Ever needed to construct a mini-ITX laptop with a power-sipping eleventh Gen Tiger Lake cell processor? Now’s your likelihood to do exactly that. MSI has launched a brand new PRO collection mini-ITX motherboard that includes a built-in Core i5-11260H Tiger Lake CPU referred to as the Professional HM570TI-B I526. (opens in new tab)
Because the title suggests, the board is designed for professionals who desire a compact desktop workstation that will probably be simply as energy environment friendly as a laptop computer. The Core i5 processor inside options six cores and 12 threads with a 4.4 GHz max turbo frequency and a most configurable TDP of 45 watts.
The board has a good characteristic set total, with assist for as much as 64GB of dual-channel DDR4 3200MHz reminiscence and two SATA ports for storage gadgets. Sadly there is just one M.2 slot out there for wi-fi playing cards solely. Rear I/O comes within the type of 4 USB ports, a single serial port, and a HDMI port for show output. There’s additionally an Ethernet port and two devoted 3.5mm jacks for mic assist and audio.
However, the unusual a part of this motherboard is zero data on CPU cooler mounting assist. MSI has no data on putting in a CPU cooler or what CPU coolers will work with the cell chip. In consequence, you may want to do that analysis your self when you plan on shopping for this board. However we presume the board is designed for LGA115x or LGA1200/1700 coolers because the spacing between the holes is sort of giant.
Luckily, or sadly, energy comes within the type of a DC energy brick. Normal ATX or SFX energy provides won’t work with this motherboard if you wish to construct this method inside a typical mini-ITX desktop chassis. In consequence, you may need to search for a case that’s designed round DC energy bricks to make sure area is not wasted and the system appears to be like good.
MSI’s board additionally lacks assist for devoted PCIe add in board playing cards, reminiscent of graphics playing cards, with no bodily PCIe slots put in on the motherboard. It’s considerably of a bummer, as Intel’s Tiger Lake processors aren’t sluggish chips, and already make good gaming chips in mid-range gaming laptops with devoted cell GPUs or Thunderbolt graphics card docks.
If the board had assist for a devoted GPU, it will be a extremely cool little gaming machine, that may sip energy and generate virtually no warmth. However, this board wasn’t meant for gaming, so we perceive why MSI did not set up a PCIe slot.
However, if you’re brave sufficient, you possibly can technically use a devoted graphics card. All you will want is a M.2 PCIe x4 to PCIe x16 or open x8 or x4 slot that permits x16 playing cards to be slotted in. Pair this, with a mini-ITX case with vertical GPU mounting assist, and you will get a full blown discrete graphics card to work with this motherboard.
Nonetheless, the obvious drawbacks can be no devoted WiFi/Bluetooth card — with the slot taken up by the GPU and 4 PCIe lanes just isn’t quick sufficient for lots of desktop GPUs. In consequence, you’d want to make use of a low-end GPU to make sure the PCIe lane bottlenecking does not kill most of your GPU efficiency.
We do not know when this motherboard is on sale; MSI hasn’t shared a value or estimated availability dates on its web site.
