel latest LGA 1156 32nm CPU front/reverse side
The CPU in the picture is Core i5 661, 2 physical cores + 2 virtual HT cores (4 Threading).
CPU clock: 133 X 25 = 3.33GHz; built-in GPU clock = 900MHz



Lower-left of the motherboard
1 X PCI-E X16
1 X PCI-E X4
2 X PCI
LAN chipset: Realtek 8111DL
Audio chipset: Realtek ALC888，7.1 channels and supports HD Audio


Lower-right of the motherboard
5 x yellow SATAII，H55 provides SATA2 specification
Power、Reset buttons、debug indicators


Upper-right of the motherboard
4 x DIMM DDR3, supports 800/1066/1333/1600(OC)/2000(OC), maximum capacity of DDR3 is 16GB。
1 X IDE, by JMB368
With 24-PIN power connector


Upper-left of the motherboard
LGA 1156 location, adopting CPU 4+ VTT 2+GPU 1 phases power supply
BIOSTAR adopts IR DirectFET phase design for power supply,
with higher cost and better quality than common material.