With Dual Core Intel i3 and i5 on the Horizon, board makers prepare for the next wave of chipsets to be released. Heading this new technology is MSI, with their H57 Based micro-ATX board the H57M-ED65.

With each sucession of Chip type and chipset , we see many old and common technologies cast aside. The H57M-ED65 is a shining example of this mantra. First up is the lack of regular PCI expansion slots. A dying technology for a time now these are slowly being phased out in favour of PCI-e slots that can handle the myraid of cards out today. Left is two electrical PCI-e 16x locations (Operating at 16x and 4x respectively), and a pair of PCI-e 1x slots to cover our needs. It is nice to see even on a Micro-ATX board the ability to have X-Fire and SLI potential (support for either is not yet determined). Giving those who need something budget friendly features commonly found on more expensive versions.

MSI’s DrMOS of course is standard, with large and stylish heatsinks covering up the power distribution sections. And on the subject of Power, the H75M-ED65 is graced with a very capable 10-phase VRM design. Giving the potential for nice overclocking stability should one require that. Connectivity is provided through a total of 7 Sata 3gb/s ports and still featured a single solitary IDE connector. Memory support is standard Dual Channel DDR3  with the maximum supported Bandwidth however unlisted as of yet. The backpanel features just about every connection type one could ask for, with VGA and DVI out locations, USB, Firewire, Optical Audio and E-Sata one would be hard pressed to find something not included in this package.

Of course the main selling point is the new H57 chipset. Which will feature support now for the on-die Graphics  slated in the newest of Intel Chips. As with all new releases the final product may vary at the time of this boards launch, but if anything it promises to be a very solid bang-for-your-buck option in a very competitive marketplace.

Pricing and Availability have not yet been released.