Stefan Mileschin

Almost a decade ago, with the launch of Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, came the H61 chipset. Compared to the high-end P67 and Z68 models, the idea behind H61 is that it was cheap, and it was long-life. At a time when low power embedded Atom CPUs still didn’t have enough power, H61 was there to be equipped with one of Intel’s new-fangled Core processors, with the systems that designed for it destined to last a couple of decades. We’re now 9 years into that life cycle, and Biostar deems it necessary to create a new H61 design for the new decade.

We’re getting to a time now where the cheaply made H61 boards of yesteryear are starting to go pop. When you save a tenth of a cent on capacitors, eventually you get to an age where one doesn’t work and the magic smoke appears. Systems which are built on these have two options: replace the failed component, or upgrade completely. What may surprise some people is that the easiest option is always the first one: replace the broken component. By replacing hardware like-for-like, the system is already set up and ready to go when the new part is installed. If a customer decided to go a different route with a Gemini Lake, sure there might be more performance, but then the signalling standards have changed, the memory has changed, the capabilities of the CPU have changed, etc.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15556...hipset-in-2020