Gigabyte GA-B75N review: affordable Mini-ITX motherboard with Intel B75 chipset

Introduction

Last month we reviewed nine Mini-ITX motherboards with Socket 1155 processor socket for Intel Ivy Bridge processors. We saw that motherboards based on the high-end H77 and Z77 chipsets typically cost more than £100, sometimes much more. If you want a more affordable alternative you can choose between motherboards with Intel H61 chipset, but then you're without features such as SATA600 and USB 3.0. Gigabyte has now made a Mini-ITX board based on the Intel B75 chipset, which is the entry-level option in the 7-series chipsets. With a price of £95 the Gigabyte board is indeed cheaper than the previously tested H77 and Z77 models. We compared the GA-B75N with the boards we already tested.

Gigabyte GA-B75N

B75 chipset

The B75 chipset is the entry-level chipset in the 7-series. The B75 lacks the more extensive overclocking options of the Z77 chipset, along with the ability to have more than one graphics card. For a Mini-ITX motherboard those are not necessary features anyway. Another difference is that B75 only has one Serial ATA 600 connector, but does have 4x Serial ATA 300. Like the more deluxe 7-series chipsets it also has 4x USB 3.0, but the number of USB 2.0 ports is limited to eight. That also seems sufficient for a Mini-ITX board. The last difference is the lack of support for SSD caching, and that will also not be a big deal for most. For most PC users, B75 has all the features you need.