News - MSI launches dual-core Wind NetTop D130

[HEXUS]

Looking for a low-power HD-ready HTPC? MSI thinks its latest Wind NetTop could be the one for you.

Read more.

[directhex]

Not sure how they plan on squeezing any HD out of this

[amdavies]

HD is worse than a lie, it's purely marketing speech now.
As long as the resolution is greater than that of a regular TV (576i ?), it can be classed as being HD.

Buy a low-end AMD processor and pair it up with a 780G motherboard, you'll get much better results than the Atom+945GC combo and it won't be too far off efficiency wise. 1080p should be possible pretty easily with UVD and the rght software.
If the 780G consumes too much power, the older 740G will still be better than the 945GC, although lacking UVD IIRC.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article807-page1.html

rant
The Atom is still being hindered by the use of the 945 chipset. A cynic may accuse Intel of hindering the use of the processor (see the nVidia ION story) in anything other than netbooks due to the lack of a power efficient chipset. Heck, even a C2D E7200 + G31 combination is almost as power efficient:-

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-...iew-31435.html
/rant

[directhex]

HD is worse than a lie, it's purely marketing speech now.
As long as the resolution is greater than that of a regular TV (576i ?), it can be classed as being HD.

Buy a low-end AMD processor and pair it up with a 780G motherboard, you'll get much better results than the Atom+945GC combo and it won't be too far off efficiency wise. 1080p should be possible pretty easily with UVD and the rght software.
If the 780G consumes too much power, the older 740G will still be better than the 945GC, although lacking UVD IIRC.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article807-page1.html

rant
The Atom is still being hindered by the use of the 945 chipset. A cynic may accuse Intel of hindering the use of the processor (see the nVidia ION story) in anything other than netbooks due to the lack of a power efficient chipset. Heck, even a C2D E7200 + G31 combination is almost as power efficient:-

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-...iew-31435.html
/rant

So... NVidia ION for you?

[Funkstar]

This could be a nice simple MediaPortal client. Although I'd prefer to have it smaller and drop the full size DVD-RW

[arthurleung]

So... NVidia ION for you?

I personally find that my T8300 both idles power usage and half-load (2 cores at 1.2Ghz, approximating Atom 1.6Ghz) is less than my Mini9 with N270. I really don't see the point with Atom apart from price.

[amdavies]

Now that Intel have back-tracked and said that nVidia should be allowed to use Atom with ION, it's looking like a very nice platform for a low power system.
This isn't really going to be a games platform but I could easily see it being plugged into a 720p+ TV and used for a A/V frontend in addition to the market that the net-tops are aiming at.

[Funkstar]

I like how ION is really really small great for hiding your HTPC behind your TV

[Jay]

HD-Ready = 720P/1080i
Full HD = 1080P

So the blub hints at 720P / 1080i

[Zadock]

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm after, I have a little (15" wide screen) HD ready tv in my bedroom that I'd rig something like this up to. you'd have to use and external tv tuner with this though?

[Funkstar]

Yes you would.

[Methanoid]

I wish Hexus would berate MSI for its use of the 22W consuming 945GC chipset. At least the 945GSE used by Asus is lower power consumption.

These are meant to be LOW POWER consumption boxes.

[amdavies]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=3276&p=16

That's what should be sitting next to the Atoms.
In a market segment where cost is the primary factor (netbooks) the difference between 945 and Poulsbo is too great to warrant the usage of the more efficient chipset.

Of course, the real concern of the manufacturers is the impact that netbooks are having on their laptop sales. The incentive isn't really there to further cannibalize their laptop profits by improving the performance of the netbooks. Remember that there has been a netbook market for a while now but they were referred to as sub-notebooks and there was rather a large premium placed on them by the companies that made them. Sony even went so far as to call netbooks "a race for the bottom" because they were so worried about them eating into their sub-notebook market.


I do have higher hopes for the ION though. If nVidia can push this platform as a nettop chipset, rather than a netbook one, then there shouldn't be the lack of interest from the manufacturers to use it for fear of losing profits elsewhere.

[slypie]

£200 yeah right. When have companies every translated the costs fairly??? I wouldn't be suprised if they stick another £50-£100 on top of that price. Looks good though apart from I thought you had to have DVI or HDMI for HD.

[Methanoid]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=3276&p=16

That's what should be sitting next to the Atoms.
In a market segment where cost is the primary factor (netbooks) the difference between 945 and Poulsbo is too great to warrant the usage of the more efficient chipset.

Well I would have gone on about Poulsbo but I think I am a lone voice in asking for it... Most of the muppets seem content with 945GC.... I'm waiting for proper Atom systems. Who'd be dumb enough to buy a 945GCLF mobo... plenty here it seems

[Zadock]

If these do come out at £165 I'll buy one... if they come out at something ridiculous like £265 or £300 they can take a running jump, you could probably build a very good little HTPC for £200-£300 that is far more capable.