NVIDIA ION - release

[David]

When is this coming out, it's delayed over a month now, desperate t get my hands on it, anyone?

 

[Mike_182]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-003-ZT&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1436

Not too far off I don't think? Epic stuff for my plans of doing a car computer!

 

[David]

wtf it says they're instock!?! (the ones without cpus)

rekon it's worth sticking in a nice quad in there over the atom? would be quicker if anything right?

 

[Mike_182]

It's not an ION if it's not got the chip soldered on - Atom chips aren't socket-based, they're solder-on!

 

[David]

yeh just read that, ah ffs, i need this so bad for my htpc setup! 1080p setup for £300 is amazing.

 

[McBunny]

 

[Adam K]

yeh just read that, ah ffs, i need this so bad for my htpc setup! 1080p setup for £300 is amazing.

you could build one easily enough for £300 with a gigabyte MA78GM-S2H and something like a 5400+ processor, and it would be a much better all round machine. it has an ati hd3200 built onto the mobo with hdmi out and HD hardware accelleration, so no stuttering at all on even 1080p stuff.

only reason i can see to go for the ION is for size alone.

 

[David]

mcbunny....is that yours?? come on spill the beans.

adam - yeh but it's also fanless... what chipset is that gigabyte, couldn't find it on overclockers, although i'm sure it's prob just me!

 

[Mike_182]

you could build one easily enough for £300 with a gigabyte MA78GM-S2H and something like a 5400+ processor, and it would be a much better all round machine. it has an ati hd3200 built onto the mobo with hdmi out and HD hardware accelleration, so no stuttering at all on even 1080p stuff.

only reason i can see to go for the ION is for size alone.

Even though the ION uses a more modern and better GPU, which does the HD decoding.

ION understanding FAIL.

 

[KDF]

OOoo hadn't seen this before.. imagine a beowolf cluster of them...

 

[McBunny]

david no i wish lol its a new sparkle htpc they are doing called the cuti (i hate the horse on it lol )

top box is a tv tuner middle box is the pc bottom box is a caddy to plug in 3.5" drives

 

[David]

nice, but you know, i think i like the nvidia box off the nvidia website the most, i've bene looking at case options for a while and none really stand out. just want it now with 7 rc1 on there. was thinking about getting a small solid state fo rthe os and just streaming all the date directly to it over the network.

 

[McBunny]

good idea you wont get the nvidia one though as they arnt releasing that one its just an engineering sample


the mini itx bords will fit in normal atx cases so any case will work really

 

[David]

f**k that!!! it's going in the smallest case i can find muahahahah

 

[McBunny]

well good luck you could make your own

 

[Edit]

good idea you wont get the nvidia one though as they arnt releasing that one its just an engineering sample


the mini itx bords will fit in normal atx cases so any case will work really

Got my email telling me that this bundle was dispatched today.

Zotac ION-ITX-A Wi-Fi / M350 Mini-ITX Case / 4gb RAM with a 500gb hard drive.

It is the Nvidia one unless I'm mistaken...

 

[David]

where from?!?! is that the 230 model or the 330? i want the 330 so bad!! ahh

 

[Mike_182]

330 chip is delayed *I think*.

 

[McBunny]

Got my email telling me that this bundle was dispatched today.

Zotac ION-ITX-A Wi-Fi / M350 Mini-ITX Case / 4gb RAM with a 500gb hard drive.

It is the Nvidia one unless I'm mistaken...

well yes the ion is nvidia but he was meaning the nvidia ion reference sample that is kicking about, see below

 

[Edit]

That's the 330 chip, I ordered in the middle of May.

It's being delivered today. Will post a review/first thoughts as I have them!

 

[David]

WHERE FROM YOU CHIEF!

 

[Edit]

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=53#ION-ITX-A-may-2009-bundle

 

[David]

why is there a fan on the heatsink thought it was fanless design, damn.

you decided not get o get ssd then

 

[Edit]

Thought about it, but would have also needed an external hdd for storage.

I'll see how I get on with just the 500gb to start.

 

[McBunny]

why is there a fan on the heatsink thought it was fanless design, damn.

you decided not get o get ssd then

it can be fanless but it comes with one just in case

 

[David]

case looks ok, nice n small.

 

[Edit]

it can't be run without it's fan. says that on that site.

 

[McBunny]

hmm all the other i have read have said it can as it doesnt come with it attached anyway

to quote zotac
"optional fan to be used in dual core 330 installs in cases with poor ventilation "

 

[David]

ok it's out

mcbunny, have you made the purchase yet? i'm thinking this one?

there are a few, any advice?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-001-PV&groupid=701&catid=209&subcat=1416

 

[David]

can't decide on a casee ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Edit]

M350 Universal case works well. In order to get the best from the board, especially with 720/1080p media, you will have to use codecs which support nvidia cuda. I chose media player classic, and the coreavc codec.

mkv files on vlc were stuttery.

Tried win xp first, and had trouble with hdmi audio. Vista works fine once you've loaded the drivers.

Considering going back to XP now though, as I'm not using the HDMI port.

 

[David]

hmmm

i have always used combined community codec pack. have you tried that? should get verything working i nmedia centre.

how have you found the playback aside from that?

does the m350 case support 3.5" hard drive?

 

[Edit]

hmmm

i have always used combined community codec pack. have you tried that? should get verything working i nmedia centre.

how have you found the playback aside from that?

does the m350 case support 3.5" hard drive?

Not tried that. I'm using Vlc for divx files, and media player classic for mkv.

playback works well.

M350 does not support 3.5" drives.

The board has to be run with a fan.

 

[David]

i'm looking at this one at the moment

the 8k07

http://www.compucase-hec.co.uk/pccase_mini-itx_8k.htm


how are you finding the noise levels with the fan going? i'd give cccp a go, they're very widely used and i've never had one issue with playback. can use on vista 32bit and xp

 

[McBunny]

right id avoid the m350 case its hideous imho also with it been so small you will need to use a fan a bigger case you can go fanless


as i said before any atx case will work also matx etc yes teh case will be a bit larger but will support 3.5 drives and 5.25 full size optical drives for a cheap bluray playback

you do have to be carefull with codecs or you will end up with a machine that cant do s**t some

ffdshow can be got towork with playing but core avc is just easier to use combine that with kmplayer and media portal and your laughing


but no i havent bought one yet im broke after stereo purchasing

 

[David]

what you think of the case i suggested? i'm thinking i should get a 1.5tb green WD drive in there for storage. i'm just wondering if i should wait and see how bad the codec problems are. don't want to blow £300 on a system that won't do EVERYTHING i throw at it. it's mostly for 1080p mkvs and i wanted to run it through windows media centre which has always been ok in the past.

also cypinis, how you finding the cpu speed etc?

 

[McBunny]

there isnt a codec issue if you use the right ones

the case looks ok but id not get it doe to the optical drive i dont want to spend £200 on a bluray drive i may as well just buy a propper one at that price

 

[David]

i'm not a fan of blu rays....not got any...and i have a ps3 if i really want them. just want it looking nice and able to fit a 3.5" hdd.

so basically i need to use the codecs that come with the mobo? or just look for ones that work etc

 

[Edit]

The cpu can be easily overclocked to 2ghz x 2, but it ran warmer, and I didn't think it was worth the risk.

The whole point of me getting a mini-itx board was that it is small. That's why I got the m350 case.

No issue with noise. If I wasn't listening for it in an entirely silent room, I wouldn't know it was there.

The manufacturer states that the ION-ITX-A CANNOT be run without it's fan.

Codecs need to be downloaded.

If you do go for an m350 case, bear in mind that you will also need a usb cd drive to install the drivers/OS. (I installed Vista from usb drive).

I may give cccp a shot, where can I get it from?

 

[David]

spent a lot of time using various codecs. these have always come out trumps. even on 64bit systems (the only problem being a thumbnail issue).

32bit OS works brilliantly though, i'd apprciate your feedback on it actually.

http://cccp-project.net/