Zotac Fusion Mini-ITX Motherboard (Fusion-B-U)

CPU-Z

A quick note to make here on the AMD E-350 vs the latest Intel Atom series: Intels hyperthreading makes a world of difference.  While the E-350 is a dual core with 2 threads, the Intel Atom is a dual core with 4 threads.  The E-350(and AMD in general) is better with graphics but it might not be the best suited for a CPU-heavy solution.

PCMark7

PCMark7 is a comprehensive PC Benchmark testing everything from photo editing to basic internet use.  Since this is an all-in-one package this benchmark is a good tool to gauge its performance versus other platforms.  Our score here is a 1061.

Performance Test:

Performance Test is also a comprehensive benchmark testing a PC as a whole.  Our score here is a 430.6.

Real World Use

Now that we’re gotten past all the synthetic benchmarking, let’s test to see if Zotac hit their mark with their initial claims.

HD Blu-Ray Playback

Using XBMC and multiple 1080p files (in .mkv and .avi codecs) we saw no dropping of frames or inconsistencies with the video when the file is stored locally.  However when trying to play 1080p over a 300Mbps wireless network we did see continued buffering and inconsistencies with the video.  While I cannot fault Zotac for this because there are may other factors that come into play when streaming 1080p over a network wirelessly, it is definitely noteworthy.  Zotac came through here: the board can play HD 1080p video locally.

Streaming HD Video

Using Youtube as our guide here we were able to play 1080p video on the Zotac Fusion-B-U only after letting the video buffer.  As stated earlier the wireless N 300Mbps is not fast enough to stream 1080p without buffering.  However when we plugged the board into a gigabit network the setup had no problem keeping up with 1080p.  Zotac also accomplished their goal here.

Day-to-day Computing Tasks

Using both general internet surfing and General Office work as our benchmarks here the Zotac Fusion-B-U does quite well.  Only with more than 5 tabs open did we see any delay in Internet surfing and only with large documents did we see a slow down in performance.  For general light-task computing this board should be taken as a serious contender.

It is worth mentioning that throughout all of our testing the Passive 2-pipe Copper heatsink held up.  The board never reached extreme temperatures even during the 2 hour gauntlet that is PCMark7.

  Previous Page         1. Introduction2. Specs and A Closer look3. Benchmarking4. Conclusion5. View All         Next Page