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KitGuru has looked at several new Fusion boards from AMD partners MSI and Sapphire. Both products left us with positive feelings – the mixture of low power drain, competitive pricing and excellent high definition media performance is certainly a heady combination. Today we are building a more expensive media system based around the Asus E35M1-I Deluxe motherboard and stylish Thermaltake Armor A30 chassis.
AMD Fusion is the marketing name for a series of Accelerated Processing Units that have been in development since 2006. This design combines general processor execution with 3D geometry processing and other functions of modern GPU’s into a single chip.
The passively cooled Asus motherboard features the new dual core AMD E350 CPU with AMD Radeon HD6310 graphics. It offers HDMI, DVI output with wireless, Bluetooth, Sata 6GB/s and USB 3.0 connectivity.
This is our first in a two part review of the Asus E35M1-I Deluxe. Next time we will be focusing on gaming performance with some discrete solutions. All our testing today on the Asus E25M1-I Deluxe will be at at our maximum overclocked figures.
| CPU | AMD CPU on Board ;Integrated dual-core AMD® Zacate™ 18W Processors |
| Chipset | AMD Hudson M1 |
| Memory | 2 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR3 1066/800 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory * Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL. * When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended. |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (at x4 mode, with latch) |
| VGA | Integrated AMD® Zacate™ Graphics Supports DVI with max. resolution up to 1920×1200@60Hz Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 1920×1080@60Hz Supports D-sub with max. resolution up to 2560×1600@60Hz |
| Storage | Southbridge 5 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports 1 xExternal SATA 6Gb/s |
| LAN | Realtek® 8111E PCIe Gigabit LAN controller |
| Audio | ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC Supports DTS Surround Sensation Ultra-PC * Use a chassis with HD audio module in the front panel to support an 8-channel audio output. |
| USB | NEC Controller: – 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 ports at mid-board, 2 ports at back panel) Chipset built-in: – 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports at mid-board, 4 ports at back panel) |
| ASUS Unique Features | ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 AI Suite II TurboKey II Mem OK! Q-FAN Anti-surge DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC ASUS@Vibe Support |
| Back Panel I/O Ports | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Combo port 1 x DVI 1 x HDMI 1 x External SATA 6Gb/s 1 x LAN(RJ45) port(s) 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 1 x S/PDIF Out (optical) 1 x Bluetooth 3.0 adapter 2 x Wifi antenna ports 3 x Audio jacks |
| Internal I/O Connectors | 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 connector(s) support additional 2 USB 3.0 ports 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 connector(s) support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports 1 x MemOK! switch 5 x SATA 6.0Gb/s connectors 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) 1 x Chassis Fan connector(s) 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector 1 x S/PDIF Out connector 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector 1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector 1 x Front panel audio connector 1 x System Panel connector 1 x Turbo Key II switch |
| BIOS | 32 Mb Flash ROM , AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI 2.0, WfM 2.0, ACPI 2.0a, SM BIOS 2.6 |
| Accessories | User's manual 1 x I/O Shield 2 x SATA 6.0Gb/s cables 2 x Wifi antennas 1 x Support DVD |
| Support Disc | Drivers Anti-virus software (OEM version) ASUS Update ASUS Utilities |
| Form Factor | Mini ITX Form Factor 6.7 inch x 6.7 inch ( 17 cm x 17 cm ) |
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;-)