5.9
The Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 is compatible with Intel processors with the LGA 1155/Socket H2 socket.
It has 16 GB DDR3 maximum RAM and conforms to the Micro-ATX form factor standard.
 | CPU Socket | LGA 1155/Socket H2 | | Graphics Card Interface | PCIe v2.x | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Compatible Make | Intel | | SLI Support | 1 graphics cards | ||
| CPU Chipset | H61 | | Crossfire Support | 1 graphics cards | ||
| Release Date | 19 Sep 2011 | | Onboard GPU | yes | ||
| Form Factor | Micro-ATX | | PCI Slots |
| ||
| Max RAM | 16 GB DDR3 | | SATA 1.0 | 0 | ||
| RAM Slots | 2 x DDR3 | | SATA 2.0 | 0 | ||
| Memory Channels | 2 | | SATA 3.0 | 0 | ||
| Compatible RAM Speeds |
| | RAID Support | yes | ||
| USB 2.0 Internal Slots | 2 | | Internal I/O |
| ||
| USB 2.0 Rear | 4 | | Back Panel I/O |
|
The Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 uses the Intel LGA 1155/Socket H2 CPU socket. Any compatible Intel CPU will have the same socket entry. It uses the DDR3 memory type, with maximum speeds of up to 1333 MHz, and 2 DDR3 slots allowing for a maximum total of 16 GB RAM.
Released on 19 Sep 2011, the Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 is now over 9 years old, which means it is extremely out of date and is based on very aged technologies. This motherboard will be dwarfed in performance by its modern counterparts, and will likely have very little support from GigaByte.
The Micro-ATX Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 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 Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 has 4 SATA 3.0 hard drive slots. These allow for theoretical data transfer speeds of up to 6GB/s, as opposed to the 3GB/s of SATA 2.0. Generally speaking, only high performance hard drives, specifically solid-state drives, will be able to take advantage of the bandwidth potential of SATA 3.0 ports, though it is backwards compatible, so you do not have to take advantage.
The Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 supports onboard graphics. This allows for integrated graphics when paired with a compatible CPU that supports them. Integrated graphics are a cheap alternative to using a graphics card, but should be avoided when frequently using modern applications or games that require intense graphical processing. 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 Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2's PCIe v2.x. The Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 does not support multiple graphics cards via Nvidia SLI or AMD Crossfire.
The Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 has 6 USB 2.0 slots but no USB 3.0 slots. While USB 3.0 slots are so far by no means necessary, and with a plethora of USB 2.0 peripherals to choose from, the USB functionality on this motherboard should be fine. If planning on building a new system, a motherboard with USB 3.0 is likely to have a longer life cycle, however.
