Read more.NVIDIA's ION seems to be building up a head of steam.
Read more.NVIDIA's ION seems to be building up a head of steam.
not in 230 form if the ready-made acer ion thing is any indication, possibly the 330 one
VodkaOriginally Posted by Ephesians
Single core will be pushed by anything that the nVidia chipset doesn't accelerate, even at less than 720p resolutions (flash etc.).
The dual core should be ok for low bit-rate, non-accelerated, stuff at 720p but anything higher and it'll struggle.
An underclocked X2/X3+780G or E5200+9400 would generally be better for a HTPC as they're less dependant on the GPU and better suited for HD material.
This could be exciting value for money for the passive PC.
Throw in one of those cheaper SSDs, you could be in for a nice build for low money!
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
I read a review of this board from another website, the retail price is about USD189. Not exactly cheap, but if you want a capable HTPC in a mini ITX form factor, it is a decent option.
http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&&q=ion&cat=14
Not exactly sure at those prices. Stunned by the cost increase of having the 330 over the 230! Also not sure why ebuyer are charging less for the 230 version with the power supply, that might be an error ofc.
Review coming soon? Can it include some task comparison between 230 and 330 version. Anandtech has just done an article and it looks a little bit like the 330 is the only way to go, but I'm still not convinced. Interested to know about wake-on-lan and boot-from-usb functions on the ION - planning on turning at least one of these into a diskless media centre. Going to take 'silence' to a whole new level.
AND - cases? The ideal would be a tiny with a fair few holes in and no space for psu - possibly from my point of view no cd drive or hdd bay either (extreme!). These tend to be hard to find and expensive, but I could just be balls at looking.
Last edited by zephod; 13-05-2009 at 04:43 PM. Reason: Forgot something
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses
How does power work with this motherboard.
I notice some SKU's come with an AC/DC power brick, and on some pictures you can see teh power connector above the HDMI connector.
I originally thought the onboard molex connector may take power from a standard atx power supply but its there to supply power to any peripherals, SATA drives etc.
So you need an external power supply brick? anyone know the specification of the plug, as i already have a few lying around that may work if i can find out the plug size.
Cheers
Last edited by nwmark; 14-05-2009 at 12:12 PM.
Wow that took some searching to clear up, finally found via this review
http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/zotac-ion/
If you buy one with the power supply bundled you get the 12v connector above the hdmi socket.
If you buy one without the power supply the 12v connector disappears and you get a traditional 20pin atx connector on the board.
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