14 DAY TRIAL // Until some years ago, personal computers didn't exactly come in many shapes and sizes, but as technology evolved and components got ever smaller, more compact PCs started to show up on the market, even consolidating into product lines such as that of Home-Theater PCs. Needless to say, this type of system relies on more or less specially-made platforms and cards. Knowing this, Gigabyte put its skills to good use and brought forth the GA-D525TUD, a mini-ITX board that delivers the benefits of Intel's Atom platform.
As consumers may expect, the product's 2oz copper PCB (printed circuit board) sticks to the blue theme that its maker has come to be known for. Gigabyte also made a point of implementing the Ultra Durable 3 design, for an added level of reliability and stability. The most important aspect about this board is its support, and even integration, of the Atom D525 central processing unit. This chip is not only a dual-core product, but even supports high-speed DDR3 memory, unlike previous-generation Atoms that settled for DDR2.
Eager to make the best of the memory support, Gigabyte gave the board a pair of DDR3 memory slots, and this should let even small form factor PCs or HTPCs achieve a fairly decent performance level. Other specifications include two SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors, Gigabit Ethernet, an IDE port, a PCI slot, 7.1 channel audio (for ultimate immersion during video playback) and a DualBIOS. Finally, the motherboard even integrates a D-Sub output, for using the CPU integrated graphics.
“GIGABYTE GA-D525TUD is designed to unleash the power of the new Intel Atom processor D525 which supports the new revolutionary two–chip layout. Featuring the Intel 45nm Atom Dual-Core D525 processor integrated and DDR3 memory supported provides an easy-to-use flexibility and cost effective platform. Enhanced with all solid capacitors design, GA-D525TUD brings small yet powerful and stable platform,” the product page states.
ASUS has already set up the official product page for this motherboard on its website and the product is already selling for as little as 77.56 Euro.