Is a high-end FM1 board worth buying? Let’s have a look at what Asus has to offer.
The Board
The board carries the usual Asus color, what I like about this one are the less bulky heatsinks.
Heatsinks aside, there’s also a lot of space around the FM1 socket but the CPU 12V socket location could’ve been better, I prefer it to be nearer to the I/O ports than the socket.
Besides 4 DIMM slots, there are also switches to toggle TPU and EPU feature which I think are useless.
I like it however that at RM 400, this board comes with RAID support and ample SATA3 slots.
CrossfireX is support but for A75 unfortunately, it’s limited to X16 / X4.
Lower range graphic card CFX setup could be alright but to what I remember, I once had a graphic card drop to x4 and I could sense the framerate reduced.
I think the beauty of the board is the host of I/O available. I’ve always liked board that come with onboard VGA, plenty helpful when the graphic card decides to kick the bucket.
While most manufacturers are phasing out the PS/2 port, I’m surprised to see it still appearing on this model.
More details of the board at the official product page
Conclusion
Being an ASUS board, it comes with AI Suite II – a software that people have mixed feelings about. 🙂 I like the software but I’ve not had good experience with it when it comes to uninstallation (is there such a word?)
I tried the AI Suite II for this setup and it worked well, AMD A8-3850 Review. At stock speed the video encoding was 9 minutes 33 seconds, and on 3.16Ghz it was 9 minutes 3 seconds. I got rid of the AI Suite II after that.
*Earlier on I thought the OC made the processor went backwards in performance, this was a mistake. I ran the video encoding test after I uninstalled the AI Suite II, without checking the speed. Apparently it was still at 3.16Ghz, the performance was improved when AI Suite II wasn’t present. Darn hogger.
That said – unless you have an AMD APU (those processors on FM1 socket) and are looking to upgrade your existing board for AI Suite II assisted overclocking, CrossfireX, additional USB, RAID setup then I think this board is recommended for you. For new APU setup with no specific requirement then perhaps consider the F1A55-M model instead.
Good board but I find it hard to give it a RECOMMENDED award because I find the FM1 setup is already of a niche, a very minor one at best. A board that costs RM 400 would hardly justify it. 🙁
I did not like the smell of these new Asus boards. The worst smell seems to emanate from the PS/2 connector. It is hard to describe the smell – something between the smell of an ant and a ripe durian.