CES 2011, Las Vegas - Most people want big and powerful hardware when they are building up a gaming or enthusiast system with big cases and lots of room for components. When it comes to building up an HTPC for the living room the opposite is true, most of us want small and compact gear that won't take up much room. Gigabyte has unveiled a new mini-ITX mainboard at CES this week that is aimed directly at HTPC fans.

The board is called the GA-E350N-USB3 and it is the first SFF HTPC mainboard from Gigabyte to use AMD Fusion technology inside. The board supports DirectX 11, SuperSpeed USB 3.0, SATA 6Gbps ports and has HDMI output. The board also has special 3x power USB ports for charging devices like the iPad faster than a normal USB port can.

The board has the AMD E-350 dual-core processor on board and has HD 6310 graphics that support Blu-ray and more. The board also supports 7.1 surround sound with S/PDIF output. The USB 3.0 port on the mainboard uses the Renasas controller from NEC. Pricing on the board is unknown at this time.

"We're excited about the GA-E350N-USB3 motherboard because it's the first all-in-one Mini-ITX board with DX11 capabilities, and we expect it to go a long way towards bridging the gap between discrete and integrated graphics performance," commented Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at GIGABYTE Technology Co. Ltd. "With its specially designed low profile fansink and multitude of hi-def, high-speed connectors, we expect this little power house to be popular amongst HTPC system integrators, DIY enthusiasts and case modders."