AMD Fusion Hits Retail: Zotac and Gigabyte E-350s
Gigabyte's E350N-USB3 Motherboard
Next up we have the Gigabyte E350N-USB3. As we’ve mentioned, the E350N-USB3 takes the very same AMD E-350 APU powering the Zotac ZBox and places it on a mini-ITX motherboard targeted at the do-it-yourself system-building crowd. The E350N-USB3 sports Gigabyte’s traditional blue-PCB with light-blue and while accents, and as is the case with most of their full-sized desktop board, the E350N-USB3 is a well-organized and laid out, highly integrated piece of kit.
The Gigabyte E350N-USB3 Fusion Motherboard
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| CPU Built in with an AMD E-350 Dual-Core processor Built in with an AMD Radeon HD 6310 (DirectX 11) graphics core Chipset AMD Hudson-M1 FCH Memory 2 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 8 GB of system memory Single channel memory architecture Support for DDR3 1333(OC)/1066 MHz memory modules Onboard Graphics (Integrated in the APU) 1 x D-Sub port 1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 Audio Realtek ALC892 codec High Definition Audio 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel Support for Dolby Home Theater Support for S/PDIF Out LAN 1 x Realtek 8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) Expansion Slots 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 Storage Interface 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors supporting up to 4 SATA 6Gb/s devices Internal I/O Connectors 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors 1 x CPU fan header 1 x system fan header 1 x front panel header 1 x front panel audio header 1 x S/PDIF Out header 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers 1 x debug card header 1 x chassis instrusion header 1 x power LED header 1 x clearing CMOS jumper |
USB Chipset: Up to 8 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 on the back panel, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers) Renasas D720200 chip: Up to 2 USB 3.0 ports on the back panel Back Panel Connectors 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse port 1 x D-Sub port 1 x DVI-D port 1 x HDMI port 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports 1 x RJ-45 port 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone) I/O Controller ITE IT8720 chip H/W Monitoring System voltage detection CPU/System temperature detection CPU/System fan speed detection BIOS 2 x 16 Mbit flash Use of licensed AWARD BIOS Support for DualBIOS PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b Unique Features Support for @BIOS Support for Q-Flash, Q-Share Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue Support for Xpress Install Support for EasyTune Support for Smart Recovery Support for Auto Green Support for On/Off Charge Bundle Software Norton Internet Security (OEM version) Operating System Support for Microsoft Windows 7/ Vista/ XP Form Factor Mini-ITX; 17.0cm x 17.0cm |
Dominating the E350N-USB3 is a large heatsink and fan combo that rests atop the motherboard’s AMD E-350 APU and Hudson-M1 chipset. While effective and relatively quiet, the heatsink may be overkill because it hardly gets warm to the touch with such low-power chips underneath.
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Circling the board from the right edge on down, you can see a pair of DDR3 DIMM slots next to the 240-pin ATX power connector, with a fan header and the front panel header in between. Along the bottom edge is a physical PCI Express x16 slot with an X4 electrical connection, with four SATA ports just above it. Between the IO backplane and the heatsink are a couple of USB headers and the 4-pin ATX 12v connector. And along the top there are some chokes and capacitors that comprise the board’s VRM.
In the IO backplane are a total of four USB 2.0 ports, a PS2 mouse / keyboard port, DVI, HDMI, and VGA video outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, an RJ45 LAN jack, and optical and analog audio inputs and outputs.
While mini-ITX motherboards are becoming increasingly more common, finding one with a low-power CPU and a DX11 graphics core is not. All a user has to do is add RAM and storage and you’ve technically got a full system ready to roll. We suppose a case would help too, but that’s technically not a necessity.
