ASRock E350M1/USB3 AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD A50M Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

Pros: When I received the board, it came with BIOS v 1.4, The user manual says it is compatible with Windows 7. I check ASRock web site. the latest BIOS version is 1.8, adding support for Windows 8. So I install Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate on it. Update BIOS to v1.8 under Windows 7 like a breeze. I downloaded all drivers for Windows 8 from the motherboard site. Then I installed Windows 2012 Storage Server on it. All devices except video card are reorganized by Windows 2012 automatically . Just install Windows 8 video driver for Windows 2012, Done. BIOS v 1.4 only allows 512MB shared memory for video, but BIOS v1.8 allows 1024MB max. Playing 1080p movies on Windows 2012 is smooth. SATA III and USB3 are big plus for NAS Server.

Cons: Not really, I put 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM, BIOS uses 1333Mhz automatically.

Other Thoughts: Need to run 3 months to see how stable it is.

Pros: This is my first mini-ITX system and I love it. I am running Win 7 64bit with Office 2013 with a 6gb hard drive and it is very responsive. I am very impressed considering this is a fairly low end processor. You cannot beat the price! I was also impressed with the on-board video. It worked just fine. I did have an old 500mb PCI-E Video card that I put in so that it was not sharing the video with the processor but I could not see much difference. I am running it in the COOLER MASTER RC-120A-KKN1 case with the CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 power supply. It all fit very nicely and looks great! When it goes into sleep mode it is completely quite. You cannot beat the price for a really descent running system!

Cons: No USB 3 connectors for front case usb 3 ports. However it does have 1 usb 3 port on the back.

Pros: Low power consumption
Stable
Small Form Factor
Cool Running

Cons: none; we've only been able to build two of these systems, both based on a 120 volt power supply

Other Thoughts: Just what we are looking for. 68-72 Watts total system consumption pushing 32" full LED 1080p TV running a regular DVD(KILL A WATT meter).

Equipment:
1u enclosure
8 GB ram from ASRock tested list
1u PCIe Riser Card
64 GB SSD
500 GB 2.5" 7200 rpm accessory drive for programs, etc
2-Bay sata hot swap
450 watt 1u 120 volt power supply
DVD writer mounted external on 6 foot Sata cable
32" full led backlit 1080p tv for monitor

Pros: -Small, Compact
-Low Price, good deal for the right application
-Detailed BIOS, easy-to-use
-USB 3.0 and HDMI included

Cons: -No software (BIOS) RAID support -- this is kind of my fault for not checking on it from the start, but worth mentioning

-Only has 4x SATA3 ports...which get used up quickly -- again my bad for not thinking it through all the way

-Onboard CPU fan already starting to run louder after a week of use, which is a bit annoying.

Other Thoughts: I bought this to try to "save money" in an attempt to "not go overboard" like I usually would -- this is a good example of why I tend to (and ought to) go overboard. Due to the first two cons I listed above, I am having to upgrade to a different mobo and CPU after about a week of use. (Happily, this solves the problem of the third con.)

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Unfortunately, the mainboard does not support RAID function. For more information, please visit the mainboard specification at link "http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=Specifications&Model=E350M1/USB3 ". For the onboard CPU fan issue, contact us at http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: Works Great as a NAS with 4 drives running Windows 8 and Flexraid for RAID and Storage pooling.

Handles XBMC 1080p just fine. I had to make sure I got the appropriate drivers and set up XBMC's audio options properly, but after all of that it ran smoothly.

I was able to use my E-sata port as a bootable drive (I've had issues with this on some motherboards in the past).

Cons: I wish there was a fifth sata port. In my configuration I have 4 drives in a raid, and one OS drive. My OS drive is connected via Esata with a cable running back into the case.

I wish the fan was just a tad bit quieter. Its not bad, but it could always be better.

Other Thoughts: I decided to build a NAS/HTPC combo. I currently had a Thecus that was getting long in the tooth, and I have a Revo 3700 running XBMC. I wanted to combine those functions onto one box so I bought this mobo.

I just needed to find one with enough Sata ports to make this work as a NAS, and there were a few with 4 ports. There were some with 5 or 6 but they are pretty much discontinued or hard to find from a reputable source at a decent price.

In the end here's my Order from Newegg:

1 x ($139.99) CHENBRO SR30169T2-250 0.8mm SGCC, Hi-PS Pedestal Compact Server Chassis for SOHO & SMB Office 250W $139.99
1 x ($99.99) ASRock E350M1/USB3 AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD A50M Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo $99.99
1 x ($59.99) OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-60G 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $59.99
1 x ($48.99) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL $48.99
1 x ($4.99) BYTECC Model SATA-136EO 36" Serial ATA to e-SATA Cable $4.99

People claim the Asrock Mobo idles at about 30w so I'll be good on the power front, and it's powerful enough to run XBMC with the amount of ports that's just barely doable for me. I bought a 60 Gig SSD drive for Windows and XBMC to run from. I bough an Esata to Sata cable to connect the SSD drive up to the Esata since I only have 4 Sata ports and I plan on connecting up drives to it internally. So there is a cable that runs from the outside esata connector back inside where the PCI slot would go. Since I don't need anything in that slot its not a big deal. I might rig something up for more airflow control, but I'm not to worried about it right now.

The Chenbro case has 4 bays for 3.5" drives and 2 side bays for SSD drives so it's perfect for my needs. It's pretty much a case designed with a NAS in mind. The Fractal Design 304 is another good option I almost went with, but its not as SSD friendly as the Chenbro is. The Chenbro case is a bit loud though imho. I wound up trying to replace the fan for the hard drive, but that wasn't a great enough improvement so I disconnected it altogether.

I already have 4 2TB drives in my Thecus that I reused in this system. I went with Windows 8 X64 because I wanted to play with Storage Spaces which ran pretty slowly so I opted to go with Flexraid instead which is much faster.

Pros: Installed this on customer's PC and it works perfectly.

Cons: none.

Pros: This motherboard is a really low price, not only in comparison to other motherboards of the same type, but also just for the amount of stuff it has on it. The BIOS automatically recognized and overclocked for the 16 GB of 1333 RAM that I plugged into it, and it came with detailed and easy-to-understand instructions and software.

Cons: When I first set it up, I didn't have a hard drive ready, so I was running it off of a Linux pen drive. With that setup, I was having the same problems that a few other commenters had with full-screen video. Now that I'm running Windows 8 on an internal HDD, fullscreen video on 720p youtube videos are pretty smooth with the occasional hiccup, but 1080p is still pretty choppy. I haven't tried any driver upgrades yet, but I'm not particularly worried about it since my setup only involves a 720p screen. if you're using a 1080p setup, you might want to consider more powerful graphics.

Other Thoughts: I wish the maxed-out ram would help the video issues, but for my setup it runs well enough that it's not a huge deal. I'm also only using youtube videos as a reference, so DVDs and Blu-Ray might be a different story. All in all, I'm very satisfied. Since i'm going to be using this computer primarily to draw, it's not going to be the bottleneck on my system. For people using it as an HTPC, it might be more of an issue.

Pros: none

Cons: Received 2 dead boards. No video on either.

Other Thoughts: Better off getting something else.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. AsRock mainboards are fully tested to assure that they're working before shipped. Unfortunately, due to nature of electronic product, it can happen. Sorry to hear both mainboards has malfunctioned. Please check the using memory is in the support list at "http://www.asrock.com/mb/memory/E350M1USB3.pdf " to avoid compitable issue.
If you have any technical questions please contact us at http://www.asrock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.


Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com

Pros: Still early - but the board seems to be doing as advertised. Its a nice little low cost board with bundled CPU. One of the few mini boards I found that had 5 audio I/Os. Should allow me to do a great Car PC using this board as a media server, radio, TV, GPS w/HDMI touch screen control. etc.

Cons: No Win 8 Drivers. My mistake for not checking before I purchased, but I would hope that ASRock would be releasing soon. Their tech support wasn't very helpful, but they confirmed that there were no Win 8 drivers currently, and sadly didn't seem to indicate that there would be any forthcoming. Is this board a dead end?

Other Thoughts: I will need to spend about $40 more to get a Win 8 ready version when you include the cost of the processor.

Pros: Win7 32Bit Running a DMX Lighting Control Software for a Church. Solid processor for low graphic environment. Lighting Control is largely serial data, so graphical needs rarely extend beyond icons in this scale. Made the build affordable and somewhat future-proof, as the software will never be able to run 64Bit OS. BIOS and setup was a breeze, set the machine up onsite and burned it in while running the actual system for a night.

Cons: Should have come with more bitc.hin stickers.

Other Thoughts: I wish there were more options for miniITX format. A lot of systems run so cool now that with a low profile liquid cooler, you don't need a bunch of slots or space...