Zotac Packs AMD A75 Into Mini-ITX Form Factor
by Kristian Vättö on September 22, 2011 1:18 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ZOTAC
- A75
ZOTAC has today released A75-ITX WiFi motherboard. Like the name suggests, this motherboard is based on AMD's A75 chipset and comes in Mini-ITX form factor. Don't let the size fool you though, A75-ITX has an impressive list of features when compared to its size.
| ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi | |
| Chipset | AMD A75 |
| Socket | FM1 |
| Memory Slots | 2x DDR3 DIMM |
| Max Memory | 8GB |
| Memory Speed | Up to 1866MHz |
| PCIe | One x16 slot |
| SATA | 4x SATA 6Gb/s |
| USB | 8x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 |
| Networking | Dual Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 |
| Video Outputs | DVI, HDMI, VGA |
When you look at the specs, it doesn't lose much to its bigger brothers. The best CPU you can install at the moment is A8-3850 (our review), which is definitely not bad. There is also a full speed PCIe x16 slot (most likely PCIe 2.0), meaning that a high-speed GPU isn't an issue. On top of that, there are eight USB 3.0 ports. The A75 chipset provides only four USB 3.0 ports, which suggests that there is a discrete USB 3.0 controller providing the extra four.
ZOTAC isn't alone in the A75 mini-ITX market though, at least AsRock has a similar motherboard as well. We reviewed ZOTAC's Z68ITX-A-E WiFi very recently, so that might offer some early thoughts on what to expect from A75-ITX. The suggested retail price is $149 and it will be available next week.
Source: ZOTAC
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Andrew.a.cunningham - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link
But ZOTAC definitely knows its stuff when it comes to ITX boards. I've had two separate ITX boards from them and never had a problem with either.The problem (and this is just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt) is that AMD's desktop processors aren't particularly well-suited for HTPC/ITX system use - my experience has always been that they need more breathing room than Intel's processors, and AMD doesn't offer much that can compete with the 35W TDP processors that Intel offers.
Andrew.a.cunningham - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link
(Also, that statement ignores Brazos, which seems to be a fine choice for a small system if you want to avoid Atom but don't want to pay for Sandy Bridge.)MonkeyPaw - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link
Llano isn't actually too bad, thermally. It has the power gating needed to really save energy under everyday load (like with HTPCs). So while you're dropping a high TDP chip in, you really never push it enough to require a big cooler. However, AMD should offer a low TDP FM1 chip. Maybe 45-55w (since it has a GPU, too).Breathless - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link
that they put the hardware together nicely and seem to always screw the pooch on the implementation of their bios's....speedbump99 - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link
try a netbook such as Acer 522, it's got c-60 hdmi and vga out.I play 1080p youtube content at 30-40 % CPU utilization and it was $199, only thing I added was a 4 gig sodimm for $25 as 1 gig that it comes with is useless.
etamin - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link
The silver heatsink must be the Hudson D3, but what is the chip with the two sticker labels on it to its left? Also, how likely will the four USB 3.0 ports coming off the discrete controller be able to provide full bandwidth to all the ports simultaneously? (and same question for the chipset USB 3.0 ports if anyone knows)...I also don't see a 20-pin USB 3.0 header, but I guess it's pretty tought cramming another header onto a mini-itx.vaibhavsagar - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link
The chip is an mPCIe wireless card, you can see the antenna connections leading away from it.Paul Tarnowski - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link
Header is behind the audio ports. You can just make out the black box.Kristian Vättö - Saturday, September 24, 2011 - link
The USB 3.0 controller is most likely using a PCIe x4 slot (all CPU lanes, i.e. 16, are used for the open PCIe slot, one lane for WiFi card), which has a maximum bandwidth of 20Gb/s. Four USB 3.0 ports can theoretically provide 20Gb/s as well, so at least the PCIe shouldn't slow things down. Of course, it depends on the controller as some have higher performance than others.dfghdfshhh - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link
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