Intel DH77DF Media Series Mini ITX Motherboard and Core i7-3770S CPU Review

ntel’s third generation Core integrated processor graphics (IPG) chip, aka Ivy Bridge (IVB), got off to a slow start for us with a set of high-end CPUs not really intended for the home theater PC (HTPC). We still do not have one of the low power Core i3/i5 with HD4000 graphics on hand; now that they are available, H77 based Mini ITX motherboards are much more interesting since the updated platform controller hub (PCH) is required to fully utilize new features like PCIe 3.0 and DDR3-1600. There are several options to choose from, but none include the HTPC specific features like Windows Media Center infrared and HDMI CEC support via specialized headers and third-party hardware like the Intel Media Series DH77DF paired today with 65W Intel Core i7-3770S and i5-2400S IPGs. Not content to differentiate only on those features, it also offers mSATA via a Mini PCIe slot and Firewire (IEEE1394a) and addresses a traditional shortcoming in Intel’s previous Mini ITX boards – support for 95W TDP CPUs.