When Intel announced an accelerated roadmap for its Atom SoC range in May 2022, the visitor'southward 22nm Silvermont microarchitecture was scheduled for a 2022 release and would later receive a 14nm die shrink in 2022, codenamed Airmont. However, setbacks in developing the 14nm process delayed the arrival of Broadwell parts, especially the loftier performance variants.

Although it launched in 2022, nosotros didn't go our easily on the desktop Bay Trail-D variants until Baronial of 2022, once Asrock started peddling its Bay Trail Motherboards. At the time we checked out the Asrock D1800M (Celeron J1800), Q1900M (Celeron J1900) and Q2900 (Pentium J2900).

To recap, the Celeron J1800 was a dual-core function clocked at 2.58GHz with a tiny 1MB L2 cache, while the J1900 had four cores working at two.41GHz and double the enshroud. The included GPU was a heavily diluted HD Graphics engine with just four execution units, which helped Intel keep the Bay Trail-D ability requirements at a minimum.

The Pentium J2900, similar the J1900, also featured 4 cores clocked at two.41GHz with a 2MB L2 cache and the same rubbish four EU GPU. The only deviation beingness that the J2900 could self-overclock on the wing with a maximum burst speed of 2.67GHz, allowing for six% more than performance on average.

We found that the Celeron J1900 was a better value than the J2900 as it offered a similar level of operation at a much lower toll. Overall, in anything not-3D related, the J1900 was the way to go for farthermost budget builders while AMD'due south AM1 platform was ameliorate equipped for 3D rendering.

Now we accept Intel's new Braswell SoCs, which hope to be faster beyond the board while also consuming less power. A few months ago Intel quietly launched its outset desktop Braswell SoC solutions, offer dual-cadre and quad-core Celeron models forth a unmarried quad-core Pentium.

Destined for entry-level laptops and desktops, the new chips are manufactured using Intel's 14nm procedure and include the mobile Celeron N3000, N3050, N3150, and Pentium N3700. The last iii volition be made in versions for desktop systems and today nosotros take the N3050 and N3700 in mitt.

Model Cores /
Threads		 Frequency /
Turbo		 L2
enshroud		 GPU base/heave Memory TDP Cost
Celeron N3000 2 / 2 1.04 / 2.08 GHz one MB 320MHz / 600MHz DDR3-1600 4W $107
Celeron N3050 2 / 2 1.sixty / ii.16 GHz 1 MB 320MHz / 600MHz DDR3-1600 6W $107
Celeron J1800 two / two 2.41 / 2.58 GHz ane MB 688MHz / 792MHz DDR3-1333 10W $72
Celeron N3150 4 / iv 1.lx / 2.08 GHz 2 MB 320MHz / 640MHz DDR3-1600 6W $107
Pentium N3700 iv / 4 1.lx / 2.xl GHz 2 MB 400MHz / 700MHz DDR3-1600 6W $161
Pentium J2900 4 / 4 2.41 / 2.67 GHz 2 MB 688MHz / 792MHz DDR3-1333 10W $94

As you can see above, Braswell's base operating frequencies are much lower than Bay Trail-D parts. The desktop Braswell models starting time at only 1.6GHz whereas the J1800 and J2900 were clocked 50% higher, not to mention that the new Pentium N3700'due south turbo frequency only matches the base clock of the Pentium J2900.

While the core counts and cache remain the same for comparable models, the DDR3 retention back up has been upgraded to 1600MHz from 1333MHz. The TDP rating has also been reduced from 10 watts to just six.

In add-on to the new Airmont CPU cores, the HD Graphics engine has been updated to the Generation eight LP architecture, sporting up to sixteen execution units clocked every bit loftier equally 700MHz. It will be interesting to meet how Intel's updated IGP compares to the R3 (Radeon HD 8400) inside AMD's Athlon 5350 APU.

Asrock's Mini-ITX Braswell Boards

Asrock already has over half a dozen Intel Braswell motherboards on offer, including a range of MicroATX and Mini-ITX boards.

The Mini-ITX models are the preferred choice for low power calculating and therefore nosotros are going to accept a look at the N3700-ITX and N3050B-ITX, the about expensive and most affordable versions.

In the eye at that place is besides the N3150-ITX, which is likely the best value option but nosotros don't have this model to test.

Asrock N3700-ITX

For a budget motherboard the Asrock N3700-ITX is better equipped than expected. Asrock has included 4 SATA 6Gb/due south ports, six USB 3.0 ports, 7.one channel audio, Gigabit Ethernet, and a DisplayPort output alongside HDMI and DVI.

Unfortunately, in that location isn't a full length PCIe x16 slot. For that y'all'll need to await at the MicroATX N3700M, which also supports standard desktop memory instead of Then-DIMM similar the N3700-ITX.

Notwithstanding, the N3700M doesn't have a mini-PCIe slot whereas the N3700-ITX does, making it quick and easy to include a WiFi/Bluetooth module.

Like the Asrock Q2900-ITX earlier it, the N3700-ITX includes a passively-cooled depression-contour heatsink over the processor.

Compared to the Q2900-ITX, the N3700-ITX not only features the updated Pentium N3700 processor but it besides offers two actress USB 3.0 ports, two more than SATA ports and offers a DisplayPort output. And so all round the N3700-ITX is a nice upgrade.

Asrock N3050B-ITX

The N3050B-ITX really is a elementary motherboard that has been designed for extremely express budgets. That said, the feature list is similar to the previous generation'southward flagship board, offering 4 USB 3.0 ports and ii SATA 6Gb/s ports.

The brandish connectivity list is missing DisplayPort but picks up the more low-end friendly VGA (D-Sub) output, while HDMI is still included.

The supported vii.one channel sound has been downgraded from the Realtek ALC892 codec used past the N3700-ITX to the more budget conscious ALC887. Legacy support is prevalent hither with the N3050B-ITX boasting a Parallel Port, COM port and two PS/2 ports on the I/O console.

Onboard nosotros observe the same passive heatsink, this time taking care of the dual-cadre Celeron N3050.

There are 2 So-DIMM slots which back up up to 16GB of DDR3/DDR3L 1600 memory.

Sadly, while the unmarried PCIe ii.0 x1 slot remains, the mini-PCIe slot is missing, meaning WiFi back up will demand to exist added through other means.