ASRock’s new A88M-ITX/ac is a tiny new motherboard sporting the FM2+ socket and A88X chipset for AMD APUs. This new board has an interesting design with two DDR3 memory slots set along the top of the board. The FM2+ socket and 5-phase VRM is placed in the center with the chipset and dual band 802.11ac Wi-Fi module sitting between the socket and a single PCI-E x16 slot along the bottom edge. Six SATA 6Gbps ports are nestled in the lower right corner. Power input includes a 24-pin ATX and 8-pin CPU which should help any overclocking should this be for a SFF gaming box.
Rear I/O on the A88M-ITX/ac includes:
- 1 x PS/2
- 4 x USB 2.0
- 3 x Video outputs
- 1 x DVI
- 1 x HDMI 1.4a
- 1 x VGA
- 2 x USB 3.0
- 1 x GbE (Realtek 8111GR)
- 3 x Analog Audio (Realtek ALC887 and ELNA audio caps)
This board is clad in black and silver except for the FCH which is copper. While the absence of HDMI 2.0 will be a turn off for those looking for a HTPC to drive a 4K big screen, it could still make for a small budget gaming build. It is nice to see more small form factor options for AMD builds!
Unfortunately, ASRock is not yet talking pricing or availability.
