Hasta La Gadget!

Jonesing for a new small form factor PC, are you? Not so keen on selecting a pre-fabricated unit? If you definitely fit the bill here, it’s worth taking a gander at Zotac’s recently released IONITX-A motherboard. As the first of its breed to actually ship, a whole lot is riding on its solder points, and according to reviews found ’round the web, it’s done a satisfactory job of living up to expectations. The test bench-abusin’ kids over at Hot Hardware found that Zotac’s board (and the included dual-core Atom 330 CPU) performed “as expected,” notching results that were “significantly better than any of the single core Atom 230-based systems.” The unique DC power input was also lauded, and the silent nature made this a perfect candidate for a low-power, highly-capable carputer building block. All in all, this here mobo won’t transform your life, but it’s certainly a welcome extra in the all-too-stale DIY SFF market. Check the links below for all the bar charts you can handle.

Read – Hot Hardware (“most appealing of the Ion-based products”)
Read – PC Perspective (“an impressive motherboard for its size”)
Read – The Tech Report (“as good as the Ion platform gets”)
Read – Tom’s Hardware (“it’s most promising destination is in the HTPC space”)

Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs, Peripherals

Zotac Ion-based IONITX-A SFF motherboard review roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 08:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

We’d heard a few whispers rolling through the gentle breeze that Zotac would be hopping on the Ion bandwagon early on, and sure enough, it looks like said firm is indeed latched on. Reportedly, the outfit will be producing a few Mini-ITX motherboards in the near future that support Intel’s Atom 230 / 330 processors and come loaded with NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M G chipsets. The mobos would also include all of the basic amenities: Ethernet, two RAM slots, HDMI / DVI / VGA outputs, a trio of SATA ports and a WiFi module. There’s still no word on what system maker is looking to slap these into their next-generation nettops, but who knows, maybe this will end up being the first standalone Ion-based board for the DIYers in attendance.

[Via Expreview, thanks Shawn]

Filed under: Desktops

Zotac jumping in Ion-filled waters with new Mini-ITX motherboards originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Things are finally hotting up in NVIDIA’s ION camp. An official press release now tells that the first batch of “incredibly small and affordable PCs” (like the Acer Hornet rumored for an April 8th launch) are due in Q2 — that’s as early as today folks, on up through the end of June. Along with the new gear, NVIDIA is promising optimized software support from powerhouse developers like Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts in an effort to signal the platform’s suitability for serving up 1080p video over HDMI in a home theater as well as gaming, photo editing, and general computing in nettop- and netbook-sized devices. Bring it, we say… we’re so over Intel’s GM945-class chipsets.

Continue reading Video: NVIDIA’s ION-based netbooks and nettops are go for launch

Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Video: NVIDIA’s ION-based netbooks and nettops are go for launch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Despite NVIDIA‘s claims that we’d have an Ion desktop sometime this Spring, we still haven’t really seen it in consumer-bound hardware — until now, that is. Although unconfirmed, slides have purportedly leaked out of what is said to be the Acer Hornet Ion-based nettop. Aside from the platform and a HDMI output, we don’t have any specs for the machine. What we do know is that it’s sporting a wireless game controller / air mouse — in case you didn’t pick up on the Wii influence, one of those background photos is a direct rip from NIntendo’s ad campaign — and can apparently hang from the back of LCD TVs. The images also tout its eco-friendly design, small form factor, “silent operation,” and a price tag of only a couple hundred dollars. Elaborate Photoshop or impending PC? Something feels fishy here, so while we sit and impatiently wait for some official word, hit up the read link for more pics.

[Via Slash Gear]

Filed under: Desktops

Acer’s Ion-based Hornet nettop leaked in presentation slides? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

It’s pretty clear NVIDIA already has some big plans for its new nettop / netbook-specific Ion platform, and it looks like its reach is about to get broader still, with company president Jen-Hsun Huang reportedly confirming that the platform will also support VIA’s Nano processor by the end of the year. As you may recall, the two companies had been in off and on talks about a partnership last year before things finally fell though in November, and there was even a point where it seemed like NVIDIA might actually acquire VIA. No word from Intel on this latest development, although it doesn’t seem like it’ll be affecting the Atom’s status as the go-to processor in the short term. There’s also unfortunately no indication as to exactly what sort of VIA-powered, Ion-based systems we can expect to see, although it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if they followed the Ion / Atom combo and went with a nettop first.

[Via GadgetMix.com]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA Ion platform to support VIA Nano processors this year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments