ASRock E350M1 Fusion Review

The E350M1 Fusion board is a good release from ASRock. On a performance level it is comparible with the Sapphire Pure Fusion Mini 350 which we reviewed in February although the model we reviewed today is supplied without USB 3.0 support.

When we compare the new APU design against AMD's last generation Turion X64 X2 L510 at the same clock speed, the E350 is significantly faster. The Intel Atom D525 struggles to keep up with either, even with a clock advantage and hyperthreading enabled.

While the ASRock E350M1 product is a good performer, we can't help but compare it against the Asus E35M1-I Deluxe, which not only offers USB 3.0 connectivity, but is passively cooled, and therefore completely silent. The Asus board can accept DDR3 memory at up to 1600mhz which is well above AMD's official guideline ratings. We also managed to overclock the Zacate E350 processor to around 1.9ghz on the ASUS board.

While this might affect how we score the ASRock E350M1, it is important to bear in mind the price point achieved. The Asus E35M1-I Deluxe for instance is £140 in the United Kingdom while the ASRock board can be picked up for £75, which is almost half the price. In this case the Asus board offers a lot more, but you end up digging deeper into your wallet.

For those people looking for a no frills, low power system for general duties, or High Definition media playback, the ASRock E350M1 offers a tempting, high value for money package.

System Cost:
ASRock Motherboard = £75
250GB 2.5 inch hard drive = £30
Kingston DDR3 Memory = £50
Thermaltake Element Q case = £50
Total System price = £205

Pros:

• lowest priced Fusion board we have tested
• great performance for very little power requirement
• generates minimal noise
• great improvement on last generation
• faster than Atom platform

Cons:

• overclocking options are very limited
• memory support maxed at 1066mhz
• not passively cooled
• lacks USB 3.0 support

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