CAT | Hardware
Sapphire have unveiled their 785G based ITX board, the catchily named IPC-AM3DD785G.
The IPC-AM3DD785G combines AMD’s AM3 Athlon and Phenom processors with a power draw of up to 65W with the 785G chipset and a single PEG slot for those need a little extra graphical bite in their ITX systems. The use of the SB710 southbridge rules out features such as Core Unlocking however, but does still offer support for RAID 0, 1 and 10.
Sapphire bills the board as an Industrial design, but HDMI output from the integrated Radeon HD 4200 graphics means it should also be of interest to those building an AMD based HTPC. Looking at online pricing seems to be around the £100 mark in the UK.
ZOTAC has followed in Shuttles footsteps in announcing a small form factor Atom and ION2 design, the ZBOX HD-ID11.
The HD-ID11 will be offered as a barebones design, features Intel’s Atom D510 alongside NVIDIA’s ION2 and includes built in 802.11n wireless and a 6-in-1 card reader, with users adding their own hard drive, memory and O/S. A bracket is included allowing the HD-ID11 to be mounted discretely onto the back of a VESA monitor.
Despite the inclusion of ION2 there is no room inside the unit for an optical drive, so users hoping to use one for High-Definition content would either have to stream it over the network or use an external USB drive.
More details are available on the ZOTAC website, while prices are expected to be around $209 – no word yet on UK pricing.
Following on from yesterdays look at the Zotac H55-ITX Anandtech has another ITX LGA1156 review.
So next on the test bench is the Intel DH57JG “Jet Geyser” board, a no-frills H57 board with an emphasis on reliability over high-end features, so head on over to see how it fairs.
1
Anandtech takes a look at the Zotac H55-ITX
No comments · Posted by James Thorburn in Hardware
Anandtech has today posted a review of the Zotac H55-ITX motherboard, a Core i3, i5 and i7 motherboard boasting a tiny ITX footprint, on-board 802.11n wireless and some excellent power consumption numbers – less than 40W at idle for a full i3-530 system using integrated graphics.
They also test it with a quad-core and Radeon HD5770 with some promising results, so if you’re looking for an ITX board with plenty flexibility and which packs a mighty punch we recommend heading on over to take a read.
Small form factor specialists Shuttle have recently launched a pair of new designs, one a new all-in-one system based around the ‘PineTrail’ Atom combined with NVIDIA ION2 graphics, the other a G41 based XPC introducing their J1-series chassis.
The Shuttle XS35 is a tiny 1-litre chassis utilising the Intel Atom D510, with its dual 1.66GHz cores, the Intel NM10 Express Chipset, and NVIDIA’s ION2 graphics processor for an extra 3D and HD performance boost. At present though Shuttle have not announced details regarding the systems pricing or other hardware details.
Regardless it shall be interesting to see if the Atom D510 and ION2 combination gives it enough performance to make it a cost effective media solution.
Next up the SG41J1 aims a little higher up the performance ladder. This barebone chassis looks along the lines of the more traditional Shuttle XPC designs, and features an Intel G41 equipped motherboard, capable of taking Intel’s Celeron, Pentium and Core 2 range of processors.
Unfortunately A/V connectivity appears to be a little limited, with just VGA and analogue 5.1 outputs respectively, but the J1 chassis design is able to accommodate a full height, dual slot graphics card for those who want more in the way of graphics power. Alternatively a single slot graphics card could be paired up with a PCI TV tuner or sound card.
Interestingly, and in a divergence from previous generation XPCs, the J1 chassis design is compatible with the ITX form factor, so users needed worry about not being able to upgrade the system once it reaches the end of its useful life – a main bug-bearer for many a user of previous generation XPCs. H55 and X58 variants are due out later this year.
