Despite more and more features being integrated into the CPU, motherboard prices haven't exactly gotten any cheaper, although at least part of the reason for this is increased costs for the motherboard makers. However, Gigabyte has come up with an interesting board for those that are looking for something for a small business computer or similar in the shape of the GA-B75M-D3V which offers a well-rounded feature set without costing a fortune.If you're a regular VR-Zone reader you must think we've gone nuts featuring what looks like a five year old motherboard. Well, it's anything but, despite its looks. Being based on Intel's B75 chipset which is targeting small business computers you get all the latest features in a slightly unusual package. The board has a PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot – although for some reason the board we were shown only had eight lanes connected – two x1 PCI Express slots and a PCI slot. Add a pair of SATA 6Gbps ports and four SATA 3Gbps ports and you have a pretty standard Intel board.
As you can see, Gigabyte went for a compact mATX form factor for the B75M-D3V and as such it only has two DIMM slots, but you do at least get headers for two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports and a serial port. The rear I/O has four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a PS/2 port, a parallel port –a feature a lot of businesses wants – a Gigabit Ethernet port, 5.1-channel audio and a D-Sub and DVI port.
In as much as the B75M-D3V might be targeting businesses, it would be the kind of motherboard that would offer more than enough features for many a user. As a further business incentive, it will also come with Intel's Small Business Advantage software, although due to NDA's and such, we can't go into any details about that for the time being. With a sub US$80 MSRP, this should work out to be one of the cheapest boards with a 7-series chipset.
Read more: A quick look at Gigabyte's GA-B75M-D3V motherboard by VR-Zone.com