We like short, easy-to-remember names, and the A75M certainly delivers on that wish. But does a short name also imply a short list of features?
The board's rear panel lacks a DVI output, but that could be excused if we view this as an HTPC-oriented part. Llano’s two different built-in GPUs are powerful enough to satisfy that role. They're even capable of light gaming duties. HDMI is, of course, backward-compatible with DVI. But if you want to attach a DVI display to this platform, you'll need to purchase either an adapter block or adapter cable.
ASRock questionably places all four of the A75 FCH’s USB 3.0 ports on the A75M's rear panel, leaving only USB 2.0 headers for front-panel ports. This might appear an odd move from the first company to respond to our call for standardized front-panel USB 3.0 connectors, but this could be in deference to traditional HTPC-oriented cases, which evolve more slowly than gaming enclosures and still typically lack USB 3.0 jacks.
If this were intended to sit in as an HTPC-specific design, we'd say that the board's PCIe x16 slot placement isn't quite right, since graphics riser cards typically align with the top slot. But if we use the A75M as a vehicle for utilizing integrated graphics, the top x1 slot could be used with a riser to support a tuner card.
Five SATA 6Gb/s ports connect internal drives, while a sixth port goes to the I/O panel for eSATA. All five ports are placed above the x16 slot to eliminate card clearance issues, though placing them there on such a narrow layout eliminates the flexibility to expose four DIMM slots (as you can see in the picture above). If you find yourself unable to live without memory expansion, ASRock does sell full-width models with the extra slots.
Less HTPC-oriented features include the full-sized serial and parallel port headers, which are most frequently needed to retain compatibility with old peripherals in commercial environments. That secondary market could also explain the presence of a legacy VGA connector on the back panel, where we'd rather see DVI or DisplayPort.

Two SATA cables accompany the A75M. Though we prefer to see at least four cables with microATX or larger motherboards, this is enough to comply with the basic needs of most builders. An online price of only $80 makes it even harder to fault the sparse installation kit.
- AMD's A75 Platform: The Triumph Of Adequacy
- ASRock A75M
- Overclocking ASRock's A75M
- Asus F1A75-M Pro
- Overclocking Asus' F1A75-M Pro
- ECS A75F-M2
- Gigabyte A75M-UD2H
- Overclocking Gigabyte's A75M-UD2H
- Jetway TA75MG
- MSI A75MA-G55
- Overclocking MSI's A75MA-G55
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: Aliens Vs. Predator
- Benchmark Results: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Which A75-Based Motherboard Is The Best?


Qne question, what does the APU,( either the A6 or the A8), have on F@H applications?
I know F@H is a great cause, might cure cancer etc, but wouldn't it be more geeky to search for radio signals of little green men?
I checked the CPU reviews and didn't see anything there either. You know it's going to be low utilization for these processors, which means it will be closer to the idle power than to the full-load power...
I think micro atx fits into plenty of SFF cases. Maybe we need to redefine..
I'd like to see a showdown of mini itx boards though, I think Anand did something like that recently. That's probably where the A8 CPU's need to go head to head with atom anyway, most reviews I've seen show the CPU's aren't all that cut out for desktop. Maybe the next batch that comes out in Q4/Q1 2012 will be better for desktop.
lol wut? Dude you got this QUAD CORE based on the phenom II architecture mixed up with the e-350 or the c-50 those are the ones that are going up against Atom.
1.) SFF originally stood for Shuttle Form Factor and was proprietary, using 2-slots.
2.) It was copied by companies like First International Computer and AOpen
3.) AMD established a standard for "open architecture" systems of similar design, called DTX.
4.) ITX is smaller than DTX and fits DTX cases.
Notice this has nothing to do with Micro ATX. People who claim that anything shaped like a cube is SFF need only be shown a full ATX cube before they start making excuses. People who point to horizontal cases and say SFF need only look at ancient AT desktops before they're forced to come up with excuses.
2-slots. That's what makes Shuttle copies different from everything else. Cubes can be any "size", HTPC's can be any "size", if SFF is a size standard it can only be used to apply to two-slot cases.
Some competitors have been trying for years to expand the definition of SFF. They are, of course, wrong.
Nobody's perfect, one of Tom's old team members once said that barebones always refers to SFF systems (even though full sized barebones existed long before SFF). But at least Tom's tries to fix those types of errors rather than force them into the vernacular.
I'm just asking people to be specific. If you mean cube, say cube. If you mean desktop, say desktop. If you mean mini-tower, slim tower, or slim desktop, just say it. Then apply a form factor "Mini ITX slim tower" or "Micro ATX desktop". And if you're saying "SFF" rather than media center, well it's obvious that SFF can do other things so just be specific and say media center.
If you're not specific, you might find yourself in a discussion about what the meaning of "is" is.
Would love to see some benches on the gigabyte with those max overclock numbers as the GPU would benefit greatly from the memory oc.
I used to run SETI@home for a while, but then thought that using up resources on earth to look for little green men, after which me may or may not find them (most likely will not), rather than address issues closer to home (disease research, weather prediction, etc) is kind of a waste, no matter how geeky the LHC and SETI projecs are.
On the topic:
They're selling the A8-3850 for around Rs.10,000 ($220)in India, when the Core i3-2100 sells for around Rs.5500. What's the point? I'd rather get a Core i3 + Radeon 5770 in almost the same price....
Now if only I could figure out how to force VLC to default to HD audio output to SPDIF instead of having to select it every time I play an .m2ts file.
Anyway, great article Tom's. You could add more "stream" games in there as well (WoW, CS Source, LoL, etc). Also a good Video playback review would make the chip show it's colors.
Cheers!
- analog audio SNRs and distortion levels
- data rate performance for included features such as extra USB 3.0 ports
- bandwidth and latency for ethernet connections
- gaming performance when overclocked
As far as the target resolution goes, I would assume that most HTPC builders would connect one of these up to a 1080p LCD or plasma display via HDMI, and would therefore try to match that native resolution during game play. So the question then becomes, "Both OOTB and optimally configured and O/Ced, what are the maximum settings that a gamer might hope to achieve in a given game, at 1080p?"