two md motherboards, which one?

[joshpond]

Hi all,

I've been doing some searching through the wiki and the forum here and have narrowed it down to this:

I'd like to be able to watch TV (will have hdhomerun with twin HD tuners) and play music from core. Maybe later on if possible usb-rs232 cables to control HT gear otherwise I'll get a GC. I play all video through popcorn hours so won't need too much in that department but would like to be able to play back 1080i as that is the max I believe for Australian free to air tv although 1080p is a nice option to have.

It is either:
ZOTAC ION [IONITX-A-C], ATOM N330 DUAL CORE ITX MB
Asus AT5IONT-I, Intel Atom D525/Intel NM10 Chipset/ITX

From what I read, the Zotac (similar boards) have worked but can't find info on this board and the Asus one is a lot newer. The Asus seems to have a newer Nvidia ION chipset and is a faster dual core. (N330 vs D525) Both passively cooled. The Asus has 512MB dedicated video memory.

Has anyone tried either or have anything to add?

Thanks Josh

[cfernandes]

hello ,
i use Asus AT5IONT-I   and is great .
but you need to follow wiki  http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Unrecognized_NIC
to ethernet work .

[joshpond]

Thanks,

The Asus board seems a better option and not really more expensive too.

What sort of ram are you running in it. I found somewhere saying only ddr3-800 so-dimm but it may run 1333/1600 ddr3?

Josh

[rperre]

hey, i use 2 zotac ion's and even the n230 version, it's working great, even with 1080p because of vdpau.

So in my opinion you can't go bad with either one, but the zotac is probably more plug and play.
Remember that you will probably get a black screen for the AVWizard and need to use the number or q key to get into the AVWizard. If you want to use hdmi sound, make sure you unmute the channels in alsamixer.

I choose the n230 because it had passive cooling, and i didn't want any noise coming from these md's
As far as i know the 330 needs a fan, the 525 i don't really know

Richard

[joshpond]

Thanks Richard,

Both are cooled by heat sink, didn't look like there was a fan on either, hence me picking them.

Good to know that both go, I think I'll get the one that is the easiest. I'll have to wait for my core's motherboard to come back first.

thanks Josh

[cfernandes]

joshpond,

the Asus AT5IONT-I need a extra cooler, i running without cooler and the processor go fast hot.

and i use 1 GB sodim 

[totallymaxed]

Hi all,

I've been doing some searching through the wiki and the forum here and have narrowed it down to this:

I'd like to be able to watch TV (will have hdhomerun with twin HD tuners) and play music from core. Maybe later on if possible usb-rs232 cables to control HT gear otherwise I'll get a GC. I play all video through popcorn hours so won't need too much in that department but would like to be able to play back 1080i as that is the max I believe for Australian free to air tv although 1080p is a nice option to have.

It is either:
ZOTAC ION [IONITX-A-C], ATOM N330 DUAL CORE ITX MB
Asus AT5IONT-I, Intel Atom D525/Intel NM10 Chipset/ITX

From what I read, the Zotac (similar boards) have worked but can't find info on this board and the Asus one is a lot newer. The Asus seems to have a newer Nvidia ION chipset and is a faster dual core. (N330 vs D525) Both passively cooled. The Asus has 512MB dedicated video memory.

Has anyone tried either or have anything to add?

Thanks Josh

The Asus AT5IONT-I is an excellent little motherboard that uses the Ion2 and is designed from the ground up to run without any need for fan cooling. See the url below for the spec & a good picture of the top of the board;

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=65

All the best


Andrew