Test System

Initial Setup

Initial setup proved very easy, with everything working right out of the box, and no obvious problems. I installed the APU and cooler, fired up the board, and got right to installing Windows without any problems. I did notice that the reference bus was clocked at 99.8 MHz rather than a straight 100 MHz, but that's of little consequence.


ZOTAC has added something unique to the A75-ITX WiFi, and that's support for Intel XMP profiles on an AMD motherboard. This makes purchasing and setup of memory immensely easier, although the max supported speed is 1866 MHz. Memory with XMP profiles that support higher speeds will be downclocked to the highest memory divider the installed APU supports, which for our A8-3850, is 1866 MHz. The timings used are straight out of the XMP profile as well, so advanced users will have some tweaking possibilities, by tightening up timings to match on modules rated for more than 1866 MHz. Our 2133 MHz G.Skill kit worked perfectly, as you can see in the images above, although, of course, downclocked to 1866 MHz. I will be including test results from both settings in the performance metrics, in lieu of overclock testing, since this board doesn't support overclocking with our test chip.

PWM Power Consumption

Since one of our first tasks was to truly verify system stability, while doing so, we measure CPU power consumption. We isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, as well as total wattage passed through it. While this may not prove to isolate the CPU power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good indicator of board efficiency and effective VRM design.


The ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi matched the idle power consumption I noticed on other AMD A75-based products, at just 4W used. That's pretty good. At load, it was a bit higher than my previously-tested Biostar board, but not by much at all. Nothing exciting here at all.