ASUS E35M1-M Pro Review - Anyone For Fusion?
by Brendan van Varik on October 25, 2011 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Asus
- Motherboards
- Fusion
- E-350
Board Features
ASUS E35M1-M Pro | |
Market Segment | HTPC |
CPU Interface | FT1 BGA |
CPU Support | Fusion |
Chipset | Hudson-M1 (A50M) |
Memory Slots |
Two DDR3 DIMM Maximum 8 GB Non-ECC Unbuffered |
Expansion Slots |
1 x PCIe x16 (x4 speed) 1 x PCIe x1 2 x PCI |
Onboard |
5 x SATA 6 Gbps Ports 1 x USB 3.0 header 4 x USB 2.0 headers 2 x Fan Headers 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector 1 x SPDIF Out Connector |
Onboard LAN | Realtek® 8111E PCIe Gigabit LAN controller |
Onboard Audio |
ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC Supports DTS Surround Sensation Ultra-PC |
Power Connectors |
24-pin ATX Power Connector 4-pin 12V CPU Power Connector |
Fan Headers |
1 x CPU (3-pin) 1 x CHA (3-pin) |
IO Panel |
1 x PS/2 Port 2 x USB 3.0 4 x USB 2.0 1 x HDMI 1 x D-SUB 1 x DVI 1 x eSATA 6 Gbps 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 3 x Audio Jacks |
BIOS Version | 0506 |
Warranty Period | 3 Year |
With regards to the networking and sound processors, ASUS have used the Realtek solutions. It is normal to see the Realtek chips onboard on a motherboard within this price range, but ASUS do occasionally use the Intel solutions on their higher end motherboards.
In The Box
2x SATA 6 Gbps cables
IO shield
1x CPU fan
Users guide
Driver DVD
No USB 3.0 bracket has been supplied but instead of the two SATA 6 Gbps cables which the manual stated, we received four cables in the box.
Software
As the software found with this board has been covered by both Ian in his ASUS P8Z68 Pro review and by me in the ASUS P8P67 review, I will just give you a quick run through. The software installation was easy - you have the choice to install all of the software which comes on the DVD or you can install each individual driver as you please. In our case, all of the drivers were installed in order to allow for a fair test.
From within the ASUS Suite II, you can overclock your system, change and apply fan settings, monitor temperatures and voltages, change the power saving settings to your requirements as well as being able to update the BIOS. There are no issues with this software from what I can see.
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C300fans - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
It is a good one, huh? Perfect for HTPC.C300fans - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
However, G530+H61 would be another choice, or I could say, a better option.spaceyyeti - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
I got this thing combined with 4 gigs of ram, a crucial m4 and a damn silent be quiet! power supply. Installed linux on it and BAM; you got yourself a snappy and silent desktop/htpc with a "can do" attitude. I don't think a SB Pentium is going to give you anything extra that can justify the noise compared to this little f*cker. Hehehe.C300fans - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
SB pentium can offer much better CPU performance.spaceyyeti - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
that's obvious. but if you compare functionality, fusion is the better option imo. SB pentium might be the faster cpu, but the gpu in fusion handles movies a bit better as far as I know. and pentium is not that much faster to justify the noise, heat and power use. to be honest, you better get an i3 2100 or so, not that more expensive and a way better cpu. anything else in this segment is a waste of money. waddayou think?HakkaH - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
dunno where you can get an i3 and mobo at the same price though here it's impossible.Besides that Ati has one gigantic plus for HTPC enthousiasts. It can pass through full 5.1 audio through the HDMI connection. Intel lacks this option.
It's strong enough to be used as a home server as well. It's not that you'll crunch with it 24/7.
Really I found the AMD Brazos platform to be far more versatile than many think. I use it as a small webserver for my own photo portofolio and testbed for new stuff, my HTPC uses and various other things.
Just know the boundaries of the platform as in It's not a CPU monster and you'll find the Brazos platform to have a lot more than many probably think. I'm at least very happy with it which explains that I have now both an E35M1-Pro for almost half a year and an Lenovo Thinkpad X121e.
ven - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
I wish there is no clashes between Intel and Nvidia.Bless the ION.combination of best&best Intel will take care of x86 & media encoding and decoding will taken care by Nvidia.Taft12 - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
No passive cooling = no thanks.SB is not appropriate for HTPC.
C300fans - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
IMO, you can undervoltage the SB celeron or pentium so as to use passive cooling. SB celeron is much cheaper than this APU.spaceyyeti - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
okay, interesting. I like your style.but what about intel's problems with some video playback?
how much is the passive cooler going to cost?
how low do you have to go performance-wise?
but, most of all; the average user will not be capable of this kind of system tweaking.
but I really do like the idea! sounds like a fun way to get through a boring sunday.