Recently, the main chipmakers offer three types of system logic for their platforms, which include top-end solutions for production systems designed also for extreme overclocking, average ones for most gaming systems and budget options for office PCs or undemanding users. At AMD, the chipsets X370, B350 and A320 now meet these criteria.


Soldering mid-level hub does not affect the capabilities of the board overclocking. Much greater restrictions are imposed by the schemes of power regulators and the chosen way of their implementation, and only then one may complain about the possibilities available in the UEFI environment. So, let’s get acquainted with the senior board represented by the ASRock company, in the structure of which B350 is included (there are five of them at the time of this review witing). Nominally, it belongs to the gaming series, which means that the user has the right to expect special bonuses.


Features


Chipset: AMD B350

Processor socket: AMD …

The second generation of AMD A-Series hybrid processors, announced earlier in October, are already integrated in a number of graphics solutions. The newly appeared products are compatible with Socket FM2 only and cannot be applied for Socket FM1 infrastructure. This implies that a number of motherboards lose their upgrade facilities and can't be updated with a new advanced solution. Still, the market is currently ready to present a few boards destined to operate with the updated AMD A-Series. Gigabyte is one of the pioneers in this respect, introducing its motherboard GA-F2A85X-UP4, developed specifically for Socket FM2.



Integration


Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 is designed in ATX form-factor with 305x244 mm PCB dimensions. AMD A85X chipset is a heart of the motherboard; it secures the compatibility with A-Series (second gen.) APU and Athlon CPUs in the implementation of Socket FM2. The overall TDP level claimed for the model is not more than 100W. The PCB allots four DIMM slots …

In the light of a violent proliferation of M.2 standard in mobile and desktop PCs, a number of manufacturers shifted their production into this segment. Transcend is one of the first companies to introduce its own M.2 rendition, teasing new MTS lineup that involves three different series: MTS400, MTS600, and MTS800. They feature M.2 2242, M.2 2260 and M.2 2280 form-factors correspondingly, that is to say they have different PCB length: 42, 60 and 80 mm respectively.



All three M.2 drives series are designed on MLC NAND flash memory chips. They accommodate DDR3 cache with SATA III 6 Gb/sec interface. The first, MTS400 series, embraces four models of 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB capacity, whereas MTS 600 and MTS800 count five models: plus 512 GB model in addition to the junior four.


As for speed characteristics, Transcend MTS400 is able to demonstrate up to 560 MB/sec Read speed on sequential operations and up to 160 MB/sec Write speed on analogous conditions. Its …