PowerColor Changes Its Tune with mini-ITX AMD Brazos Motherboard

At CES 2011, quite a few unexpected things happened, like certain companies revealing products they don't usually deal in, and PowerColor seems to have become one of these hardware makers, having released a mini-ITX motherboard.

Since Advanced Micro Devices released its Fusion-based APUs, quite a few platforms and systems based on it have shown up.

As far as motherboards go, several mini-ITX models for industrial applications or HTPCs have already been unveiled by companies like Sapphire, MSI and Gigabyte, among others.

Now, even though it doesn't often unveil things other than video cards and related products, PowerColor also delivered such a motherboard.

According to TechPowerUp, the product is powered by AMD's Brazos platform but has not yet been given a name.

The APU (accelerated processing unit) employed in this case is the Zacate E-350, the same one used in the other mini-ITX boards so far revealed.

It is a dual-core processors with a clock frequency of 1.60 GHz and designed with the AMD Radeon HD 6310 built-in graphics, which supports DirectX 11.

The board has a pair of DDR3 SODIMM memory slots as well, compatible with notebook memory, while a single PCI Express 2.0 x4 expansion card lets one insert an extra video board should they so choose.

PowerColor went ahead and implemented a 24-pin ATX connector, four STA 3.0 Gbps ports (for SSDs or HDDs) and a pair of USB 3.0 connectors in addition to the obligatory USB 2.0.

Furthermore, 8-channel HD audio with optical SPIDF is present, as is Gigabit Ethernet, a D-Sub output and DVI.

Office PCs and entry-level home systems are the ones that such platforms should be used in. Unfortunately, no pricing or availability details are known so far.

What remains to be seen is what happens when this product clashes with its aforementioned rivals, and whatever other mini-ITX boards arrive in the future.