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Intel DH61AG 'Apple Glen' Mini-ITX Motherboard Review

Published November 9, 2011
By Steven Walton

Test System Specs & Memory Performance

FM1 Test System Specs
- AMD A8-3850 (2.9GHz)
- AMD A6-3650 (2.6GHz)
- x2 4GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-20)
- Asrock A75M-ITX (A75)
- OCZ ZX Series 850w
- Crucial m4 256GB
Software
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- AMD Catalyst 11.8

Intel Apple Glen Test System Specs
- Intel Core i3-2120 (3.30GHz)
- x2 4GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-10666 (CAS 9-9-9-24)
- Intel DH61AG (Intel H61)
- OCZ ZX Series 850w
- Crucial m4 256GB
Software
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 15.22.50.2509

LGA1155 Test System Specs
- Intel Core i7-2600K (3.30GHz)
- Intel Core i3-2120 (3.30GHz)
- x2 4GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-20)
- Asrock Z68 Extreme4 (Intel Z68)
- Asrock Z68M-ITX/HT (Intel Z68)
- OCZ ZX Series 850w
- Crucial m4 256GB
Software
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 15.22.50.2509

AM3 Test System Specs
- AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (3.30GHz)
- x2 4GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-20)
- Asus Crosshair IV Extreme (AMD 890FX)
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 SOC (1536MB)
- OCZ ZX Series 850w
- Crucial m4 256GB
Software
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- Nvidia Forceware 280.26

The Asrock Z68M-ITX/HT allows the Core i3-2120 to utilize DDR3-1600 memory whereas the Intel DH61AG limits the memory frequency to 1333MHz. As a result, the DH61AG saw a maximum read bandwidth of 16GB/s whereas the Z68M-ITX/HT reached 19.9GB/s -- a 24% difference.

Although the slower DDR3-1333 affects memory bandwidth performance, it has nothing to do with L2 cache performance. Unsurprisingly, the Core i3-2120 delivered similar results on both the Intel DH61AG and Asrock Z68M-ITX/HT.