Asus E35M1-M Pro AMD Fusion Micro-ATX Motherboard video review

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It uses an EFI BIOS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72KrAO2flN8

http://www.eteknix.com/motherboards/...rd-review-727/

However,the motherboard is quite expensive as it is around £110 to £120 at a few retailers.

[Pob255]

It uses an EFI BIOS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72KrAO2flN8

http://www.eteknix.com/motherboards/...rd-review-727/

However,the motherboard is quite expensive as it is around £110 to £120 at a few retailers.

Not that outrageous, for a motherboard which also has an integrated cpu

I'm really not that impressed by the new EFI bios (that's the same one asus uses on it's socket 1155 boards btw) the basic mode is nice, go into advanced mode, if you look you'll realise it's just the same as a normal bios just more "pretty" looking and with the addition of a mouse cursor. has the exact same functionality and lack of information about functions as and normal BIOS has.
This is what I hate about GUI's companies spend far more time making them look pretty than actually adding functionality or new features.
It's one of the big reasons motherboard manufactures wanted EFI support, to make their products more "distinctive", all form, no function.

[scaryjim]

Perhaps they just haven't had much R&D time to add new functionality yet. These are, after all, the first consumer motherboards with UEFI, and it's not really that surprising that for the first round they've gone with the pragmatic approach of giving users exactly what they're already used. They'll need to spend quite a bit of time working out what users really want from UEFI before they can make big changes, and at the moment the only people likely to even look at the UEFI interface will be enthusiast users who are used to an old-fashioned BIOS. I'm sure that as they work out where the larger potential audiences for UEFI lie they'll start introducing more new features.

[Pob255]

Actually there where some gui based bios's already (eg MSI's ClickBIOS), EFI was pure intel propritary though, UEFI is a more flexable and open format.

What really annoys me about it though is not that it's still fairly new and undeveloped it that the first thing they done is make it look "pretty" and not actually develop it.

It's a bit like if someone brought out a new motherboard but all they did was take an existing one and change the colour of the PCB, sockets and heatsinks.
Granted I much prefer gigabytes current colour scheme over the legotastic old one, but if they are more than just a changed colour scheme.
The fact that one of the given reasons for motherboard manufactures wanting UEFI was the ability to store more data, so more detailed descriptions of all the options in the BIOS you be given, yet it's still got a near total lack of info within it.

PS that reviewer on that youtube video said it's mini-itx factor might of been a slip of the tong but getting something that basic wrong in a review doesn't fill me with confidence.

[scaryjim]

PS that reviewer on that youtube video said it's mini-itx factor might of been a slip of the tong but getting something that basic wrong in a review doesn't fill me with confidence.

I like the two comments on eteknix review:

who uses a 1200watt psu on a sub 50watt system? TRY it with a picopsu90, maybe the power consumption numbers will then be usefull.

The system will only draw as much power as it needs, hence using that power supply with its dual 12v rails.

So, the author doesn't see a problem with running their power draw tests using a PSU at ~ 3% load?!? They think having a PSU with "dual 12v rails" makes a difference to the test?!? Erm..... what?

Also the overclocking test involved no additional cooling beyond the minimal passive heatsink, and throwing the Turbo switch. No surprise that the overclock was... minimal. I'd love to see a proper review of one of these so we can get an impression of how AMDs Fusion chips respond to FSB overclocking: the BIOS had plenty of scope for FSB tuning, by the looks of it...

[Pob255]

All that chunky essex bling on his hand interfering with his brain?

[DanceswithUnix]

I see this is now at Scan for £108.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...board-graphics

I think for £108 in uATX format I would rather underclock an Athlon II

Anyone seen an ITX format board for sale? That is what I am waiting for.

[spac3d]

All that chunky essex bling on his hand interfering with his brain?

lol

[Kalex]

I see this is now at Scan for £108.

I think for £108 in uATX format I would rather underclock an Athlon II

Anyone seen an ITX format board for sale? That is what I am waiting for.

Maybe, 32W idle power consumption is pretty decent though?

[badass]

Maybe, 32W idle power consumption is pretty decent though?

Not at all. My HP Microserver uses 22w at idle. Fusion might be more powerful but it's much newer and on a smaller process so it should be at least as good.

[Halk]

I'm pleased to see this. I've been thinking about it for the server up my loft. I had seen the bells and whistles one that Asus came out with - the one with the rather attractive heatsink/bodyarmour. But it seemed excessive - it had wifi and bluetooth etc whch would never get used.

I'm holding off on buying I think. I'm going to wait until later in the year so that the whole product lineup from the various vendors is available.

The boards don't seem to be directly aimed at home servers, rather at either cheap and cheerful net boxes, or netbooks/laptops.

[watercooled]

I agree the UEFI could have been better, along the line of what others have said I think it would be nice to have a detailed description of what each option is/does when you mouse over it. But it's early days yet, and I'm glad just to see the transition from BIOS to UEFI is now underway, it's long overdue.