Zotac A75-ITX WiFi
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We have collected 4 reviews of the Zotac A75-ITX WiFi. Experts rate Zotac A75-ITX WiFi 8/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the Zotac A75-ITX WiFi and Zotac Motherboards.
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Zotac A75-ITX WiFi Reviews
Zotac A75-ITX WiFi B-series review
The mini-ITX mobo has definitely come of age. In fact, ever since board designers decided to ditch those mobile components that blighted the format so and instead picked the best mainstream desktop components, the tiny format has never looked back. When it comes to mini-ITX boards, Zotac is a major player. It offers boards supporting the latest CPU technology - in Intel and AMD trim - and we've reviewed a number of them, including this board's predecessor. The original A-Series supported AMD's first generation FM1 socket, which in turn supported the original A-series Llano APUs. The A75-ITX WiFi B-Series though offers support for AMD's Trinity APUs using the newer FM2 socket. From the outside, the new board looks identical to the A-Series, but under the skin there are a couple important advancements. The Trinity core brings with it improved Radeon HD7xxx series integrated graphics, and support for DDR3 to speeds of 1,866MHz (depending on the APU). Interestingly, the first A-Series board only supported a maximum 8GB of memory via its two DIMM slots, whereas the quoted maximum for the B-Series board is 16GB.
Zotac A75-ITX WiFi Review
If you're building an HTPC or some other type of streaming media rig, you usually want it to be as small as possible. This will allow you to easily tuck it away out of sight, where it can easily and quietly do its job. One of the best ways to do this is to start off with an ITX form factor motherboard. Zotac, for a while now, has been my all time favorite manufacturer that makes ITX motherboards, so right off the bat I'd recommend using one of its boards. However, you can't just pick up a motherboard and be done with it — you'll need to first decide which CPU you'll use. The ITX form factor comes with a wide range of socket types, as well as some without any socket. For some, an integrated CPU like the Intel Atom or VIA Nano would work fine. Others will want to be able to pick and choose which processor they'll be able to use. If you find yourself fitting into the latter category, I'd recommend using an AMD APU as a great budget option. Today will be looking at just that — a Zotac A75 ITX motherboard that will be powered by an AMD A8 3850 APU. The Zotac A75-ITX WiFi is priced on Newegg at $139.99, which is almost exactly the cost of the AMD A8 3850 APU.
Zotac A75-ITX WiFi Motherboard
With the introduction of a new socket for AMD’s Llano processors came new motherboards to support the chips. These chips are fast, cheap, low power, and run cool. Sounds perfect for an home theater PC (HTPC) right? So you would think that with this “perfect” HTPC processor there would be a slew of small, HTPC-oriented motherboards to compliment them. But you would be wrong. The AMD A-series CPUs have been out for over three months now and yet you can count the number of mini-ITX boards that support them on one hand. Here to fill that void is Zotac with their A75-ITX WiFi motherboard. This mini-ITX form factor board screams HTPC the second you look at it. Everything from its size to its built in WiFi capabilities seem tailor-made to be sittings next to your TV. But will its outward appearance reflect its actual performance? The A75-ITX comes in a small, black, high gloss box with basic information on the front and a picture of the board, a small list of features, and a short product overview on the back. The side of the box displays the full feature list.
Zotac A75-ITX WiFi review
Zotac is really making a mark for itself as a motherboard manufacturer, especially in the small form factor arena, and this Zotac A75-ITX WiFi certainly looks to continue that trend.We checked out the Z68-ITX WiFi a little while back and its combination of packed PCB and impressive performance made it an incredibly interesting prospect for a wee Intel Sandy Bridge machine.More suited to the smaller PC though is AMD's Llano APU. In a form factor where space is at a premium having decent graphics power on-chip makes for a well-rounded machine in a very tight space. Intel's Sandy Bridge may also have integrated graphics but that hardly gives you much power beyond a little light media play and standard web-crawling. The Llano APUs though have discrete-class graphics prowess, maybe not of the high-end calibre, but certainly far better than anything we've seen before.So what compromises have been made to the A75 platform to squeeze it down into this small form factor? You can see from the results below the CPU component of the Llano APU is being hobbled by the motherboard itself. In both the Asus ATX and MSI mATX boards the chips perform far better at straight, traditional CPU tasks.
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Zotac A75-ITX WiFi : (8/10)
4 expert reviews
0 user reviews
