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

[mrubermonkey]

This Ion is useless for the future of web applications. Just try playing a full screen HD video on Dailymotion with this platform without the video constantly stuttering. Try playing the video at the end of this link full screen to see what I mean: http://www.dailymotion.com/gb/video/x93zji_the-hunt-for-gollum-hd-version_shortfilms

 

[frisky]

Granted, we could have done significantly better in the power department had we been a little choosier with our CPU. The Athlon X2 7850 was attractive due to its $69 price tag, 2.8 GHz clock speed, and unlocked multiplier, but its Kuma core is still rated at 95 W. You can dip down to the $60 Athlon X2 5050e (running at 2.6 GHz) and cut your maximum TDP down to 45W for $10 less.

I have a 4200 brisbane G2 running at 30W idle for the whole system.
Abit 7050, 1x 2GB ram, 320GB 2.5" HDD, DVD-RW writer. If I use a 780G it will be a few watts higher, (but far more powerful IGP). Peak load is like 70W.

Wouldn't that be a far better comparison as compared to that Kuma?
That is using a far less efficient 300W PSU.

 

[WheelsOfConfusion]

[citation][nom]Cangelini[/nom]Granted, we could have done significantly better in the power department had we been a little choosier with our CPU. The Athlon X2 7850 was attractive due to its $69 price tag, 2.8 GHz clock speed, and unlocked multiplier, but its Kuma core is still rated at 95 W. You can dip down to the $60 Athlon X2 5050e (running at 2.6 GHz) and cut your maximum TDP down to 45W for $10 less.[/citation]
Is there supposed to be some kind of compelling reason in there as to why you did NOT go with the more suitable processor? I mean, unlocked multipliers aren't even important for these tests.

 

[enterco]

[citation][nom]mrubermonkey[/nom]This Ion is useless for the future of web applications. Just try playing a full screen HD video on Dailymotion with this platform without the video constantly stuttering. Try playing the video at the end of this link full screen to see what I mean: http://www.dailymotion.com/gb/vide [...] shortfilms[/citation]
That HD movie played on Adobe Flashplayer eats more than 30% off a E2160 CPU, and it also shutters. Perhaps Adobe Flash Player could use some hardware acceleration.

 

[mrubermonkey]

Good review, but consider more file server type benchmarks for this type of hardware. Maybe a do-it-yourself NAS solution based on this platform could be compared to some of the overpriced NAS solutions from other companies or something like that.

 

[nonameno12]

Actually they couldn't have done worse on the processor.
Kuma is a BARCELONA (quad core, 65 μm) with two cores disabled.
Power-wise a quad core (even with 2 cores disabled) sucks much more than an X2.
They're comparing apples to twixs

 

[mrubermonkey]

Adobe Flash Player is one of the most common plug-ins used to play video on the WWW. If a computer cannot handle modern implementations then it will probably have bigger problems in the upcoming future.

 

[Guest]

I'd have to agree with mrhands...

*Finally*, we have an affordable, low-power, silent mini-ITX board with decent GPU, a board that's easily able to do 1080p without big fans, has HDMI/DVI/VGA, WiFi and optical out, which is ideal for a DIY HTPC that can also act as a simple home media/web server, and instead of a positive reception half of the people here (including the reviewer) discount this board because it can't run some freaking games, it doesn't have the fastest CPU around, and then compare it to a micro-ATX board with a cpu that runs twice as hot and needs a case with three times the volume. You guys must be kidding.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]mrhands[/nom]The reviewer doesn't understand the target market for this board AT ALL.The target market for these low power ITX boards is:#1 HTPC crowd#2 LOW POWER 24/7 HOME SERVER crowd#3 MAME / EMULATION CROWD[/citation]

Blah blah blah THE SO-CALLED HOME-THEATER CROWD WE SEE ON THE INTERNET DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE ABOUT HOME THEATER EITHER. I remember when an HTPC replaced EVERYTHING in your A/V rack except the amplifier. That includes the gaming console, any and all video devices, even the FM tuner if you think you need one. As a Home Theater platform, the Atom and ION are jokes.

You need a real video card and a real processor to build a versitile home theater system. If it can't replace a bunch of stuff, it's just another toy.

If it's just another toy, you'd might as well use a TiVO. Or WebTV. Just keep stacking the trash, if you make the devices small enough maybe people won't notice that there's boxes and cords all over the place. At least, that's what you can tell yourself.

 

[Guest]

@Crashman:
Your definition of an HTPC doesn't have to fit everyone else's, you realize that don't you.

Myself, I'm still running XBMC on an old Xbox Classic. It's my primary video player and it's used on a regular basis to play anything I get from the internet, and it has my music on it which is streamed to tiny streaming media player with a nice display, that I don't want to put in my AV cabinet but in full view so I can see what's playing. I don't need an optical drive, I don't need a TV tuner and I don't need to play games on it, because that's what I have my set-top decoder/DVR and my PS3 for. I wouldn't even be able to use a DIY HTPC for that anyway because here all digital TV is encrypted, and the games I like are primarily console-only.

With a box based on this platform I will finally be able to replace that old Xbox, without having to resort to putting a desktop PC next to my TV. That box will do 1080p, will make less noise, will run a fully featured Linux OS and anything I want to throw at it, and will do all of that much better than the Xbox.

 

[daeros]

Temper your excitement about those modern memory and bus settings, though. The Atom 330 soldered onto Zotac’s board sports a 533 MHz FSB and communicates with DDR2 modules-only.

Umm, no. As far as FSB goes, Intel has shown plans for 800FSB Atoms, and Intel's processors (except i7) have nothing to do with what kind of memory they talk to. That is all handled by the chipset. Remember how VIA stole so much business from Intel's chipset division back in the P4 (RDRAM v. DDR) days? That's b/c the processor DOESN'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF MEMORY IT'S TALKING TO!

Isn't this supposed to be a tech site? Shouldn't you have people who know what they write about? Or, at least, can do some basic research?

just my $.02

 

[Narg]

Why not review this setup against the AMD Neo platform?

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Daeros[/nom]the processor DOESN'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF MEMORY IT'S TALKING TO![/citation]

I thought it was refering to the chipset not supporting the proper ratios for normal DDR3 memory speeds when used with a 533 MHz FSB processor?

 

[drealar]

That list includes Age of Empires III, several games in the Battlefield franchise, Call of Duty 4, C&C: Red Alert 3, Iron Man, Spore, and a couple of

Warcraft games

. Many of those are older titles with significant replay value, suggesting that the integrated graphics core is quick enough to serve up reasonable frame rates

Although I'm reading this article to find out how did the Zotac performed, I'm glad to be able to find out that intergrated 9300 can run WORLD OF WARCRAFT fairly well even with an Atom. This is the stuff that have been missing from previous low-cost setup and integrated GPUs reviews.

Guys at Tom's, can you really really please include WoW, Warcraft 3, or even Guild Wars; I mean any game even legacy games with great replay value, in your next reviews on integrated GPUs and low-cost PC setup? It would have mean a lot to readers; including myself, who like to watch movies, surf the net and only play games casually (maybe hardcore sometimes, but the games themselves aren't really taxing)

On another note, I wonder what can we expect from an Ion setup with the new 2GHz Atom

 

[cangelini]

Drealar,

Absolutely--in fact, I'm looking to get a WoW-dedicated performance story planned!

 

[haze4peace]

This would make a good car computer.

 

[drealar]

Wow!! Thanks for replying Chris. Glad to hear it

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]drealar[/nom]. Many of those are older titles with significant replay value, suggesting that the integrated graphics core is quick enough to serve up reasonable frame rates[/quote]Although I'm reading this article to find out how did the Zotac performed, I'm glad to be able to find out that intergrated 9300 can run WORLD OF WARCRAFT fairly well even with an Atom. This is the stuff that have been missing from previous low-cost setup and integrated GPUs reviews.Guys at Tom's, can you really really please include WoW, Warcraft 3, or even Guild Wars; I mean any game even legacy games with great replay value, in your next reviews on integrated GPUs and low-cost PC setup? It would have mean a lot to readers; including myself, who like to watch movies, surf the net and only play games casually (maybe hardcore sometimes, but the games themselves aren't really taxing)On another note, I wonder what can we expect from an Ion setup with the new 2GHz Atom[/citation]

I'm not so sure this platform can actually run wow. Sure it'll run ironforge, but will it really work? I can't imagine anyone doing a raid or bg with this!

I've got a spare computer at home. In case my system all of a sudden fails as was the case last summer when my 8800gtx retired.
That backup system's an old brisbane dualcore mashine (see my config). Even with a 4870 or 8800gtx that system isn't running wow much better than it is with its own 6800 card. It's simply lacking cpu power - especially after the 3.0.2 patch. So a 1.6ghz processor is really unlikely to perform well in situations with a lot of action.

And in any event - wow is a hundred years old now, so that it can run it is a bit like saying 'buy this new mercedes! it has a radio built in'

 

[drealar]

@neiroatopelcc

Like I said, I'm just glad to see WoW running fairly good with intergrated GPU. So that probably means... Tom's setup in their previous reviews on AMD 790GX and NVidia m9300 can run WoW or other non-taxing MMO smoothly with details on. It is this kind of games that were missing in the benchmark of those reviews, including sub$250 setups. Simply coz most people who target those kind of machine setup, play these kind of games.

Now I'm also excited to see what kind of test will Chris run with WoW in his next article **I take that as a promise Chris ** In any way, if it includes a benchmark of WoW running on multiple low-cost setup, that would be a great news to me since I can estimate how my other MMO games will run on those machines (Guild Wars, Lineage and good old WC3 mod: DotA)

You can say I'm kind of a minimalist Low power, more than enough for my kind of games, and good overall experience (watching movies, occasional encoding, great surfing, and every other moderate stuff)

 

[cangelini]

It's been in the works for a while, but it WILL happen

 

[neiroatopelcc]

well most of these will run just fine really. They're based on very old directx standards, so anything with enough cpu power and memory (wow requirement=memory requirement) and a non intel gpu will work to some extend.
I actually built an allround pc for someone back in february using an msi 790gx board, a corsair psu and the 5050e cpu mentioned - along with 4gb kingston or corsair memory - don't remember. Worked just fine. And for that sake, I bet even an old onboard x200 chip would suffice. I've been able to play wow (prior to version 3 patch in november 2008) on a laptop with a T5500, 1gb memory and a poor intel graphics solution - so if your requirements are minimalistic, anything will work. Just don't expect to run wow in 1600x1200 in window mode with everything on full and have youtube run on the other monitor at the same time.

 

[Guest]

I wished you had compared this DC Atom Ion setup to the singlecore version.

Atom 330 VS 270 would be nice!

Gaming:
This system is a perfect replacement for a nintendo Wii. It outperforms the Wii so, why not?

Why take this system:
-Price
-Powerconsumption

It's a good system to leave on all day. Kind of like a cheap desktop replacement for mail, internet, and perhaps stock market programs.
Good enough for that!

I'd suggest running XP on that thing! It really needs XP, and get a 16-32GB SSD drive on the mini PCIE slot.
Those drives generally boost the performance of the processor.

I'm a little dissapointed in the speed of the processor. I had hoped it would be faster to the N270; but it seems it can do very little more than what the N270 + ION can do.

Just for reference, could you test HD Blueray playback on the N330 and the N270 with the Ion platform, and is there a possibility to run CUDA technology on the Atom powered device?
If so, it could give the Atom processor the boost it needs, and would be good enough to run Vista.

 

[rui-no-onna]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Yes, you'll be fine with Hulu videos.[/citation]
Have you actually tried this with Hulu that you can make such declarations? I suggest you actually test it first before making any statements. Hulu, particularly in full screen mode, is CPU-hungry. Since it's Flash-based and hardware acceleration isn't available for Flash, the 9300 graphics won't do much.

 

[Lans]

I thought article was pretty good in addressing Ion's marketed targets and how well it performed at them.

One question though, I assume the power numbers for both the Ion and 780G are using Enermax ETK405AST 405W so what of numbers would the Ion post using the 90W PSU brick (as allured to in article)? Or a 60W or even smaller?

Just wondering how low can you push the Ion..

 

[skoad1]

We're missing a niche market for the Ion from the article. This has the base for a powerful, small, low energy car-pc.