KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The Asus E35M1-I Deluxe motherboard arrives in a chunky blue box with details of the specifications on all sides.
Inside we have literature, a software disc, back plate, 2 sata cables and 2 wireless antenna.
This board differs when compared to the other Fusion products we have reviewed so far. Asus have removed the small cooling fan and have instead created a monster heatsink, which is actually that substantial it is passively cooled.
While Sapphire opted for SO-DIMMS on their Fusion board, Asus have went for full size slots, meaning you can use any desktop based DDR3 directly in the board. It also requires a single 4 pin power connector, right behind one of the heatsinks. In an overclocked state we managed to push the DDR3 memory to 1600mhz, which is well in excess of listed AMD specifications.
There are five SATA 3 connectors, all of which are 6GB/s capable.
Next to the main power connector is the front panel connector. The Asus motherboard has a discrete PCI-E x 16 graphics slot but it only delivers x4 bandwidth. Not a failing of this particular board, but a universal AMD design decision.
The motherboard has several fan headers tucked in behind the right hand section of the heatsink.
To give an idea of the diminutive size of the board, we have fitted 4GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3 above, with the additional cooling fan. This can be used in the case, but unfortunately it does block the discrete slot.
Connectivity is very strong on this ASUS board. We have several USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, DVI out, and an older PS2 connector. There is also a hybrid eSATA/USB 2.0 connector and a lan 10/100/1000 port for networking connectivity. Additionally there is a bluetooth transmitter and wireless header. There are also audio out connectors with optical S/PDIF.
What a great looking case. much better than the element Q. looks like a robotic monster from the future with all the armor panels. awesome.
Asus, well not much to say about them, always brilliant. great review thanks for the fusion stuff.
christ, please stop reviewing this fusion kit, I just got married and can’t play with toys anymore 🙁 Unless i give the CC a bashing…. 🙂
Gotta hand it to asus, they never release anything in a half assed manner, no wonder they generate billions each year.
That thermaltake case doesnt appeal to me on a looks basis, but its a nice design inside.
Frigin awesome boards, the pricing of this one is much higher than the others, but it looks to be worth it. thankfully they didnt use laptop memoery slots. that was dumb.
I wouldnt mind one of these to have in my bedroom for streaming to the TV. would like a remote for it though. like a gyro unit. I hate those windows media remotes, useless.
I think these products arent gettign enough coverage, AMDs fusion will be brilliant in a laptop.
I am looking forward to the quad core products in a few months.
The power consumption tempts me, I know my media center must be sucking at least twice that at idle, probably three times. Might pick one up next month, whenever I can find the bits to buy!
low power is the future. the cost of living now is rising all the time. less = more.
I am ordering one of these when its available.
Its well worth 140 quid, compared to the others at 100.
Zardon , all these fusion reviews are friggin pointless man, you can’t buy fusion products anywhere.
AMD release this in January and over a month later still no products in European retail? They are beyond useless.
Not a single fusion board for sale in the UK, waste of everyones time
So I price up a system and realise this motherboard actually isn’t for sale anywhere.
So I look for other fusion boards, and nadda. What’s up with AMD stock?
Thanks for the review. Nice background to the graphs.
Not one to be found in the USA either. Someone on Ebay has them for $263 USD shipped from Hong Kong. It takes weeks to get here and what a rip off. Come Asus get those motherboards shipped. They have MSI and Gigabyte here but they aren’t as good as the Asus model and require fans.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131698&cm_re=zacate-_-13-131-698-_-Product 😀 In stock!
Hi, Great review! I have a question regarding the used Corsair Dominator DDR3 memory. I was searching for it and found modules with different specs. Can you specify the partnumber or details? Another question is, because the Fusion is single channel, is it the ok to place one memory module? Thanks in advance!
Hello, thanks for the comments. I unfortunately can’t check the partnumber right now, as this system is with a colleague in another part of the world. I will try and find out, but any Corsair DDR3 Dominator will work fine with this board. It will just ‘downclock’. Obviously you don’t need to use this particular memory, as every DDR3 stick we have tried has worked fine in Fusion boards.
Single channel, and one memory module is perfectly fine yes, works great.
Hi Zardon, thanks for you quick reply. I really would appreciate it if you can sort out the partnumber or details. Once I’ve got really messed up with incompatible memory and I want it to do now the right way (incl. memory that can take the heat from overclocking;-)