Gigabyte E350N-USB31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

Very recently we managed to place our grubby hands on the Asus E35M1-M PRO motherboard; one of the first of many to include the new AMD Fusion “Zacate” 18W Dual Core processor. As you can see, our overall verdict about the platform itself was fairly straight forward. Great GPU performance for general purpose, a processor that is a reasonable amount faster than the existing Atom range and acceptable Power Consumption/Thermal Characteristics to boot. However we did have some reservations about the motherboard itself in that it was of thee larger Micro ATX form factor. Lets be honest here. We are dealing with an embedded system that is designed to suit small chassis configurations, so why bother with mATX? Thankfully another AMD Fusion motherboard has arrived, which could well be what many of you are after. Ladies and gentlemen, the Gigabyte E350N-USB3.

Motherboard Model	Gigabyte E350N-USB3
Form Factor	Mini ITX
Processor Support	AMD E350 1.60GHz Dual Core Processor (Embedded)                              Â
Chipset	AMD Hudson M1
Overclocking Support	Yes
Memory	2 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB 1333/1066 DDR3
Expansion Slots	1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 bandwidth)
Multi-GPU Support	No
Onboard Video	CPU Embedded HD 6310
Storage	M1  4 x SATA 6.0Gb/s
LAN	Gigabit LAN
Audio	Realtek ALC892 7.1
USB	4 x USB 2.0 (4 x Back, 4 x Internal) 2 x USB 3.0 REAR
Firewire	2 x 1394 (1 x back, 1 x internal)
Video I/O	DVI, HDMI, VGA

The E350N USB3 follows a similar specification set to the previously reviewed E35M1-M PRO. Naturally due to its Mini ITX form factor, it does lack a little in the expansion slot department, however with a single x16 size slot, 4 x SATA 6.0Gb/s and plenty of USB ports, you would be crazy to complain. That said, the inclusion of integrated 802.11x WiFi would have really hit the spot.

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A Closer Look…

 

Exciting no? Gigabyte certainly think so, flamboyantly boasting the E350N’s “333” feature set of USB 3.0, high speed charging for Apple iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch and of course full SATA 6.0Gb/sec through its four RAID compliant ports.

    

Inside you will find a fairly standard accessory set – I/O shield, Driver CD, 2 x SATA cables and a fairly comprehensive manual.

Let’s cut to the chase and show you the product itself. Unlike the new Gigabyte P67 lineup, motherboards such as these do not feature the updated black colour scheme. Needless to say however, the E350N USB3 is far from revolting…as far as inanimate electronic components are concerned anyway.

    

The board layout itself is usable enough. SATA cables are not particularly accessible with an expansion card fitted however those with the foresight to connect redundant cables in advance will not be troubled by this.

All in all there seems to be a sufficient number of I/O interfaces all round however as we had mentioned earlier, integrated WiFi and even Bluetooth would have been the icing on the cake. Particularly when 802.11n is common in many homes now and Gigabyte convenience features such as proximity hybernate (a feature, that puts your computer to sleep once your phone is out of range) command an external bluetooth adapter.

Note that Gigabyte have done away with e-SATA. We expect a number of manufacturers to follow suit on space saving boards such as these. Really, with two 5.0Gb/sec USB3 ports in place, you are unlikely to miss it.

    

Naturally with a motherboard of this size, there are size constraints to adhere to when designing its heatsink module. The end result is a fairly spartan solution, with a low density arrangement of fins and a 40mm fan that has left us rather concerned. How noisy could it be? Lets find out.

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Testbed

AMD Fusion E350 APU
Gigabyte E350N USB3
G.Skill Flare RAM @ DDR3-1333 7-7-7-20
XFX Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5
Samsung Spinpoint F1 320GB Hard Disk Drive
BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 750W PSU

 

BIOS

 

    

Unlike the E35M1-M PRO, this little Mini ITX wonder misses out on EFI BIOS support. This means no GUI for you prospective buyers, however in all honesty…does it matter?

The BIOS contains just about all that anyone might need. Aside a basic set of overclocking parameters, boot priority/onboard device information and live temperature/voltage data, Gigabyte also include a convenient BIOS update tool known as Q-Flash.

 

Temperature & Noise

At its worst, the 40mm fan of doom was rotating at around 3000RPM. This was not particularly bad and even though it wasn’t silent, there was hardly any motor noise. It may have been a lapse of concentration however during the testing phase I had pressed the power toggle button on our testbed only to realise that the E350N USB3 was actually powered on already. The end result was foolishly shutting the machine down amidst a 90 minute PC Mark Vantage run. Sheer idiocy and fatigue aside, you should take this as a sign that Gigabyte’s active cooling solution is nowhere near as bad as it may appear.

The temperatures are alright as well with highs of just 55c.

Power Consumption

 

From a Power Consumption perspective, the E350N USB3 was in line with the previously tested Asus E35M1-M PRO. Fairly acceptable.

Overclocking

 

This particular sample may have been able to beat the E35M1-M PRO’s max bootable base HTT of 110 with a max of 115MHz, we experienced OS crashes from as little as 108-110MHz. We eventually found a stable max of 105MHz; hardly worth the trouble,

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