ECS has released its new Thin Mini-ITX motherboard designed for Intel’s Coffee Lake-S processors. The H310CH5-TI mainboard is aimed at miniature systems as well as upgradeable all-in-one desktops compatible with the said form-factor.

As the name suggests, the ECS H310CH5-TI is based on Intel’s H310 chipset and therefore supports the company’s 8th Generation Core i3/i5/i7 processors, as well as their cheaper Celeron and Pentium-branded brothers. The motherboard is outfitted with a 4+1-phase VRM that uses solid-state coils and capacitors to prolong lifespan of the platform and ensure stability during high loads. Unfortunately, ECS does not disclose which specific CPUs are qualified for the mainboard, but keeping in mind rather limited cooling that a Thin Mini-ITX chassis can provide, I wouldn't expect this board to be used with anything over a 65 W TDP chip.

The H310CH5-TI has two SO-DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB of DDR4-2667 memory, one M.2-2280 slot for PCIe/SATA SSDs, two SATA 6 Gbps connectors, and one M.2 slot for a Wi-Fi/BT controller.

I/O capabilities of the motherboard are pretty typical for a Thin Mini-ITX platform. The motherboard has a GbE port (controlled by Realtek’s 8111H chip), one HDMI 1.4 output, one HDMI 1.4 input, four USB 3.0 Type-A connectors (two internal and two external), two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and two audio jacks. It is noteworthy that the audio subsystem of the H310CH5-TI is comprised of the Realtek ALC662 codec and a six-channel DAC.

Since Slim Mini-ITX motherboards can be used for special-purpose systems and highly-integrated AIO desktops, the ECS H310CH5-TI also has numerous internal headers, including a card reader header, a webcam header, a touch board header, a camera header, an IR sensor header, and so on.

ECS has not disclosed pricing of the motherboard, but typically Intel H310-based boards are among the cheapest.

ECS Intel H310-Based Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard
  H310CH5-TI
CPUs Intel LGA1151 v2 CPUs
PCH Intel H310
Graphics Intel UHD Graphics from CPU
Display Outputs 1 × HDMI 1.4a
Memory 2 × DDR4 SO-DIMM
Up to 32 GB of DDR4-2667
Slots for Add-In-Cards 1 × M.2-2230 for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
1 × M.2-2280 for PCIe/SATA SSDs
Ethernet Realtek 8111H GbE controller
Storage 2 × SATA 6 Gbps
Audio Realtek ALC662
USB 4 × USB 3.0 Type-A
2 × USB 2.0 Type-A
Serial Ports -
Wi-Fi optional
Operating Temperature ?
Form-Factor Mini-ITX (170 mm × 170 mm | 6.7" × 6.7")

Related Reading:

Source: ECS (via Hermitage Akihabara)

Comments Locked

15 Comments

View All Comments

  • DanNeely - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Looking at the m.2 slots, they're both oriented the same way, which would stack the SSD on top of the wifi card. There's nothing wrong with that as a space saving option, but it has me scratching my head at why the PCB area below the m.2 connectors and to the right of the sodimm slots is bare of any components.
  • jeremyshaw - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    I didn't look at the manual, but I have some experience with wild guessing.

    The slot closer to the southbridge looks like a B-key connector. This is provides PCIex2, SATA, USB, I2C, and at least a couple of other protocols. This is usually used by SSDs, but also some WiFi cards. The one further away looks like an E key, which cuts the PCIe down to one lane, no SATA, but the rest is still there. AFAIK, this is commonly used by WiFi cards.

    So the shorter wifi card goes in first, and gets secures. The M.2 SSD slot uses a slot with (still guessing) greater offset from the PCB, which allows it to go over the WiFi card. The standoffs for the screw is probably higher, too.

    Again, I could go read the manual and confirm for myself, but I... didn't.
  • jeremyshaw - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Apparently, I didn't check my post for grammatical/spelling errors and logical inclarities first, either.
  • The Chill Blueberry - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    It's not bare, there's a heat sink. (Black on black is misleading, but look at the first pic you can see it.)
  • DanNeely - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Even on that picture it looks more like a streaky soldier mask; but a heatsink would make a lot more sense.
  • Valantar - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link

    It's definitely the chipset heatsink.
  • seamonkey79 - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Below the m.2 slots and to the right of the SO-DIMM slors is a heatsink for the chipset.
  • jeremyshaw - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Allright, I'm not misreading it, since it's on the ECS website, too:

    1 X HDMI IN Port

    The other inputs make it look like it's made for kiosk work.

    I wonder what are the encoding/input specs of the HDMI input (beyond which version of HDMI it supports). It could make for a decent, CPU powered streaming box.
  • parlinone - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    This looks nice, wish there are thin M-ITX with the Zchips available?

    Also, I see a 19VDC input for power which is very nice. But is there also an internal header for 19VDC?

    PS why can't I login with my anandtech forums account? For the front page I need a separate account which is tied to the same mail. It's super weird.
  • parlinone - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    I'm pretty sure there's no internal header, since it's almost always right behind the external 19VDC input. That's already a non-starter for me.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now