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We had the opportunity to preview the Zacate APU late last year at AMD’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. Now we have the first retail motherboard based on the Brazos platform in ASRock’s E350M1. Today we’re asking: what can the Fusion initiative really do?
So, I’m sitting here, benchmarking away on ASRock’s E350M1 motherboard, which is armed with AMD's E-350 APU thinking to myself, “Man, this is a way better experience than any Atom-based configuration I’ve ever tested in Windows 7, but it's not what I was hoping for from the ‘Fusion, Fusion, Fusion’ that AMD keeps chanting.” What are you, anyway?

Are you…an Atom-killer? Are you…able to compete with a desktop architecture? Are you…designed to go heads-up against mobile parts?
Maybe the Brazos platform is just a little bit of each of those. As such, I'm going to throw a pretty wide net for benchmarking against this compact platform with hard-to-define aspirations.


Unquestionably, the most telling specification that helps us classify the AMD E-350 accelerated processing unit (I’ll call it an APU from here on out) on ASRock’s board is its 18 W TDP. That’s decidedly mobile territory—and indeed, AMD told our own Andrew Ku at its preview event last year to expect the E-350 and E-240 APUs to end up in nettops (low-powered desktops) and ultraportable notebooks priced below $500.
Finessed into a Mini-ITX form factor, ASRock’s E350M1 most definitely qualifies for nettop duty. But so do a lot of other different platforms. You can find everything from anemic dual-core 8 W Atom processors to enthusiast-class Core i5s crammed into nettops. The Brazos platform consequently fits somewhere in between.
And so you have to ask yourself a few questions. First, how much performance do you need from a nettop—a system that, by design, is only really intended to do a little Web browsing, a little word processing, and if you’re lucky, a bit of mainstream gaming? How much are you willing to spend? And how important are power consumption/cooling to you?
ASRock's E350M1: AMD's Brazos Platform Hits The Desktop First : Who Are You, Anyway?

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Product Specifications

General

CPU- AMD Dual-Core Zacate E350 APU
- Supports AMD's Cool 'n' Quiet Technology
- UMI 2.5 GT/s

Chipset- AMD A50M Chipset

Memory- 2 x DDR3 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR3 1066/800 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Max. capacity of system memory: 16GB*

*Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® 32-bit OS. For Windows® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.

BIOS- 32Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support
- Supports "Plug and Play"
- ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events
- Supports jumperfree
- SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support
- DRAM, FCH, +1V, +1.8V Voltage Multi-adjustment

Audio, Video and Networking

Graphics- Integrated AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics
- DX11 class iGPU, Pixel Shader 5.0
- Max. shared memory 512MB
- Multi VGA Output options: D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI
- Supports HDMI Technology with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 (1080P)
- Supports DVI with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 @ 75Hz
- Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 2048x1536 @ 85Hz
- Supports HDCP function with DVI and HDMI ports
- Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) / HD-DVD playback with DVI and HDMI ports
- Supports Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio through HDMI port

Audio- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec)
- Premium Blu-ray audio support

LAN- PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
- Realtek RTL8111E
- Supports Wake-On-LAN
- Supports LAN Cable Detection
- Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az

Expansion / Connectivity

Slots- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (blue @ x4 mode) SATA3- 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions
Connector- 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors
- 1 x CIR header
- 1 x COM port header
- CPU/Chassis FAN connector
- 24 pin ATX power connector
- Front panel audio connector
- 2 x USB 2.0 headers (support 4 USB 2.0 ports)
Rear Panel I/OI/O Panel
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Port
- 1 x VGA/D-Sub Port
- 1 x VGA/DVI-D Port
- 1 x HDMI Port
- 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
- 6 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports
- 1 x eSATA3 Connector
- 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
- HD Audio Jack: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

Other Features / Miscellaneous

Unique Feature- Instant Boot
- ASRock Instant Flash
- ASRock AIWI
- ASRock APP Charger
- SmartView
- Hybrid Booster:
- ASRock U-COP
- Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.)

Support CD- Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), ASRock Software Suite (CyberLink DVD Suite - OEM and Trial; Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi MB - Trial)

Accessories- Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
- 2 x SATA Data Cables (optional)

Hardware Monitor- CPU Temperature Sensing
- Chassis Temperature Sensing
- CPU/Chassis Fan Tachometer
- CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan (Allow Chassis Fan Speed Auto-Adjust by CPU or MB Temperature)
- CPU/Chassis Fan Multi-Speed Control
- Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore

Form Factor- Mini-ITX Form Factor: 6.7-in x 6.7-in, 17.0 cm x 17.0 cm
- Solid Capacitor for CPU power

OS- Microsoft® Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista™ / Vista™ 64-bit / XP / XP Media Center / XP 64-bit compliant

Certifications- FCC, CE, WHQL
- ErP/EuP Ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required)


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