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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coolhardware - Monday, April 21, 2014 - link
Sorry for the error on my part, I got the 5150 and 5350 mixed up :-(As per your original post, where did you see that nice 5150 OC? With an ASUS board should the same type OC be possible with the 5350?
Thanks!
yannigr - Tuesday, April 22, 2014 - link
At techpowerup. http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/amd-kabi...But overclocking on this platform is still a big question mark. At Phoronix for example they also tried to overclock ALL the four processors available on the same motherboard and in ALL cases they had stability problems over 105MHz bus speed. So more time is needed to have a definite idea about the overclocking potential on this platform.
As for 5350 I don't know what frequency it can reach. 2100MHz should be easy I guess with just a multiplier change from 20.5 to 21, gut it does make you wonder why AMD didn't gave 5350 the 21 multiplier in the first place.
tech6 - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
The problem with the Kabini platform is that it makes too many sacrifices for too little gain. You can buy an Intel G3220 and an MSI H81M mobo for around $100 and while it may consume 10-15W (on paper) more power it will give you about twice the CPU power.As for real world power consumption, I recently build a G3220 system and even when under 100% max CPU and GPU compute using Hash Suite it never exceeded 60W. Under most everyday loads it used about 40W. Given these numbers it is difficult to make a case for the Kabini platform.
savagemike - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
I was contemplating similarly. I also wonder with the increased compute power if getting to idle quicker doesn't also attack any power savings.yannigr - Monday, April 21, 2014 - link
You gone from $60 to $100. This isn't "too little gain". Also you forget that the Kabini platform does have better graphics. Much better graphics. And I am not talking (only) about performance, but compatibility also.So, if you need cpu power and you have $100 you can go for Intel. But if you want a better balanced solution in gpu-cpu performance and keep $30-$40 in your pocket, Kabinis are the best option.
mikato - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
I agree.Carleh - Tuesday, April 22, 2014 - link
Does the G3220 support hardware accelerated video decoding?It does support quicksync, but I'm not sure if quicksync can be used for hw accelerated video playback in all applications (flash includeed).
I know the G3220 is powerful enough to do all the decoding in software, but I see no point in using software video decoding in 2014.
Chicken76 - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
I remember from the slides that were presented by AMD at launch, that ECC RAM (unbuffered) was supported. Why isn't there a single motherboard that supports it? In it's current form, Kabini is not an option for building a cheap ZFS storage box.Death666Angel - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
Why does the motherboard need to support ECC RAM? I'm pretty sure they are physically identical to normal RAM and since the SoC handles all memory (as with most modern CPUs/APUs), the motherboard has no say in it.Chicken76 - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link
I'm not sure, but if you're not using error correction on a DIMM, do you still need all the traces? They might not have them all in place, to keep costs to a minimum.Besides, you still need BIOS support for ECC.