Fanless ION2 dual core

[sub]

We've seen lots of cool ION/ION2 devices announced over the last 18 months or so, many of which never seem to materialise.

The latest I've seen is this one: http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=iIZKMXSj0jZKiebE. Dual core atom, fanless, 802.11n, USB3, etc. Apparently its already available from some European online retailers. If only it had popped up a week earlier... I could have used by birthday as an excuse to buy myself a present

[ShiningDragon]

Hehe

I am already using 2 older ION platforms from ASUS. But if i look back, i wouldn't buy another ION again. The powerconsumption is for the delivered (non-) power to high, the power of the cpu is low; especially if you're using software modes for raising the picturequality. As server it has not enough connections (s-ata ports, pci (e) slots). From AMD side i would get much more for the price of an ION2 platform (germany EUR 147,--), like the ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 (germany EUR ~90,--)and an AMD Athlon X2 250 (germany EUR ~50,--), which has much more power, flexibility and lesser power consumption.

The only "pro" argument is the ITX formfactor of the ION². ;D

A friend of mine has built a mediacenter based on an old T5500 mobile CPU and has with harddisk and tv-card a power consumption of 27 watts per hour. To compare my ION 1 is eating 60 watts per hour idle and nearly 90 watts per hour, if the integrated graphics unit is full used. ^^;

[sub]

The biggest plus about this device for me is that it is totally fanless, which isnt easily achieved with any roll your own solution like the ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 you mention. I dont really care how much power its consuming, as long as it can be cooled passively.

My lounge PC is getting a bit old now, and needing updating in the near future, but it is a totally fanless PC, and I'm only going to replace with another silent PC. I know alot of people claim the fan in their PC is really quiet, but its nowhere near as quiet - particularly when the tv is off and the room is quiet. I'm really use to the silence, and would hate replacing it with a PC with a fan.

[ShiningDragon]

Yeah, you're right. The plus is, that the fanless running is guaranteed by the manufacturer. I am sure, that the amd config could be run fanless too, if the cpu stays on the lowest multiplicator (and lower voltage); but even then it had a lot more power, than the ion².

Many ION1 runs fanless too, or have small 40mm fans (noisy, weak) on their coolers... but the temperatur is far to high. 90° C for an ATOM 330 is a bit to high for me (On my board i removed the 40mm fan and put an 92mm instead. The temperature went down from 90°C to 40°C, but it's not really silent)

The best were, you would test an ION² before you buy it.

[mvallevand]

Sub, your link didn't work for me but I know the ION2 product as the EB1012p and here is a link
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=3qRH01yHQFgo84hY I don't think they are called ION2 anymore I've seen GT218-ION more often recently.

Martin

[sub]

Sub, your link didn't work for me but I know the ION2 product as the EB1012p and here is a link
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=3qRH01yHQFgo84hY I don't think they are called ION2 anymore I've seen GT218-ION more often recently.

Odd. Link still seems to be working for me. Google 'AT5IONT-I'. Its a motherboard rather than a complete PC. Also has a PCIe slot which could be used for a tuner if you wanted.

[ShiningDragon]

To be more precise:

It's called 1st gen ION respective 2nd gen ION (optimus technology) [ http://www.nvidia.com/object/sff_ion.html] ], but the 2nd gen ION has the same weakness then the 1st gen ION. Nice to "play" with, but far to expensive for this.

Also has a PCIe slot which could be used for a tuner if you wanted.

This were only the interesting, when the nPVR integrated Server/Client mode were a hybrid... client uses the tv cards in the server via stream AND has 1 tuner/2 tuners via PCIe Slot... ok sub, now you know how you could extend the networkfunctionality of nPVR. ;D (yes, i had really usage of this "hybrid" mode).

[elbryyan]

The biggest plus about this device for me is that it is totally fanless, which isnt easily achieved with any roll your own solution like the ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 you mention. I dont really care how much power its consuming, as long as it can be cooled passively.

My lounge PC is getting a bit old now, and needing updating in the near future, but it is a totally fanless PC, and I'm only going to replace with another silent PC. I know alot of people claim the fan in their PC is really quiet, but its nowhere near as quiet - particularly when the tv is off and the room is quiet. I'm really use to the silence, and would hate replacing it with a PC with a fan.

Does that include a fanless power supply?

[sub]

Does that include a fanless power supply?

Do mean my current PC or that one above? My current one has a fanless power supply in the case. Its the weirdest thing you've ever seen, some toroidal donut thing, rather than a regular enclosed PC PSU.

If you're referring to the AT5IONT-I above, there is a 'AT5IONT-I Deluxe' version with external laptop type PSU.

[elbryyan]

Yes, i was referring to your current one sorry. I think I searched for fanless power supplies before but I think I remember people having problems with them so I didn't pursue it more.