The Asus H81M-E is compatible with Intel processors with the LGA 1150 socket.
It has 16 GB DDR3 maximum RAM and conforms to the Micro-ATX form factor standard.
| CPU Socket | LGA 1150 | Graphics Card Interface | PCIe v2.x | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Compatible Make | Intel | SLI Support | 1 graphics cards | ||||
| CPU Chipset | Intel H81 | Crossfire Support | 1 graphics cards | ||||
| Form Factor | Micro-ATX | Onboard GPU | no | ||||
| Max RAM | 16 GB DDR3 | PCI Slots |
| ||||
| RAM Slots | 2 x DDR3 | SATA 1.0 | 0 | ||||
| Memory Channels | 2 | SATA 2.0 | 0 | ||||
| Compatible RAM Speeds |
| SATA 3.0 | 0 | ||||
| USB 2.0 Internal Slots | 4 | RAID Support | yes | ||||
| USB 2.0 Rear | 4 | Internal I/O |
| ||||
| USB 3.0 Rear | 2 | Back Panel I/O |
|
The Asus H81M-E uses the Intel LGA 1150 CPU socket. Any compatible Intel CPU will have the same socket entry. It uses the DDR3 memory type, with maximum speeds of up to 1600 MHz, and 2 DDR3 slots allowing for a maximum total of 16 GB RAM.
The Micro-ATX Asus H81M-E should fit into all ATX cases, but its smaller size allows you to downsize your system build as a whole. Its size comes at the cost of features, so there are likely to be far fewer connections and expansion options available than in a larger motherboard.
The Asus H81M-E does not support onboard graphics. Any system build that uses this motherboard therefore requires a separate graphics card, or a processor that has a GPU on the same die, such as AMD APU processors. There are 1 PCIe x16 slots on this motherboard. This means it is perfectly capable of accommodating the latest graphics cards, although it is important to try and use a graphics card with the same graphics card interface of PCIe v2.x, as anything below will not reach the motherboard's potential, and anything above will have its performance slashed to the bandwidth maximum of the Asus H81M-E's PCIe v2.x. The Asus H81M-E does not support multiple graphics cards via Nvidia SLI or AMD Crossfire.
The Asus H81M-E has 8 USB 2.0 slots and 2 USB 3.0 slots. USB 3.0 slots are theoretically capable of data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbit/s, which is over 10 times faster than the USB 2.0 top speed of 480 Mbit/s. Although USB 2.0 slots alone currently serve as well as ever, an upgrade would better future-proof your system as more USB 3.0 compatible peripherals emerge. USB 3.0 is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0, which means you do not even have to use the newer slot functionality if you do not wish to.