Zotac Has a Micro-ATX Board Nearly Ready

We've seen many announcements pertaining to high-end motherboards recently, but Zotac is offering a different flavor, or will do so once its ZT-H67D3 actually reaches stores. 

The reason why there is so much talk about high-end motherboards right now is the impending arrival of Intel's Ivy Bridge CPUs. 

Since they promise a massive boost in performance, motherboard makers, like MSI and Intel itself, are all too eager to offer support for them. 

Zotac has now changed gears, or will do so sooner or later, according to Expreview. 

What the company has prepared is the ZT-H67D3, a micro-ATX motherboard for small form factor PCs and other, low-end and low-cost systems. 

The company is quite likely aimed at emerging markets where affordability is more important than usual. 

Speaking of which, the platform is supposed to be targeting the $63 price point, a sum that translates into 47.11 Euro. 

For that much money, owners get the H67 chipset, which handles Intel Core i3, Core i5 and/or Core i7 CPUs featuring the LGA 1155 socket. 

A 6-phase VRM powers whatever chip is bought (separately), as well as the four DDR3 memory slots (dual-channel memory supported). 

Additionally, Zotac implemented three SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, plus an eSATA 3.0 Gps connector and a pair of SATA 6.0 Gbps ports. 

Furthermore, there is a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, as well as a pair of PCI Express x1 slots and a legacy PCI. 

As for the back panel, prospective buyers may notice the distinct lack of a D-Sub output, even though DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI are all present and accounted for (one of each). 

Finally, 8-channel HD audio is supported, as is Gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0 (there is no USB 3.0, apparently). The exact availability date has not been disclosed, unfortunately, but it should not be too far off.

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