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Date added: 06/29/2011 TechReport - Asus' P8H67-I Deluxe Mini-ITX motherboard

One of the best parts of this job is getting to watch technology progress from one generation to the next. Although fresh products aren't always better than the ones they replace, the overall trend is a positive one. The new hotness tends to offer better performance, lower power consumption, and more integrated features than last year's old and busted.

In the realm of build-your-own PCs, nowhere has the forward march of technology paid bigger dividends than among Mini-ITX systems. The industry's relatively newfound focus on power-efficient performance is perfectly suited to the shoebox-sized systems built around the form factor. Potent CPUs and graphics cards are now readily available with the sort of tight power envelopes needed for claustrophobic Mini-ITX enclosures. Thanks to core-logic chipsets with expanding peripheral payloads and motherboard makers that are always finding new ways to add connectivity options, the limited expansion capacity of the midget mobo standard isn't the impediment it once was.

At first glance, Asus' P8H67-I Deluxe looks to be the most advanced Mini-ITX motherboard to date. Despite a footprint that's smaller than 7" x 7", the Deluxe lives up to its name with a Sandy Bridge socket, a full-sized PCI Express x16 slot, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Asus' slick UEFI replacement for the BIOS, and a whopping four USB 3.0 ports. That's a lot to squeeze into such diminutive dimensions, but Asus manages to do a neat and tidy job.

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