Gigabyte Debuts AMD Fusion Mini-ITX Mainboard
It's a GIGABYTE love nest containing AMD's E-350 dual-core processor and Radeon HD 6310 GPU.
Wednesday GIGABYTE announced its first AMD Fusion Mini-ITX form factor HTPC motherboard, the GA-E350N-USB3. The company is currently showcasing the mainboard this week during CES 2011 in Las Vegas.
Driving behind the Fusion wheel is AMD's E-350 dual-core processor, Radeon HD 6310 graphics core and Hudson-M1 FCH chipset. The new board also boasts an SATA 6 Gbps interface, an HDMI interface and hi-def 7.1 surround sound audio with S/PDIF out support. It also provides GIGABYTE's On/Off Charge technology for "quick and convenient" charging iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices, GIGABYTE's 3x USB Power Boost, and USB 3.0 ports from an onboard Renasas (NEC) controller.
"We’re excited about the GA-E350N-USB3 motherboard because it’s the first all-in-one Mini-ITX board with DX11 capabilities, and we expect it to go a long way towards bridging the gap between discrete and integrated graphics performance," said Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at GIGABYTE Technology Co. Ltd. "With its specially designed low profile fansink and multitude of hi-def, high-speed connectors, we expect this little power house to be popular amongst HTPC system integrators, DIY enthusiasts and case modders."
GIGABYTE said that the GA-E350N-USB3 was built to withstand the pressures of an "always on" device in terms of temperature and overall energy consumption by using GIGABYTE's Ultra Durable 3 Classic design. This layout utilizes 2x the amount of copper of a traditional mainboard PCB, allowing for lower temperatures and better power efficiency than other mainboard designs. The Ga-E350N-USB3 is also equipped with ultra durable all solid Japanese capacitors as well as GIGABYTE's DualBIOS technology-- the latter provides a backup BIOS chip in case the main BIOS gets damaged or somehow becomes corrupted (cough).
Other bells and whistles included with GIGABYTE's new mainboard includes support for DDR3 1333(OC)/1066 MHz memory modules (2 slots), a redesigned EasyTune 6 for managing and monitoring hardware resources, HDMI 1.3 certification, WHQL certification, support for ErP 6 and more.
For more information, check out the product page here. Pricing and availability was not provided.
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fatkid35 has pci-e 2.0 expansin slot but at X4 speed? hmm, if this is such a great all in one unit, why the pci-e slot? are tv tuner cards and wireless cards going to pci-e as a standard? i guess im missing something.Reply -
mister g My library has catalog machines that I don't think the library ever turns off (as well as the public access ones). They probably won't need a the PCI-e slot anyway.Reply -
rwpritchett Other bells and whistles included with GIGABYTE's new mainboard include support for dual channel DDR3 1333+ memory, a redesigned EasyTune 6 for managing and monitoring hardware resources, HDMI 1.3 certification, WHQL certification, support for ErP 6 and more.
The AMD fusion boards are single channel only. Bit-tech got it right.
The PCI-e slot is good for TV tuners or WiFi (which isn't bundled)... much better than a USB solution
I don't like the little fan on the heatsink though. These fusion setups should be able to run passive. The Asus EM35MI-I is the better option IMO with a large passive heatsink. -
segio526 That HDMI 1.4 comment is very damning here since the 6000 series can't do 3D over 1.3.Reply -
ravewulf fatkid35has pci-e 2.0 expansin slot but at X4 speed? hmm, if this is such a great all in one unit, why the pci-e slot? are tv tuner cards and wireless cards going to pci-e as a standard? i guess im missing something.TV tuner cards are usually pci-e 1x cards. Wireless are still mainly regular pci (from what I can tell by looking at Newegg) but there are still quite a few of them that are pci-e 1xReply