GIGABYTE GA-D525TUD - Atom for the people!

The past period has clearly been loud about Sandy Bridge and Fusion, with everyone talking and interested in the new systems. We’re past Sandy Bridge, now for relaxation there’s an easy quick test from the world of Atoms. This segment is also characterized by a high degree of integration, so much so that our present test subject - the GIGABYTE GA-D525TUD motherboardja - the Atom D525 central unit is also integrated. The Intel The Atom family is gaining ground in endbooks, mainly in netbooks, but it is also trying to gain a foothold in so-called netops in terms of desktops. Its biggest advantages are the extremely low consumption and the relatively low price, as well as the fact that with the purchase we usually get a complete configuration.

Motherboard manufacturers also believe that one should be given the opportunity to build an Atomic system for HTPC, for example, according to one's own needs and tastes, but there are areas where these models will be the foundation of embedded systems where no more than a motherboard that includes both CPU and VGA and some memory.

Of course, we prefer to look at the GIGABYTE GA-D525TUD from the perspective of home users, let's see what it has to offer! 

It is not uncommon in this category to have a mini-ITX format motherboard, which in practice means that the printed current is a 17 × 17 cm square. It doesn’t offer anything unusual on the outside, even if this small size doesn’t seem unusual to the eye. On a PCB of this size, every square inch needs to be carefully considered where to go, as the options are limited. We think GIGABYTE engineers have arranged the individual components of the motherboard properly. The back panel connectors are not very variable, they are always on the left edge of the PCB.

On the right edge are two DDR3 memory slots, an IDE connector, two SATA2 ports, and a 24-pin power connector. Don't expect a large supply of expansion rails, only a traditional PCI is at the bottom of the page. This also indicates that this model is not targeted at HTPC users, as our discrete video card capabilities are very limited due to the PCI bus. True, the power of the integrated graphics core in the Atom D525 may be enough as it supports hardware video acceleration, but only VGA (d-sub) output can be found on the back. In the middle you will find the Atom D525 processor itself and the NM10 chipset.

Both have ribs, the former is also cooled by a fan. The Atom D525 is already a "livable" Atom, with two cores and a clock speed of 1,8 GHz, perfectly suitable for office purposes. A maximum of 4 GB of DDR3 800 MHz RAM can be placed in the two previously mentioned memory rails, the system cannot handle more, but this would not be necessary. In the remaining area, we find the additional P4 power connector, other connectors and control boards.

The GIGABYTE GA-D525TUD offers an 8-channel sound generator, but there are only three jack plugs on the back. Front panel jacks must be used for 8-channel mode, which is likely to be required quite infrequently. The palette also includes a realtek gigabit Ethernet controller, eight USB 2.0 ports (four on the back, four add-on modules), a total of four SATA 2.0 ports with RAID support, the aforementioned IDE and PCI connectors, and dual BIOS.

Back cover structure from left to right:

Two PS / 2 connectors (mouse, keyboard), one serial and one printer port, one VGA (d-sub) connector, 2 × 2 USB and RJ45 LAN ports, and three small jack jacks.

The motherboard is made with Ultra Durable 3 technology, meaning the printed circuit board contains 2 ounces of copper and quality components. USB connectors can power up to three times the power of a traditional design. With DualBIOS, you can avoid the inconvenience of updating the BIOS.

Specification table: