The AM1 Kabini Motherboard Preview: Analyzing the Hardware
by Ian Cutress on April 19, 2014 2:00 PM ESTASUS AM1I-A
The more expensive ASUS Kabini motherboard comes in a smaller form factor and mirrors a lot of the functionality of the bigger sibling. We still have the trio of LPT/TPM/COM headers on the motherboard, although for the AM1I-A another COM port is on the rear panel. There is no extra USB 3.0 controller here, but the DRAM slots use a single latch system and the PCIe 2.0 slot is a true open-ended x4.
Both fan headers are 4-pin, and we again have a Realtek network/audio combination featuring the ALC887 codec for the audio. ASUS has interestingly chosen to place the TPM outside the DRAM slots rather than the SATA ports, with the latter ending up just to the left of the DRAM and above the PCIe slot. Somewhat confusingly while there is a diagram showing the front panel connectors, it ends up being a good inch away from where the front panel actually is.
With this $50 motherboard ASUS offers both PS/2 ports and a full array of four USB 2.0 ports on the back panel. Three video outputs are given (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI), along with the two USB 3.0 ports from the chipset. We get the Realtek ALC887 audio jacks as well.
| ASUS AM1I-A | |
| Price | Link |
| Size | Mini-ITX |
| CPU Interface | FS1b |
| Chipset | Kabini |
| Memory Slots |
Two DDR3-DRAM slots, suporting 32GB Single Channel, 1066-1600 MHz |
| Video Outputs |
VGA (2046x1536 at 60Hz) DVI-D (1920x1200 at 60 Hz) HDMI (4096x2160 at 24 Hz or 1920x1080 at 60 Hz) |
| Onboard LAN | Realtek 8111GR (10/100/1000) |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC887 |
| Expansion Slots | PCIe 2.0 x4 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 2 x SATA 6 Gbps |
| USB 3.0 | 2 x USB 3.0 (Chipset) [back panel] |
| Onboard |
2 x SATA 6 Gbps 2 x USB 2.0 Headers 2 x Fan Headers TPM Header LPT Header COM Header Front Audio Header Front Panel Header |
| Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 4-pin CPU |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x CHA (4-pin) |
| IO Panel |
1 x PS/2 Mouse Port 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port VGA DVI-D HDMI 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 2 x USB 3.0 Ports 4 x USB 2.0 Ports 1 x COM Port Audio Jacks (ALC887) |
| Product Page | Link |
Users may notice that this is the first Kabini motherboard in our line up with a heatsink over the power delivery. This may aid users in warmer climates to prevent the CPU throttling under stress.
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tuxRoller - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
Nvidia's driver's provide performance that is pretty much identical to windows.AMD's is more variable.
From the benchmarks, there looks to be no point in going higher than an nvidia 750.
However, if you're gaming, and you want nice effects, you need that single thread performance.
Flunk - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
It's not like either has a very powerful GPU either. Xbox One is equivalent to a Radeon 7790 and PS4 a Radeon 7850. Plus, you don't have the CPU overhead from DirectX.Tranzz - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
http://semiaccurate.com/2014/04/16/adding-discrete...MonkeyPaw - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
Thanks. I wonder what resolution they were running. It does suggest that you can produce a mostly playable gaming setup for about $200 worth of core components. I wonder if AMD will ever scale Jaguar up even further? 8 cores and dual channel memory could be pretty potent for 50W or so. Might produce more excitement than the FX line.silverblue - Tuesday, April 22, 2014 - link
AMD obviously seems to think that a single, albeit fast, channel is enough to feed a small 'cat CPU. The trouble is, that may have been true for Brazos, but that had two cores and a weaker GPU. It'd be very interesting to see a dual channel Kabini - would it make a difference outside of GPU-based workloads?Mullins also needs a turbo mode, especially if Bay-Trail and its derivatives have one. Being able to ramp up clock speed for a short period of time so that the CPU can return to idle quicker and for longer is one of the reasons why Intel beats AMD for power consumption across the board (regardless of architecture and fab process).
FriendlyUser - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
You really can't beat the price. I am almost looking for an excuse to buy one...wolrah - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
"I never thought I would ever see a socketed motherboard in 2014 ship with a less-than-gigabit Ethernet port."I think we're at a point these days where anything new coming out with 100mbit ethernet or VGA as the primary display interface should be shunned as an outdated-out-of-the-box product.
VGA in particular, I mean who uses VGA? Even the luddites have mostly abandoned their cannonball CRTs, and a VGA-only LCD has always been the realm of idiocy.
harriharris - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
Not defending it myself here or anything... in fact I completely agree, but a lot of business still does. I know my workplace of over 50,000 personnel in a govt agency - every workstation I've sat at in 17 years there has had VGA connected monitors, even now with 16:10 LCDs in most places. They still run XP too... *sigh*xrror - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
Sadly another reason for VGA is if your building(s) with overhead projectors are wired with analog VGA. So for where I work that's maybe... 300 or so rooms rough guess.And while we've talked about changing to some sort of digital connection, fun things like HDMI copy projection, splitting to multiple projectors, etc pretty much skyrocket the already formidable costs.
So I dunno, we can't stay VGA forever (nor do we really want to) but we can't afford to switch. At all. No wonder the media services guy can't wait to retire - and I can't blame him.
tuxRoller - Saturday, April 19, 2014 - link
So, I can't get a board with displayport until we reach $50? Why? Isn't displayport royalty free?My issue is that I've a 1440p auria with both HDMI and do BUT, afaict, the HDMI interface doesn't support more than 1080p.
I really hate the HDMI spec. At least with displayport versions you know what to expect.