ASUS C60M1-I AMD Fusion APU C-60 (1.0GHz, dual core) AMD Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

Pros: This board is perfect for a NAS setup. It's cheap, and puts out no noise. The 6 SATA ports make for an easy hook up of drives without needing an add-on card. That saves the expansion port for a NIC, which allows me to use this as a firewall as well.

With 5 HDDs and a SSD this thing pulls under 60W! Peaks at 120W for me when spinning the drives up at first, but once they're moving it's very efficient.

Cons: Low clock speed limits it's use, but not for my needs.

Pros: None

Cons: I received 1 DOA from Newegg. Got a replacement RMA, that one was DOA too. Returned for good and bought an Asrock instead. Too bad, the passive cooling and 6 SATA ports on this one would have been better.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that the replacement board from newegg was also DOA. Thank you for choosing ASUS as your motherboard supplier.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey

Pros: Fantastic, lots of sata connections, just the right amount of power for a NAS and Media Center. I have Archlinux running with a software raid and XBMC, and this thing has been able to play every single video I have thrown at it (including a 13GB mkv wrapped in a rar file).

Cons: CPU Not powerful enough to decode movies without the onboard video - ie you need to make sure AMD video card drivers are installed and video acceleration is enabled, otherwise you will get low framerates.

I also don't like the newfangled bios, sometimes it isn't obvious that you need to scroll down for additional options, but thats really a preference.

HDMI Out would be nice. Optical Audio out would also be nice.

Other Thoughts: Perfect for a behind the TV computer, since it doesn't require fans, it can take quiet a few hard drives and with enough video processing to play hi-def movies. My TV has an HDMI port labeled DVI that also has an external audio port. So I go Computer->DVI->HDMI->TV, then run the audio separately. Its a great setup, would highly recommend.

Pros: Low power, dual core, 64 bit APU. passively cooled
It works as a Zenoss server for my home network, runs CENTOS 6.3 without issue or fuss.

Cons: Low clock rate, but it works for the load. I knew that going in.

Other Thoughts: If you don't need a dreadnought computer, then this could be for you. I was thinking more of an appliance type computer and it is doing the job for that. Yes, I would buy it again if I needed to.
"Passively Cooled" Well it is in an Antec ISK case with two Arctic Cooler fans blowing right across the mammoth heatsink. I guess that you would not need that, but if you are going to engineer a system, then you might as well OVER engineer it.

Pros: This is a neat little board, low power consumption and decent power. With 8gigs of RAM and 9500GTS this thing can power 3 screens, stream video across all three, and stay relatively cool at the same time. Very pleased with the purchase!

Cons: The only 'real' con is the performance of the CPU, at 1.0 GHtz, you are bottle-necked in overall performance, however it makes up for this in other features. (i.e. GUI BIOS, 6 SATA ports, PCI-E 2.0 x4)

Other Thoughts: This is a great little board with a lot of potential, with a SSD and 8gigs of RAM this thing is a great multimedia machine with few drawbacks. I will probably be purchasing more of these in the future.

Pros: Small
Passively Cooled
Very Efficient
Plenty of SATA connections

Cons: The CPU is the bottleneck on the system running FREENAS. I may end up upgrading the CPU if possible.

Other Thoughts: Great board, but I'm currently pegging 40 mbs tops for a transfer connection.

Pros: *Innexpensive,
*6 6gbps SATA ports,
*Extremely low power use,
*Extremely small,
*While having 2 standard ddr3 ports,
*Great ASUS BIOS,
...

Cons: Limited CPU but expected, if 100% satistied.

Other Thoughts: Ubuntu minimal 64bit + Ajenti + Samba + Transmission on the main server (6 2tb WD greens) (OS on usb thumb drive)
Freenas with ZFS for backups of the other server (6 2TB WD Greens)(OS on usb thumb drive)

Will build 2 more with 4tb drives instead since my 12tb pool is full

Pros: Inexpensive, 6x6Gb/s SATA ports, passive cooling, plenty of USB ports, supports reasonable amounts of RAM

Cons: Very low-end CPU

Other Thoughts: Using in my "micro-Thumper" project with 4x3TB disks and an SSD for O/S and given the total price (~$800) and powerdrain (~45W idle) I'm very pleased with it. Openindiana supported.

BIOS is GUI and super-easy to update.

The C-60 CPU is essentially a C-50 with 33% turbo (good) and better graphics (irrelevant to me) from '11, so it's circling the drain.

Pros: Low Power Consumption, Brilliant HD / Blu-Ray Video Playback, 6 SATA ports & PCIE port for added graphics horse power, UEFI BioS.

Web Surfing, Hulu Streaming, work nicely on Win7 & 2GB ram. Excellent NAS / Home Media server.
Idle's about 45c, HD Video Playback maxed @ 53c. Excellent.

Cons: No HDMI - so, you'll need a video card for that. As I purchased a DVI to HDMI adapter that did work, but no audio was available, so it defeated the purpose.

Other Thoughts: 26w Idle w/ 6 WD Green HDD's!! 26 WATTS!!! During HD Video Playback, 34w. Unfortunately I had to add my MSI HD5450 (15w TDP) video card so I could use the HDMI out for my Sony 50in LCD TV. As the adapter just couldn't cut it. I wanted full screen resolution & audio so I had no choice. Power usage was still impressive with 42w Idle & 49w during play back. Still acceptable, I may splurge for the HDMI version at a later date so I can save that 15 watts by removing the HD5450. I was loving knowing I had a full server running on less power than a 40w light bulb! Teamed with the infamous Lian Li PC-Q08 Mini ITX case this build is perfect! Excellent!!

Pros: + Has bus ("APU") frequency control and memory dividers. Also contains CPU, NB, APU, and chipsets voltage. The chip doesn't seem to respond all that well to frequency bumps, but I was able to get a boost to 1.25GHz without even trying. Even after OC, doesn't surpass 25C above ambient.
+ 6 (!) SATA 6GB/s ports.

Cons: - Realtek NIC! Ordered an Intel NIC and disabled the onboard one right away.
- Getting the UEFI to work in Linux is a nightmare. Admittedly, I'm new to UEFI, but I had to copy the GRUB EFI image to /boot/efi/shellx64.efi, find a rather-hidden "boot from EFI shell option" in the BIOS, 'modprobe efivars' once in, and then use efibootmgr to use the GRUB boot image by default. UEFI is awesome and all, but the limitations of the MBR aren't looking so bad anymore...