Net Top PC for GBPVR?

[ilovejedd]

hi,
i'd love an ION board, among other things for the low power requirements vs the micro-ATX.
only - does anybody know how to attach a tv with only analog input to a system without tv-out?

For this, I don't see how the ION makes sense. You'd probably be better off with the Intel D945GCLF2 which already has S-Video out.

[speising]

yes, thats the only atom 330 board with tv-out right now. unfortunately, it has lower graphics performance and higher power requirements...

[ilovejedd]

Question for 'ilovejedd'. Just wondering do you know can that Micro-ATX build handle BBC iPlayer HD? For some wierd reason its a particular resource hog.

Apparently, I won't be able to test it. BBC does have geographics restrictions and given that I live in the US, there goes that... I guess the best equivalent we have over here is Hulu HD and yes, the E5200 handles it beautifully. I reckon the Athlon 240 will, too.

yes, thats the only atom 330 board with tv-out right now. unfortunately, it has lower graphics performance and higher power requirements...

Yes, well, the difference in power requirement is a whopping 4 watts at idle. Not exactly drastic, at least for a desktop that's going to be powered via a wall outlet. As for the Micro-ATX build, I'd peg idle power consumption at 30~40W with a good PSU. Not that much more than the ION considering it's way ahead in terms of performance.

With regards to lower graphics performance, your output is 480i. What exactly would you need higher performance for? You're better off investing on a new HDTV than on an ION build.

[mvallevand]

Seems to be the PCH or EGreat should be at least a consideration, with HDMI, component, composite and svideo with full hardware "transcoding" of HD material. No problem with BBC HD or ITV at least in my samples. 1/2 the price too.

Martin

[speising]

Yes, well, the difference in power requirement is a whopping 4 watts at idle. Not exactly drastic, at least for a desktop that's going to be powered via a wall outlet.

4 watts? what i read was ~20w vs. ~40w for full systems.

[ilovejedd]

4 watts? what i read was ~20w vs. ~40w for full systems.

Are we still talking about NVIDIA vs Intel chipset for the Atom? If so, then those results are because most review sites use inappropriately high wattage power supplies for the Intel D945GCLF2. They can't very well do that for the Zotac IONITX-A-U, could they? It already has a very efficient onboard power supply. Power supplies are expected to meet their rated efficiency from 20~100% load. If load is less than 20%, then you'll probably see the efficiency drop. They measured 40W. Even calculated at 80% efficiency, actual load would be around 32W. If you factor in the drop in efficiency, say it went down to 70%, actual load would only be 28W. By the way, I just read a review by Tom's Hardware comparing IGP motherboards targeted towards the HTPC crowd. Know what power supply they were using? Thermaltake 1200W. I wouldn't be surprised if actual power consumption of the systems they tested using a more suitable power supply is only half of the posted values.

As for actual power consumption, my Zotac IONITX-D-E build consumes 24W idle while the Intel D945GCLF2 consumes 28W measured from the wall using a Kill-A-Watt. Same case, same PSU (high efficiency DC-DC board w/60W AC-DC adapter), Seagate Momentus 5400.4 320GB, no optical drive. The only difference is the Ion build has a 2 sticks of Kingston 2GB DDR2 800 SDRAM CL6 installed, instead of just one on the Intel build.

[speising]

As for actual power consumption, my Zotac IONITX-D-E build consumes 24W idle while the Intel D945GCLF2 consumes 28W measured from the wall using a Kill-A-Watt. Same case, same PSU (high efficiency DC-DC board w/60W AC-DC adapter), Seagate Momentus 5400.4 320GB, no optical drive. The only difference is the Ion build has a 2 sticks of Kingston 2GB DDR2 800 SDRAM CL6 installed, instead of just one on the Intel build.

oh, all right, all i've seen so far said the chipset on the D945GCLF2 takes 25w alone, interesting to read that, thank you!