by Kristian Vättö on 9/22/2011 1:18:00 PM
Posted in Motherboards , ZOTAC , A75

ZOTAC has today released A75-ITX WiFi motherboard. Like the name suggests, this motherboard is based on AMD's A75 chipset and comes in Mini-ITX form factor. Don't let the size fool you though, A75-ITX has an impressive list of features when compared to its size.

ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi
Chipset AMD A75
Socket FM1
Memory Slots 2x DDR3 DIMM
Max Memory 8GB
Memory Speed Up to 1866MHz
PCIe One x16 slot
SATA 4x SATA 6Gb/s
USB 8x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0
Networking Dual Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0
Video Outputs DVI, HDMI, VGA

When you look at the specs, it doesn't lose much to its bigger brothers. The best CPU you can install at the moment is A8-3850 (our review), which is definitely not bad. There is also a full speed PCIe x16 slot (most likely PCIe 2.0), meaning that a high-speed GPU isn't an issue. On top of that, there are eight USB 3.0 ports. The A75 chipset provides only four USB 3.0 ports, which suggests that there is a discrete USB 3.0 controller providing the extra four. 

ZOTAC isn't alone in the A75 mini-ITX market though, at least AsRock has a similar motherboard as well. We reviewed ZOTAC's Z68ITX-A-E WiFi very recently, so that might offer some early thoughts on what to expect from A75-ITX. The suggested retail price is $149 and it will be available next week. 

Source: ZOTAC

A bit pricey... by Andrew.a.cunningham on Thursday, September 22, 2011
But ZOTAC definitely knows its stuff when it comes to ITX boards. I've had two separate ITX boards from them and never had a problem with either.

The problem (and this is just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt) is that AMD's desktop processors aren't particularly well-suited for HTPC/ITX system use - my experience has always been that they need more breathing room than Intel's processors, and AMD doesn't offer much that can compete with the 35W TDP processors that Intel offers.
Andrew.a.cunningham
RE: A bit pricey... by Andrew.a.cunningham on Thursday, September 22, 2011
(Also, that statement ignores Brazos, which seems to be a fine choice for a small system if you want to avoid Atom but don't want to pay for Sandy Bridge.)
Andrew.a.cunningham
RE: A bit pricey... by MonkeyPaw on Thursday, September 22, 2011
Llano isn't actually too bad, thermally. It has the power gating needed to really save energy under everyday load (like with HTPCs). So while you're dropping a high TDP chip in, you really never push it enough to require a big cooler. However, AMD should offer a low TDP FM1 chip. Maybe 45-55w (since it has a GPU, too).
MonkeyPaw
Too bad by Breathless on Thursday, September 22, 2011
that they put the hardware together nicely and seem to always screw the pooch on the implementation of their bios's....
Breathless
htpc by speedbump99 on Thursday, September 22, 2011
try a netbook such as Acer 522, it's got c-60 hdmi and vga out.

I play 1080p youtube content at 30-40 % CPU utilization and it was $199, only thing I added was a 4 gig sodimm for $25 as 1 gig that it comes with is useless.
speedbump99
can anyone identify? by etamin on Thursday, September 22, 2011
The silver heatsink must be the Hudson D3, but what is the chip with the two sticker labels on it to its left? Also, how likely will the four USB 3.0 ports coming off the discrete controller be able to provide full bandwidth to all the ports simultaneously? (and same question for the chipset USB 3.0 ports if anyone knows)...I also don't see a 20-pin USB 3.0 header, but I guess it's pretty tought cramming another header onto a mini-itx.
etamin
RE: can anyone identify? by vaibhavsagar on Friday, September 23, 2011
The chip is an mPCIe wireless card, you can see the antenna connections leading away from it.
vaibhavsagar
RE: can anyone identify? by Paul Tarnowski on Friday, September 23, 2011
Header is behind the audio ports. You can just make out the black box.
Paul Tarnowski
RE: can anyone identify? by Kristian Vättö on Saturday, September 24, 2011
The USB 3.0 controller is most likely using a PCIe x4 slot (all CPU lanes, i.e. 16, are used for the open PCIe slot, one lane for WiFi card), which has a maximum bandwidth of 20Gb/s. Four USB 3.0 ports can theoretically provide 20Gb/s as well, so at least the PCIe shouldn't slow things down. Of course, it depends on the controller as some have higher performance than others.
Kristian Vättö
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