GIGABYTE F2A85XN-WiFi Review: FM2 and Richland in mini-ITX
by Ian Cutress on August 21, 2013 10:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE F2A85XN-WiFi Conclusion
Building a mini-ITX FM2 based system results in less than a handful of choices when it comes to motherboards, all around a hundred dollars or less. At this price point, and for the size of the motherboard, each SKU available for sale comes with a different physical setup and as a user it means that it all depends on the setup you plan to have. GIGABYTE’s main selling point with the F2A85XN-WiFi is the dual band 802.11b/g/n WiFi itself, as well as using higher quality VRMs in their power delivery and AMD Wireless Display support.
Obviously when deciding on FM2, one of the big selling points of the platform is the integrated graphics, meaning users going along a discrete GPU path will end up not using that IGP, unless a non-IGP CPU is used (Athlon X4 760K). This is where mini-ITX comes in, as it reduces the extra GPU space that comes with an ATX or mATX size. There is a small reduction in other features as well that comes with the size – for example we have only four of the eight SATA 6 Gbps that the A85X chipset affords.
GIGABYTE’s other main selling point is also the use of two HDMI ports on the rear IO, suitable for multi-monitor on the IGP. For the BIOS and software, while we have the older classic mode and EasyTune6, users of other GIGABYTE motherboards should be familiar with these setups. Should GIGABYTE decide to release a mini-ITX FM2+ model alongside their current A88X announcement, I would hope the new EasyTune this would be part of the equation.
The F2A85XN-WiFi sits vicariously on the edge of Kaveri, with FM2+ motherboards and APUs expected sometime Q4 2013/Q1 2014. However if a user needs an AMD APU based A85X WiFi motherboard for a small build, GIGABYTE’s overclock performance on the F2A85XN-WiFi offers a promising solution.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
31 Comments
View All Comments
DanNeely - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - link
Every time I look at the ultra-crowded layout of an mITX board I'm reminded of how dated the main 24 ATX power plug is and how much it would benefit from being replaced. While they were king in the p1 era with the CPU and PCI busses running on 3.3v directly and most other chips on the board designed for 5V; 3.3 and 5V are barely used at all any more but have 3 and 5 wires in the 24pin cable; while -5V has been removed entirely from modern versions of the spec. Dropping to a single 3.3/5v wire and removing the -5v one would free 7 pins directly; and with only 4 power pins left in the legacy connector (3.3, 5, 2 x 12) there's no need for 8 ground pins either. Probably we could drop 5 of them.This would allow for a successor cable that's only half as large; freeing space on crowded boards and replacing the 24wire cable with a 12 wire one that would be much less of a pain to route in a crowded case. I'm inclined to keep the CPUs 12V separate just to avoid trading one overly fat wire bundle for another and because AIUI the other half of why the CPUs 12V comes in separately is to get it as close to the socket as possible without crowding the area with everything else.
EnzoFX - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - link
Yes, I've been saying this since ITX was taking hold. It is absurd how held back we are by entrenched standards. It's not in their business to reinvent.Jambe - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
I enjoyed this astute observation-comment.Right on.
That is all.
cjs150 - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Totally agree on the ATX cable.While we are at why do motherboards virtually never come with the ATX connector being at right angles rather than straight up - we get that for SATA connectors and it seriously improves cable management
flemeister - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Not such a good idea for mITX boards, when you might expect to install them in small cases such as the Antec ISK110 or Minibox M350. Right-angled ATX power or sata ports would be blocked off.How about RAM though? Why not use SO-DIMMs that are about 60% the size of regular DIMMs? They're readily available, and are priced the same or very close to the price of regular size RAM. Assuming two sticks of RAM, that would save even more room on the motherboard than a redesign of the 24-pin connector. Just look at the Asus P8H67-I Deluxe for an example. :)
DanNeely - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
It's not just mITX boards that would have a problem with right angled ATX power sockets. Unless the PSU also included a right angle 24pin cable it would be problematic in any case that uses cable management holes to route the cables behind the mobo tray. Trying to make a 90* bend in that cramped a space would put a lot of torque on the socket; a big ugly loop sticking up allows for a much looser and less stressful bend.DanNeely - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
For dimm sizes I think it's mostly a capacity issue. For more modest builds it probably doesn't matter; but higher capacities tend to come out a year or two sooner in full size dimms because you can jam more chips onto them if need be. Currently DDR3 dimms and sodimms both max out at 8GB for desktops; but if you're willing to pay the price premium server ram is available in up to 32GB dimms.flemeister - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
True, but how about SO-DIMMs on a budget Intel H81/B85 or AMD A55/A75 board? Or one of the low-power Intel Atom or AMD Brazos ITX boards? Or even a budget Z87 ITX board, to avoid the need for a vertically mounted VRM daughterboard (unless that's actually cheaper to do)? More space for surface mounted components, and probably cheaper to make the board? Could also mean less PCB layers?DanNeely - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
You're only saving 36 pins/dimm (204 vs 240); so there's no where near enough savings to drop a PCB layer. Beyond that I'd guess that since they do offer some models with SoDIMM slots that they just don't sell as well. If I had to guesses why it'd be that people are more likely to have spare DIMMs laying around than spare SoDIMMs; meaning that the total build cost is lower since the ram is free and/or the cost savings from larger DIMMs are enough to drive shoppers.The one configuration I could see driving some enthusiast/gamer consumption of SoDIMM based mITX boards would be 4 slots instead of only 2 for 32GB max instead of 16; is conspicuous by its absence.
Hyoyeon - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - link
You mention DisplayPort several times, but this board does not have a DP connector. Where did this come from?