Zotac Atom/Ion board coming.

Can't wait! Too bad playing back flash video is gonna suck. But if you record all your own content this is a pretty good idea. Let's hope the price is well south of $125.
 
The better one is listed at 300USD. That can't possibly be right.
 
wow i think i soiled myself from the thought of owning one, but i'd still prefer the pico version
 
I've been looking at this board for a NAS/HTPC build I want to do soon, and I found pre-order info here: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=53

I wish the version with the N330 were fanless.

The included PSU on the N330 is just 90W power brick. I'm not sure how it could cope with 3x3.5" drives maxing out the SATA ports though. (And they use the European style plugs.)

I'd personally remove the WiFi module. Would Intel TurboMemory or some other SSD fit in that?

It's too bad, a lot of the features I want (standard power supply connector) is on the N230 version, but I want dual core as well. :(
 
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timme said:
Quite a heavy price there.
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Yah,was thinking same thing, eventhough you are getting a mobo and a CPU. I think the mobo may be worthy of a $150ish price tag, but certainly the CPU should be under $100.


edit: Oh, didn't see the PSU was also intergrated. Still a primium price, but not as outlandish as I was thinking before.
 
Both the PC Perspective review and the Tech-Report reviews list overclocking features, yet don't actually test them. Reason i'm interested is I had an Asus N10J (Atom 230 9300M GS) and I could OC it from 1.6ghz to 2.1ghz and it made quite the difference, with the 330 running at 2ghz (by changing the fsb from 533 to 667) you would gain quite a bit in performance, I think i'm going to buy one just to try this feature out.
 
I agree from the gaming perspective, although it would be interesting to have a real gpu hooked up to the ion, not that it would make a huge difference but all the gaming reviews of atom's had rather weak gpu's, if I can find a place to pick one up I will do that.
 
Ruiner said:
I'd put a tuner in that slot perhaps, but a 775 board an e5200 would be a much faster gamer for the same price.
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It wouldn't really. Not sure about US pricing, but the Point of View Atom 330 board is expected to release at about the same price as the 9300-WiFi in the UK. You'd have to add the price of the E5200 on top which is really quite a big jump in price. Of course you could use a cheaper board than the Zotac 9300-WiFi, but then you'd be loosing features vs the PoV Atom board.
 
I think when integrated graphics are bottlenecked by the cpu, you've got one shitty computer.
I could see the Atom's application in POS situations or car pcs, but considering you can get a 775 in the same form factor... yeah.
 
I saw them in-stock at one point... (atleast I think I did...) they just sold out...
 
I was excited about the ION platform and the Zotac boards in particular...until I saw the 25W idle power draw. Then I was just disappointed.

I remain unconvinced that ION is the best choice for anything. There are lower power (in the watts sense) Atom solutions. The new Intel board runs at 13W full load.

On the other side, idle numbers in the the ballpark of ION are possible with 775 and AM2 ITX boards. Those solutions can be much more powerful (in the speed sense) when needed. Excellent idle power numbers are possible when a "desktop" ITX board is paired with the right processor and PSU.

PSU is really the key. That's why these newer Atom boards accept single voltage DC power and have their own onboard switching supplies. Normal PSU's are optimized to deliver peak efficiency at far too many watts for these systems.
 
I might have to use one of these for my mum... we were thinking of building an HTPC for her, and these are cheap/fast enough... and small/power efficient :D
 
Blazestorm said:
I might have to use one of these for my mum... we were thinking of building an HTPC for her, and these are cheap/fast enough... and small/power efficient :D
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If you don't have one already I've been picking up cheap laptop SATA HDDs from Geeks.com. :)
 
What case would you recommend for this board (with the 330 and built-in PSU)? I need tiny, quiet, and elegant (that word makes me shudder). Fanless would be preferred. All the cases I find have PSU's, or they're downright fugly.
 
Kil4Thril said:
What case would you recommend for this board (with the 330 and built-in PSU)? I need tiny, quiet, and elegant (that word makes me shudder). Fanless would be preferred. All the cases I find have PSU's, or they're downright fugly.
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I plan on using a spare LC19 I have sitting around doing nothing or maybe one of the many gutted DVD player cases I have sitting around.
 
Mini-Box M350. Someone has already built a 9300-ITX in that case, and he says the GPU runs under 70C- and that's the hottest part. Mine will be here on Friday, I'll let you know how it works with a 780G and X2 3800.
 
kencheeto said:
I think when integrated graphics are bottlenecked by the cpu, you've got one shitty computer.
I could see the Atom's application in POS situations or car pcs, but considering you can get a 775 in the same form factor... yeah.
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What about a situation where you want a quiet low power NAS? Or a hardware firewall? Or an HTPC (when you consider the Ion)?

The Atom does have its place.
 
This board has the S3 standby problem that's one the 9300/9400 as well I think..
 
So not only is it buggy beyond any hope of use, it's still using the absolute WORST Realtrash MAC+PHY that they've EVER produced. And they want $200+ for it? BWHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Looks like Zotac is the new Soltek/Amptron/etc.
 
mavalpha said:
Mini-Box M350. Someone has already built a 9300-ITX in that case, and he says the GPU runs under 70C- and that's the hottest part. Mine will be here on Friday, I'll let you know how it works with a 780G and X2 3800.
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Cool. That enclosure looks great, and I could use the VESA option to hide it on the back of her monitor for even more "geek brownie" points. Now to wait for reviews and sales.
 
akromatic said:
can this board boot from USB? ie install and load windows on a 64gb flash stick
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Yes to booting, but installing Windows onto USB is one step shy of impossible. (It can be done, but it's a royal pain in the ass.)
 
On the other hand, installing Ubuntu onto a thumbdrive is cakewalk.
 
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