Zotac's Ion Board On Windows 7: Nvidia Re-Arms Intel’s Atom - compatability?

[roberto99]

Hi all

I have been waiting for this as the ION plattform should combine the Atom processor with the Nvidia chipset for low power consumption and good video output capability. I hope to get as much input on this as possible as soon as the product will be availabele cause it looks like a interesting board for MD's and might get one for my self for testing if it look generally promising to who ever will read this.

What do you think?

Here is the link:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/zotac-ion-atom,2300.html

Cheers
Roberto

[Marie.O]

dupe

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8104

[roberto99]

match point for you ;-)

[totallymaxed]

Hi all

I have been waiting for this as the ION plattform should combine the Atom processor with the Nvidia chipset for low power consumption and good video output capability. I hope to get as much input on this as possible as soon as the product will be availabele cause it looks like a interesting board for MD's and might get one for my self for testing if it look generally promising to who ever will read this.

What do you think?

Here is the link:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/zotac-ion-atom,2300.html

Cheers
Roberto

Well we got our fanless Zotac 230 Ion board today and we are really very impressed indeed. As its Ion based it really is as compatible as the Revo...so we just added it to a Core and it just worked. As you can see from the psecs/pic the Zotac has an incredible array of I/O fro such a tiny little mobo...and its BIOS is also equally well equipped with a very rich set of features & capabilities. As with the Revo we have both PCM & Dolby Digital/DTS working over the HDMI port very nicely...on the Zotac of course you have the option of S/pdif (Coax/Optical) too. The Zotac has VGA, DVI & HDMI and the picture quality out of each is excellent.

Performance wise it was impossible to say whether the Revo or Zotac performed better or worse than one another...they were equally good in this respect.

All the best

Andrew

[darrenmason]

Andrew,

Thanks for posting your review on this. Looks like a motherboard that ticks every box for an MD.

Perhaps a sticky posting with this will answer the endless questions of what MD motherboard to get.

Regards
Darren

[castlec]

Andrew,

I started researching these little guys a few days ago.  I'm certainly excited about them.  The Atom 230s are available here now.  Do you think it's worth waiting/paying for the 330s?

Also, an odd question but how high is the board including the exposed part of the mounting screws and ram?  It looks like the heatsink is nearly as high as the IO panel but not quite there.  I'm thinking of squeezing one into one of these http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013FGYTC/.

[totallymaxed]

Andrew,

I started researching these little guys a few days ago.  I'm certainly excited about them.  The Atom 230s are available here now.  Do you think it's worth waiting/paying for the 330s?

Also, an odd question but how high is the board including the exposed part of the mounting screws and ram?  It looks like the heatsink is nearly as high as the IO panel but not quite there.  I'm thinking of squeezing one into one of these http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013FGYTC/.

Hmmm...even though the Zotac 230 is fanless and passively cooled...it does still need ventilation. Locking it inside that steel case will secure it for sure but will also fry it pretty quickly!!! Lol! The integral passively cooled heatsink needs to be convection cooled and therefore should be used in a ventilated case design.

Andrew

[Anthony_Molg]

How did it perform at 1080p???

Thanks

[totallymaxed]

How did it perform at 1080p???

Thanks

1080p is supported and works fine in testing so far.

Andrew

[Anthony_Molg]

Sweet thanks. I think i am going to be getting a new MD

[castlec]

Hmmm...even though the Zotac 230 is fanless and passively cooled...it does still need ventilation. Locking it inside that steel case will secure it for sure but will also fry it pretty quickly!!! Lol! The integral passively cooled heatsink needs to be convection cooled and therefore should be used in a ventilated case design.

Andrew

Thanks for the warning.

The only idea was to give it a place to live.  I have no issue with cutting vent/fan holes into the box.  It was already on my mind.  I'll have to decide exactly how I want to ventilate it when I have the board and can verify that it can in fact live in the tiny cash box.  I really can't imagine it needing much more than a small fan though.  I'm not even sure said fan would need to be moving at full power. 

I wish I had real info to report..... stupid pre-order.

The real issue to me is that ITX cases are either not suited to diskless MDs or are overpriced or both.  I'm willing to have an adventure to save that money.  If you have better suggestions, speak

[totallymaxed]

Hmmm...even though the Zotac 230 is fanless and passively cooled...it does still need ventilation. Locking it inside that steel case will secure it for sure but will also fry it pretty quickly!!! Lol! The integral passively cooled heatsink needs to be convection cooled and therefore should be used in a ventilated case design.

Andrew

Thanks for the warning.

The only idea was to give it a place to live.  I have no issue with cutting vent/fan holes into the box.  It was already on my mind.  I'll have to decide exactly how I want to ventilate it when I have the board and can verify that it can in fact live in the tiny cash box.  I really can't imagine it needing much more than a small fan though.  I'm not even sure said fan would need to be moving at full power. 

I wish I had real info to report..... stupid pre-order.

The real issue to me is that ITX cases are either not suited to diskless MDs or are overpriced or both.  I'm willing to have an adventure to save that money.  If you have better suggestions, speak

I'm certainly not saying it will need a fan... if you go for the fanless model. But what it will need is ventilation slots to allow for convective cooling.

Andrew

[castlec]

I'm certainly not saying it will need a fan... if you go for the fanless model. But what it will need is ventilation slots to allow for convective cooling.

Andrew

Agreed.  I could see it being possible that it would need a small fan.  I don't think it would though.  All the same, dremel to the rescue 

[Zaerc]

Instead of a small fan you might want to consider a big one and have it run slowly, that will be more quiet.

[castlec]

Instead of a small fan you might want to consider a big one and have it run slowly, that will be more quiet.

You're right.  It all depends on the layout and what's actually necessary.  We'll see ).