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New ASUS Fusion Zacate Micro-ATX Board Is A Notch Faster
Motherboard major ASUS unveiled a new micro-ATX motherboard based on the AMD E-450 accelerated processing unit (APU), the E45M1-M PRO. This board is nearly identical to the E35M1-M PRO, except of course its faster APU. The AMD E-450 is clocked at 1.65 GHz, a mere 50 MHz jump over the E-350, but the real improvement here is that the GPU core speed that jumps to 600 MHz thanks to TurboCore technology.
Motherboard major ASUS unveiled a new micro-ATX motherboard based on the AMD E-450 accelerated processing unit (APU), the E45M1-M PRO. This board is nearly identical to the E35M1-M PRO, except of course its faster APU. The AMD E-450 is clocked at 1.65 GHz, a mere 50 MHz jump over the E-350, but the real improvement here is that the GPU core speed that jumps to 600 MHz thanks to TurboCore technology.
The E35M1-M PRO is a micro-ATX motherboard measuring 244 x 183 mm. It is powered by AMD E-450 Fusion "Zacate" processor platform, aided by AMD Hudson M1 chipset. The platform offers a wealth of connectivity and performance per Watt for its price. The E-450 APU and Hudson M1 chipset are cooled by a common low-profile heatsink, an optional fan can be attached to it for better cooling. A 3-phase VRM powers the APU, which is goverened by an ASUS EPU chip that works to improve energy efficiency. The APU is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots that support single-channel DDR3 memory with speeds of up to 1333 MHz.
Expansion slots include a PCI-Express 2.0 x16, a PCI-Express x1, and two legacy PCI slots. The PCI-Express slots are wired to the APU. Compared to Intel Atom "Pineview" based desktop boards, this platform provides a wealth of connectivity. The E-450 APU embeds a Radeon HD 6320D graphics processor that's DirectX 11-compliant, and is driven by 80 stream processors. Display outputs include one each of HDMI, DVI, and D-Sub (VGA). In terms of storage, there are no less than five SATA 6 Gbps ports, and one eSATA port with 6 Gbps data-rate.
The Realtek ALC-887 chip used on this board is an 8-channel HD audio CODEC, but it's wired to a 6-channel audio jack cluster. Those seeking 8-channel output can still use the TOSLINK connector, which gives out 7.1 channel optical SPDIF output. Other connectivity includes one gigabit Ethernet connection, two USB 3.0 ports, and a Firewire port apart from a number of USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel, and via internal headers. We don't expect the ASUS E45M1-M PRO to be priced significanly higher than the E35M1-M PRO.
Images credit: ASUS
