You’ll have to make do without SATA3 and USB3, but this FM2 is still quick and useful if you're building a tiny PC
Written By
Published on 21 March 2013
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1 / 3
Our rating
Reviewed price £54 inc VAT
The F2A55M-HD2 is a tiny AMD FM2 microATX board that’s skinnier than most boards designed to this standard. Which is probably why it’s also comparatively cheap, compared to the competition.
Part of the low price though is accounted for by the budget A55 chipset, which makes some compromises compared to more expensive boards. In particular, there’s no USB3 support (header or rear ports) and there are only SATA2 ports for storage. While the four SATA2 ports should provide enough storage, you won’t be able to run an SSD at full speed, which is a bit disappointing.
There are just two DIMM slots for memory. Gigabyte states that motherboard will support up to 64GB of RAM, via two 32GB DIMMS. Given that this will cost over £1,000 in today’s prices, you’re more likely to install 4GB or 8GB of RAM. This should be fine for the type of PC you’re likely to build with this motherboard and you can always replace RAM should you want to upgrade at a later date.
Aside from those limitations, the motherboard is otherwise quite well stocked given its small size. At the back there are four USB ports, three 3.5mm audio jacks, Gigabit Ethernet and a legacy PS/2 port. For the processor’s integrated graphics, there are three outputs: VGA, DVI-D and HDMI, so there’s plenty of choice for running any monitor.
If you’d prefer to add a graphics card, there’s a PCI-E x16 slot. Install a card in here will block the PCI-E x1 slot, although there’s still a PCI slot for older expansion cards that will remain free.
While the F2A55M-HD2 feels like a slight compromise on features, it certainly won’t slow down your CPU. With an AMD A10-5800K processor and 4GB of 1,600MHz DDR3, our benchmarks returned a score of 64 overall, which is exactly what we’d expect to see from this processor. If you want to get more out of your processor, Gigabyte’s UEFI BIOS gives you full overclocking control, even though the interface is a bit clunky.
In terms of performance the F2A55M-HD2 does well and lets you get the most of your processor. It also has a decent range of expansion options, but the lack of SATA3 and USB3 is disappointing in this day and age. Given that you’ll need a very specific tiny case for this motherboard, we think you’re better off buying a traditional microATX motherboard with more features. The Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H is only a little bit more expensive, but has all of the features you could want. It’s the better choice for most people.
Written by
Katharine Byrne
When Katharine's not glued to her Wii U and 3DS, she's usually found darting between tiny smartphones and huge pieces of home cinema equipment.She’s tested everything from laptops and monitors to motherboards and projectors, but she currently specialises in smartphones, games and AV.
