Gigabyte GA E350N-USB3 Motherboard

The E350N-USB3 is the latest in line of Mini-ITX form factor motherboards from Gigabyte which is targeted at the HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) usage. This mobo is based on the AMD Hudson-M1 FCH chipset and uses the AMD Fusion Technology which essentially means that it houses a built-in AMD E-350 Dual-Core processor(1.6 GHz) along with a AMD Radeon HD 6310 (DirectX 11) graphics core. The mobo has support for DDR3 1333(OC)/1066 MHz memory modules. Featuring 2 physical BIOS ROMs integrated onboard, there is support for quick and seamless recovery from BIOS damage or failure due to viruses or improper BIOS updating. This mobo supports 3TB+ HDD booting without the need for partitioning, and enables more data storage on a single hard drive. And then there are features such as USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gbps, etc which have more or less become hygiene factor.

Test Bed: Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB hard disk,

2GB (1333MHz) Patriot DDR3 RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate (32 Bit).

The motherboard scored 2253 in 3DMarks 06, which means a decent graphics performance. In PCMark 05, the score was 2410. So it is a decent performer when it comes to basic office apps. In CineBench 11.5, the score was 0.60 points. We can't compare these scores against other motherboards as this is the first mobo based on the AMD fusion tech being reviewed by us. But, you can be rest assured that subsequent revisions and competition from other manufacturers would prompt the vendor to up the ante and improve the deliverables.

Bottomline: All in all a decent performer for the price. Should satiate the need of home theater PC.