ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi Review

ZOTAC enters the A75-ITX WiFi into the small form factor market, let’s see how the little motherboard performs against big competition.

Product on Review:ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi
Manufacturer: ZOTAC
Street Price: £115

ZOTAC are a long standing manufacturer of ITX motherboards which has in turn become a popular niche market for small form factor enthusiasts. The desire for uncompromised solutions in an unimposing 6.7 x 6.7 inch dimension comes fairly strong and ZOTAC are held high in regard when it comes to meeting that demand. Making no exception with the AMD FM1 platform, ZOTAC unleashed the Hudson D3 based A75-ITX WiFi. Giving users the option to take advantage of AMD’s A-series APUs in a small package while offering BIG features, it is easy to understand the appeal that ITX motherboards present.

ZOTAC’s Overview of the A75-ITX WiFi

Maximize CPU and GPU synergy with the AMD APU-compatible ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi mini-ITX platform for a revolutionary system that combines multi-core processing with up to 400 AMD Radeon™ cores. The ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi packs an AMD FM1 socket ready to accept AMD APUs with discrete-class AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 series graphics processors for outstanding Microsoft® DirectX® 11 visuals and world-class high-definition Blu-ray and streaming Internet video playback.

The AMD FM1 socket is accompanied by class-leading expansion capabilities with the ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi including a PCI Express x16 slot, 4 SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports with RAID 0, 1, 0+1 support and up to eight USB 3.0 ports. The ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi also packs superior networking capabilities including dual Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0 for connectivity with your wired and wireless network, and wireless devices and peripherals.

Technical Specifications

Based on the Hudson D3 FCH (A75), the ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi offers USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s technologies. Offering wireless N, Bluetooth 3.0, as well as dual gigabit lan it appears there will be no struggle with connectivity and networking.

Product Name
ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi

Model
A75ITX-A-E

Chipset
Manufacturer: AMD
Chipset: A75
GPU: AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 series ready

CPU Compatibility
AMD A8
AMD A6
AMD A4
E2 Series

Socket
FM1

Bus
N/A

Memory
Memory Type: DDR3
Memory Speed: Up to 1866 MHz (varies by APU)
Slots: 2 x 240-pin DIMM
Capacity: Up to 8GB

3D API
DirectX: DirectX 11
OpenGL: OpenGL 3.2

Expansion
Slots: 1 x PCI Express x16

Networking
Ethernet: 2 x 10/100/1000Mbps
WiFi: 802.11n & Bluetooth 3.0

Audio
Analog: 8-ch HD
Digital: Optical S/PDIF & HDMI outputs

Ports
DVI: 1 (HDCP)
HDMI: 1
VGA: 1 (with included adapter)
SATA: 4 (SATA 6.0 Gb/s)
eSATA: N/A
PATA: N/A
PS/2: 1 (keyboard/mouse)

Serial port header
USB Ports:
8 x USB 3.0 (6 on back panel 2 via pin header)
2 x USB 2.0 (via pin header)

Cooler
Passive (no fan)

Form Factor
mini-ITX

OS Compatibility
Windows: Certified for Windows® 7

General
SLI Supported: no
Maximum Resolution: 2048×1536

Other
Wake-On Support
Wake-on USB
Wake-on-LAN

Overclocking features
N/A

Package Contents
ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi motherboard
3 x SATA cables
1 x DVI-to-VGA adapter
2 x WiFi antennas
1 x I/O back plate

Packaging & First Look

The box front

The box artwork is in the familiar ZOTAC colours of amber and black with a flare effect in the background. The model name appears to be emblazoned in a huge silver font, but that is decieving given that the box is only just bigger than the tiny motherboard itself! Due to limited space there is not much information about the features displayed, but that is not a bad thing as it stirs a more elegant and clean appearance compared to what we would usually see. The main thing of note on the front is information about ZOTAC’s extended warranty service, by registering your ZOTAC product online you can extend product warranty by 3 years on top of the standard 2 year warranty. A 5 year warranty is a juicy prospect indeed.

The rear displays an image of the board and some features

Flipping the box is usually a bad thing to do while the contents are still inside, I would suggest using a coin. That aside, the rear shows an image of the A75-ITX WiFi motherboard and details few features. While pressing the issue of the DX 11 graphical prowess and the benefits that the AMD APUs afford, ZOTAC also highlight that the board features a full length PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, 4x SATA 6Gb/s that supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1 as well as having up to 8x USB 3.0 ports and boasts superior networking features.

The ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi

Based on a black PCB, which is always a thumbs up, this particular board dons the ZOTAC colours and shipping with 3 attractive amber SATA cables, part of me wants to sit down in a board meeting with the designers and raise an eyebrow. I am by no means perfectionist, nor am I someone who believes that two-tone colour scheme is the ‘only good aesthetic’, but for some reason the ex-GIGABYTE baby blue SATA ports infuriate me. An overreaction? Of course. There is likely to be a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why they chose to do this…

Let’s move on and take a closer look…

Closer Look

Motherboard rear

Seeing the cooler retention backplate really puts the ITX size into perspective. Due to the restricted PCB space of the ITX form factor some components have been mounted on the reverse side of the board. These include the low profile capacitors which are part of the power delivery system as well as the two Realtek RTL8111E lan controllers.

Phase power delivery and MOSFET cooling

Behind the small aluminium MOSFET cooler we find the 4pin ATX power connector which is in a fairly hard to reach spot. If you have a fan installed just above the I/O plate you may need to remove it in order to plug your power supply in. In this area we also see the 4+1 phase power next to a jumper, which judging by the manual, is what selects VGA or DVI, you need to remove the jumper when using the DVI-VGA adapter to get a video signal.

Dual channel memory up to 1866MHz supported

Next to the FM1 socket we see the two yellow DIMMs which support a max of 4GB each to give 8GB. This limitation is not an issue as most users of an ITX board like this are either doing so for a HTPC or gaming use, of which 8GB is more than enough memory. Just to the right of the memory slots in the top corner we see the CPU 4pin PWM fan header, moving down the edge of the board we then see the 24pin ATX power connection.

Blue blue blue blue SATA

In the bottom right hand corner we see another 4pin PWM fan header, the front panel power, reset and LEDs affair, and the BIOS chip. Just above the 4x SATA 6Gb/s ports you will find the clear CMOS jumper and between the SATA ports and the DIMMs you have the CMOS battery. The CMOS battery is placed inside an edge-on mount, a common PCB footprint saving method.

mPCIe WiFi & Bluetooth card, smart.

Tightly packed towards the bottom left we see the Realtek ALC892 high performance audio codec that supports 7.1 surround sound. Immediately to the right of the audio chip we find the front panel HD audio header. a USB 2.0 header as well as a USB 3.0 header in the tell tale rectangular bracket. The header with the plastic yellow base is for the COM and then of course just above the PCIe x16 slot is the mPCIe slot with dual WiFi-N and Bluetooth card installed. Making space for such a device to take advantage of the extra PCIe lanes supported in the chipset while leaving the PCIe x16 lane free is a great feat of engineering and is a feature that is a shame we do not see on full size ATX motherboards.

FCH heatsink

Here we see the orangy x16 PCIe 2.0 slot, as with all mini ITX motherboards you will usually only get one of these and it is free for whatever device pleases you. If you were gaming you can add in a HD 6570 or 6670 for dual graphics**, for HTPC you might add in a TV tuner card or if the on-board audio doesnt suit you then maybe even a sound card. The A75 chipset is cooled by an adequate non-imposing aluminium heatsink.

Extra USB 3.0 awesome

Going all out for connectivity ZOTAC have added two VIA VL810 USB controllers, each adding another pair of USB 3.0 ports. In total this board packs 6x USB 3.0 on the rear I/O panel and another 2x USB 3.0 via front panel header. In this image it is clear to see how large a footprint these chips take up on the small ITX PCB, ZOTAC are obviously set on differentiating their products from the competition.

Jam packed with USB 3.0

The rear I/O area shows a lot of features and it almost feels like a shame they had to relegate the 4pin ATX power connection into this area as another 2x USB 2.0 would have been a very sweet treat, however, considering the restraints of the ITX form factor it is understandable, likely ruin the neat line up of blue USB 3.0 ports too. In order we have PS2, 2x USB 3.0, 2x aerial connections, clear CMOS button, DVI, HDMI video out, dual gigabit lan, 4x USB 3.0 ports, optical S/PDIF and audio jacks.

**note on dual graphics on ‘Test setup’ page

BIOS

Using a more traditional BIOS instead of choosing to go with the more modern UEFI GUI is not really an issue. There is no real overclocking features per sé but it does allow the change of CPU multiplier which could be useful for those dancing with the A8-3870K as well as CPU voltage control. By allowing you to change the CPU multiplier it could also be used to underclock and undervolt for those wishing for a cooler, less power hungry system, which to me makes perfect sense if this motherboard is being pitched at HTPC users. Some reviews tend to forget the market that looks for cooler, low power systems and focus more on performance, I would agree in saying that it is a shame that this ITX board doesn’t pack a more robust overclocking feature but it is by no means a loss.

Interestingly this motherboard features XMP support, which to me, stirred a mixture of confusion and giddy happiness. Those who are used to AMD motherboards may not even know what it is. Extreme Memory Profiles (XMP) is essentially a stored configuration on the memory to run the modules at their rated settings, oh and it is an Intel based technology. I have experienced a few AMD motherboards that were able to ‘read’ the XMP profiles but never actually set them so memory speeds and timings generally have to be set manually, however, this board allows you to enable the XMP profile, sorted.

Test Setup & Overclocking

APU: AMD A8-3850
Motherboards
– ZOTAC A75M-ITX WiFi
– ECS A55F-A2
– Foxconn A75M
– GIGABYTE GA-A75M-UD2H
Memory: Team Xtreem PC3 12800 DDR3 1600 7-7-7-21 @ 1333MHz 9-9-9-24
CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212+
Graphics
– Integrated Radeon HD 6550D
– Discrete AMD Radeon HD 6570
PSU: Corsair CX430
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200RPM SATAIII
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 64bit

Overclocking

As mentioned previously, this motherboard is fairly limited when it comes to overclocking, but at least it offers some options. Importantly, being able to increase memory speeds which in turn increases the iGPU’s bandwidth and performance. I am currently testing with 1333MHz memory speeds as it is a common standard, but as you can see the increase in memory speed and increase in iGPU bandwidth is proportional. I can divulge that in general you could expect an average of up to 15-20% increase in FPS performance in games by using 1866MHz memory over 1333MHz.

1333MHz memory gives the HD 6550D a bandwidth of 21.3GB/s

1600MHz see’s the increase to 25.6GB/s

At 1866MHz the bandwidth increases proportionally again to 29.9GB/s

A note on Dual Graphics
**The ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi doesn’t officially support dual graphics but it still works. Dual graphics is more of a chipset/driver affair and to enable all I did was install the Radeon HD 6570 while leaving the display cable plugged into the motherboard DVI out. When booting into windows the AMD VISION Engine control center recognised that there was a compatible card for dual graphics and simply needed to be enabled. This however is still hindered by poor drivers so dual graphics results have been omitted.

Unfortunately, due to driver issues, there has been terrible stutter rendering CrossfireX results unbarably useless. For this reason I have omitted the results using Dual graphics.

*I have recieved word that drivers 11.12 have been deemed stable for this configuration but I have not yet been able to test it.*

Power Consumption

It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards because energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use. Then the system is loaded with LinX 0.6.4 and MSI Kombustor simultainiously – watts are again monitored throughout the period of testing and the highest and lowest rated watts are then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.

Generally drawing a little less power than the mATX boards from Foxconn and GIGABYTE, though it is interesting that is pulled the most watts when stressing the integrated HD 6550D. Overall it falls in neatly with expectation.

Synthetic Benchmarks: AIDA64

CPU Queen Benchmark

This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.

CPU Photoworxx Benchmark

This benchmark stresses the integer arithmetic and multiplication execution units of the CPU and also the memory subsystem. Due to the fact that this test performs high memory read/write traffic, it cannot effectively scale in situations where more than 2 processing threads used. For example, on a 8-way Pentium III Xeon system the 8 processing threads will be “fighting” over the memory, creating a serious bottleneck that would lead to as low scores as a 2-way or 4-way similar processor based system could achieve. CPU PhotoWorxx test uses only the basic x86 instructions, and it is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.

FPU Mandel Benchmark

This benchmark measures the double precision (also known as 64-bit) floating-point performance through the computation of several frames of the popular “Mandelbrot” fractal. The code behind this benchmark method is written in Assembly, and it is extremely optimized for every popular AMD, Intel and VIA processor core variants by utilizing the appropriate x87, SSE2, AVX or FMA4 instruction set extension. FPU Mandel test is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.

Synthetic Benchmarks: x264 HD

]Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.

Synthetic Benchmarks: Cinebench 11.5

CPU Rendering

CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

Open GL Graphics Rendering

This procedure uses a complex 3D scene depicting a car chase (by renderbaron) which measures the performance of your graphics card in OpenGL mode. The performance depends on various factors, such as the GPU processor on your hardware, but also on the drivers used. The graphics card has to display a huge amount of geometry (nearly 1 million polygons) and textures, as well as a variety of effects, such as environments, bump maps, transparency, lighting and more to evaluate the performance across different disciplines and give a good average overview of the capabilities of your graphics hardware.

Synthetic Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA 2011

SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU, memory and GPGPU tests.

Synthetic Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA 2011 cont…

Synthetic Benchmarks: 3DMark Vantage & 3DMark 11

3DMark Vantage

]3DMark Vantage is the industry standard performance benchmark for DirectX 10 gaming PCs. It includes two graphics tests, two CPU tests and six feature tests. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark Vantage is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 10 under game-like loads.

3DMark 11

Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.]

Synthetic Benchmarks: PCMark 7 & UNIGINE Heaven 2.5

UNIGINE Heaven 2.5

Unigine’s benchmark is to showcase the benefits of DX 11 and the use of tessellation as opposed to normal rendering techniques. The demo has impressive visuals that give an insight into what we can expect from gaming in the future.

PCMark 7

PCMark 7 is a tool provided by FutureMark that tests the PCs ability in general office and everyday use. It produces a number that reflects the all-round performance of the PC and is useful to compare between differing setups. For more information, visit the FutureMark website.

Game Benchmarks: AVP, Deus Ex:HR, Shogun 2

Alien Vs. Predator

Spawned from the popular Alien and Predator franchises, Rebellion have collaborated to bring the legendary war to us through the medium of a first-person shooter. The game forces you to hunt, prey and most importantly survive in the swamp colony of Freya’s prospect as a Predator, Alien or Marine. The stunning visuals add to the sense of dread and terror that we have become so accustomed to seeing with the series.

The stand-alone Alien VS Predator benchmark tool was used for testing here. All the settings were set to very high and Tessellation was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

You play Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT specialist who’s been handpicked to oversee the defensive needs of one of America’s most experimental biotechnology firms. Your job is to safeguard company secrets, but when a black ops team breaks in and kills the very scientists you were hired to protect, everything you thought you knew about your job changes.

Shogun 2

In the darkest age of Japan, endless war leaves a country divided. It is the middle of the 16th Century in Feudal Japan. The country, once ruled by a unified government, is now split into many warring clans. Ten legendary warlords strive for supremacy as conspiracies and conflicts wither the empire. Only one will rise above all to win the heart of a nation as the new shogun…The others will die by his sword.

Conclusion

In our benchmark tests the ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi was no stranger to the top and the bottom of of the lists. This explains that the motherboard peforms just as well as the larger offerings in a small form factor. Going the extra mile by packing it with extra USB 3.0, WiFi & Bluetooth mPCIe card and dual gigabit lan. That sounds all great except when you look at the price. For the same price as this motherboard you could be looking at a high-end A75 ATX motherboard which is likely to feature similar features or more, bar maybe the addition of an mPCIe dual WiFi card. That being said I would suggest that this ITX board is not aimed at hardcore gamers who want the very best FPS in games, they would indeed choose a more conventional form factor or if they wanted an ITX gaming machine, they would be more inclined to choose a Z68 version. Again, if this was aimed at HTPC users, surely a HTPC would be better off using a more low power setup such as an AMD ‘Brazos’ platform that uses a low power ‘Bobcat’ APU. So the A75-ITX WiFi exists in ITX limbo, that’s not a bad thing, here’s why. If this particular board was used as a relatively low power HTPC, it would be packing substantial performance which will in turn give better usability and general application, on top of that, the integrated HD 6550D graphics port has enough muscle for some light gaming too. Considering this flexibility, it shows that the Lynx platform from AMD does exactly what it has set out to do, provide a benchmark in ‘mainstream performance’ and ZOTAC has enabled the public to tap into that performance in a fully featured ITX package.

The A75-ITX WiFi is not without it’s faults, during the arguement I had with the board, I had stopped to evil eye those pesky baby blue SATA ports, then I heard a screaming in my ear. The board was running off of the HD 6550D at the time so I knew it was not the HD 6570, I then checked out my power supply, nope not that. Unfortunately this motherboard was suffering from some coil whine and was chirping away like a cockroach at the edge of hearing. Like most things of this nature, once you notice it, you notice it more. It is a shame to think that all those nice extra features come at the expense of component quality, not to mention that this particular board is priced a little higher than competitors A75 ITX motherboards. It could just be this particular sample, or just a random spell of Tinnitus but it is certainly not a welcome feature.

All things considered, the ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi delivers some genius features and allows access to the benefits of AMDs A-Series APUs in a small form factor.

Pros.
+ Lots of USB 3.0
+ WiFi & Bluetooth
+ Small form factor – mini ITX

Cons.
– Price
– It’s a squealer