Many ITX enthusiasts are still hoping for a Z68-based ITX motherboard from ASUS. Whether or not that will happen is still a matter of speculation, but for those who are waiting for an AMD solution for their mini ITX build, ASUS has released the specs for its upcoming FM1 Llano mini-ITX board, the F1A75-I.
The ASUS F1A75-I is Asus has packed plenty of features onto this board. Starting with the AMD A75 chipset and the FM1 socket for the new Llano APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), they have also included support for two 240-pin DDR3-1866 memory modules.
The F1A75-I comes with the necessary PCI-Express x16 slot so you can augment the built in HD6000 series graphics with Radeon Dual Graphics mode. Drive connectivity is handled by four SATA III 6Gbps ports (with RAID) and an external eSATA III port. Other connectivity features include four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel and two more via header. USB 2.0 is also offered via four rear panel ports and two midboard via header. Network connections are handled be either 802.11n WiFi or gigabit Ethernet Bluetooth connectivity is also supported.
Display options include DVI, HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. 8-channel HD audio is supported and the board includes and optical SPDIF port on the rear panel.
ASUS has packed a lot of features onto this mini-ITX motherboard. Even without a dedicated graphics card, the F1A75-I should make a capable mini-ITX gaming machine. Of course, we’ll have to get our hands on one to find out for sure. Until then, check out the full list of features and see how they stack up against other mini-ITX offerings.
UPDATE: It also appears that ASUS has previewed a second version of this board with a few less features. The F1A75-I appears to have many of the features as the Deluxe version, but lacks the built-in WiFi and the USB 3.0 headers. We’ll update you further once the details are clear.