AMD's AM1 platform is all about affordability, providing an upgradable, compact platform that may not offer fancy features, but will still appeal to system builders despite the budget price. MSI's offering for this platform, the AM1I Mini-ITX motherboard ($36, as tested), is priced to please—it's only a few dollars more than the least expensive AM1 boards—but it offers a feature set that's closer to the higher priced boards from competitors.

The MSI AM1I is outfitted with two RAM slots, with support for up to 32GB of RAM. There is one full-length PCI Express x16 slot, though it doesn't offer full x16 support due to limitations in the AM1 platform. There are the usual basic connectors: a four pin power connector, two fan connectors (one three-pin, one four-pin), along with two USB headers and SATA ports. The most notable feature is a mini PCIe slot, which should let you add a Wi-Fi card without having to give up the full PCI Express slot.

On the I/O plate you'll find two PS/2 connectors and four USB ports (two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0), along with video outputs (HDMI, DVI, and VGA), audio in/out jacks, and Gigabit Ethernet. It would be nice if more than four USB ports were offered, but with two USB headers on the board, you can add more.

Overall, the layout is quite sensible, though the headers for the front-panel leads aren't labeled, so sorting out which leads are for power and reset switches and which are for case LEDs requires pulling up the online manual. The reviewer had a minor gripe about the text-based BIOS that comes on the board, but considering this board's price, there's not a lot of room to complain. If you're looking to build a compact system at the very lowest cost possible, MSI's AM1I is an excellent value that should serve you well.

For more details, check out the MSI AM1I review on our sister site, Computer Shopper.