Gigabyte releases a new FM1 mini-ITX motherboard
Ryan Martin / 13 years ago
Gigabyte has announced its premium FM1 platform motherboard for the mini-ITX form factor. The GA A75-USB3 is the A75 chipset variant of the Llano platform (the other variant being the A55) and since the A75 is the more expensive chipset it comes with a lot more features which make this board a really good premium HTPC motherboard. Firstly you get the FM1 socket where you can seat up to a quad core 32nm Llano processor with discreet class integrated graphics which no other platform on the market can rival. In addition to that you get two full sized DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32GBs (yes 16GB modules are supported) of 1866MHz memory modules. Power delivery is controlled by a 3+1 Phase VRM which contains driver-MOSFETs. Power inputs from the motherboard are through the usual 24 pin ATX connector and a 4 pin CPU connector.
The AMD A75 chipset gives out four internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and one eSATA 6 Gb/s port on the rear panel. Display outputs include HDMI 1.4a and DVI. Audio is handled by a high-quality Realtek ALC889 HD audio codec which provides 5.1 Channel Audio. It also supports 7.1 channel audio via TOSLINK out or through the HDMI 1.4a output. There is a single Gigabit ethernet port powered by the Realtek RTL8111E PCIe chip. Two USB 2.0 are provided via the rear panel and another two via an internal header. Four USB 3.0 ports are provided on the rear panel by the A75 chipset. The only slightly disappointing feature is the use of a traditional BIOS over the much more user friendly UEFI BIOS, although you still have the feature of booting from 2TB drives or larger.
