The ASrock H61M-DPS 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 1600 MHz, and 2 DDR3 slots allowing for a maximum total of 16 GB RAM.

The Micro-ATX ASrock H61M-DPS 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 ASrock H61M-DPS has 4 SATA 2.0 hard drive slots. These allow for data speeds of up to 3GB/s. SATA 2.0 is a very common standard, and despite the emergence of SATA 3.0 - whose potential is difficult to reach currently - SATA 2.0 remains a viable option.

The ASrock H61M-DPS 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 v3.0, as anything below will not reach the motherboard's potential, and anything above will have its performance slashed to the bandwidth maximum of the ASrock H61M-DPS's PCIe v3.0. The ASrock H61M-DPS does not support multiple graphics cards via Nvidia SLI or AMD Crossfire.

The ASrock H61M-DPS has 8 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.