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The ASRock 350M1 is one of the least expensive AMD Zacate platforms available today. Packing an AMD E-350 APU in its mini-ITX form factor the ASRock for about $110 requires only a power supply, enclosure and RAM to get going. Previously, the Fusion E-350 APU was benchmarked using this platform so this review will be focused primarily on the boards’ features. Read the full story

Many of this site’s readers have large storage requirements due to a focus on centralizing redundant storage for multiple client PCs. One common scenario is streaming video to client PCs. Personally, I use a mix of mainly micro ITX (mITX) platforms as HTPC streaming PCs. My typical configuration involves a mITX motherboard with a low power CPU, on-board GPU capable of accelerating popular video codecs, 4GB of RAM and a solid state drive. In fact, I have moved away from even including optical drives in these configurations because they tend to add cost without much value. Over the past few months, I have tried about twelve different mITX cases from approximately $35 to $150, and have found the Apex MI-100 mITX HTPC case to be a nice mix of value, functionality, size and feature set. To that end, I now own three of them and figured since I get questions about them quite often, I may as well do a short write-up. Read the full story

Although Intel’s Atom CPUs have made a splash in the mini ITX space, many users prefer the small form factor yet want more computing power than the Atom can muster. In response to this need, motherboard manufacturers have started to build standard socket motherboards in small form factors such as mITX.

Over the past decade, features such as video, audio, and network interfaces have moved from occupying expansion slots to being integrated directly on the motherboards. For many users onboard video, audio, and LAN obviate the need for add-on cards in a system. With all of this basic functionality onboard, smaller motherboards have become possible, such as mini ITX. Read the full story

As one would gather from my previous Intel Atom D510 and NM10 post, I am not the biggest fan of the current D510 Atom platform with NM10 chipset. ZOTAC, to its credit, did take a rather mediocre platform and build a solid board around it. The most probable use case is a streaming media HTPC (non h.264) to a legacy 720p display. The nice thing about the ZOTAC offering is that it has quite a few expansion options for a D510/ NM10 based system, and it is ready to go out of the box. Unlike other Intel and AMD platforms, the Atom D510 and accompanying heatsink do not need to be installed by the user. One can literally plug in a display, mouse, keyboard, RAM, storage drive(s), and 20-pin power source and start using the system. As a preview, my end conclusion is that the ZOTAC board is a great choice given the platform, but the Intel platform leaves a lot to be desired. Read the full story