Intel H61 Chipset Review: (Almost) All the Features for Less

Test Platform

Moving on to performance testing, we used the following hardware combination in our tests. They might seem rather high-end, but it’s necessary to use such hardwares to see what H61 is really capable of. Another motherboard, based on the H67 chipset, was also included in the test for comparison purposes:

• Processor: Intel Corei7 2600K
• Motherboard: MSI H61MU-E45 (B3), MSI H67MA-E45
• Memory: Kingston KHX1600c9D3B1K2/4GX
• Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+100 64 GB
• Power Supply: Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 800 Watt
• Monitor: Philips 221E
• Input: Genius (keyboard and mouse)
• OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
• Driver: Intel Chipset Driver 9.2.0.1025, Intel Graphic Driver 15.21.10.2291

The Board

Our H61 sample came in the form of MSI H61MU-E35 motherboard. It’s a solid-looking board with decent feature package:

As for the comparsion, we picked up an MSI H67MA-E45, based on the more expensive, and more feature packed, H67 chipset.

The two boards are almost identical in appearance. Suffice to say, the MSI’s H61 board is a cut down version of its H67 ofeering. We’ll compare these two boards in our performance tests.