Project Lil’ Fusion – Code name Zacate Light

The look is very clean. Again, I would not use the slot stabilizer and lower the overall profile. I am using a USB 3.0 card (this MSI mobo did not have USB 3.0 but most other Zacate boards do) so I need to keep the slot. Since this is a test bench I will use the slot for additional card testing.

All done. Flash made it look pink. Ugh.

I will get a couple new black SATA cables from Fry’s this weekend.

Performance

The Windows Experience Index was good for this type of motherboard. Although the CPU score was the lowest, it still has enough pep for most desktop applications and HD streaming. The graphics had a better score due to the Fusion APU.

Once Windows was loaded I updated all of the drivers, SP1 and made a backup to my WHS. I also installed the WHS Media Center connector and installed the HDHomeRun software.

The CPU was running about 47°C during load testing. Not too bad considering the case is open and the garage temp was around 70°F.

The watts at the wall varied between 35 and 40. This is a sweet spot for small HTPCs but you could probably lower the wattage by another 10% with a laptop drive and a more efficient PSU.

The noise was not bad. The loud Hitachi drive also contributed to the dB of 50.4.

Streaming from my WHS v1 was great. I ran 1080 recorded TV, video TS movies and HDHomeRun Quick TV and they were clear without stutter or freezing. I will eventually add a Blu-Ray drive to this build and will update the post.

Conclusion

Overall I am impressed with the Fusion board. These boards run about $30 more than the Atom dual cores but with the Fusion APU technology you definitely get much better playback and WMC response. The AMD Zacate performed well and the power consumption remained very low.

The slot works fine with a USB 3.0 card or similar add-on that only requires x1 or x4. The PCI Express slot only gives you x4 performance but you would not be adding a graphics card to this motherboard anyway. I bought this board for the APU graphics so no need for a discreet GPU. If you are considering an Atom based board I would give the AMD Zacate a serious look.