- very small and low heat means very little cooling and a quiet fan
- 18W TDP - very low power
- the gpu does 1080p, is an extremely fast DX11 part, and can play games (!), and accelerate flash/html5/other apps (using OpenCL). AMD IGP's are much better than Intel's anemic offerings
- since its AMD, will be a performance bargain
- likely work with older hardware (socket and memory details unknown)
- better than Sandy Bridge for a lower price
- aimed at notebook/netbook market
- shipping Q4 2010
If it ships on time, I'm really looking forward to some Christmas deals!
I am updating information as I get it. If your interested in a Zacate board, its likely the first mITX boards to hit the US market will be the Jetway NC85 (Dual Core Zacate) and the ASRock E350-M1
Both should be sub-$100 boards, or known as the "no fills" Zacate board, Price Leaders, Value Leaders, whatever.
All have the basics and one advantage to the Jetway, is that it has a horizontal PCIe x1 slot. Which is perfect for Habey's AMD/ATI based hardware accelerated dual tuner card . You could avoid using a USB Tuner as none of them but the discontinued (but still on Amazon) TV Wonder 650HD USB from Visiontek offers hardware acceleration. Not that MPEG-2 is an issue for these broads, but the closer you can keep your system to idle speed/current the better.
This would free up your USB ports for other items.
I wouldn't call Provantage the most aggressive company with pricing, its only $2 less than the MicroATX Asus board. But it falls into the price range I thought they would fall into giving the featured board status.
Still reasonable however when consider no sales tax (based in Ohio) for most of us. ($149.61 with Ground Shipping)
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion /forum/post/19971607
Sapphire mITX E-350 motherboard listed @ XPCGear for pre-order
This falls about where I thought it would. The Sapphire Pure White Fusion and Asus E35M1 will be the most expensive Zacate boards, still under cutting Intel/ION2 boards by quite a bit.
I am really curious so see where the Jetway board comes in on pricing. With 4 SATA ports out-of-the-box and minimal everything else I have my eye on it for replacing my Pentium 4 home server. If it comes in right around where the current Gigabyte D525 board does it's a done deal -- the tie breaker being the PCI-e slot (although, yes, the thought of trusting all my data to a Jetway board gives me pause).
I am starting to read a little more about zacate. I have a few reservations about the board as far as power of the CPU goes but appreciate that it will work for a lot of people.
I really like the Asus options.
Anyway, this is a rec build that I might do when everything is available. Not incredibly cheaper than the i3 but still might save some people a hundred bucks or so.
Kingston Hyper X 1066hz (2GB) + WD 250GB Blue Laptop Drive ($5 off code) with tax and shipping - $76.67 (code ends Friday)
Habey EMC-800B - $68.99 New Egg ($164.22)
Sammy Slim DVD Burner - $26.99 New Egg ($195.49)
Visiontek TV Wonder 650HD USB - $59.99 Amazon (Needed For HDTV and capture SD D*TV)
$405.09 or so
There's still room for an small SSD (add $40-$60)
Acer Revo 3700 - $378 Amazon
Dell Zino Ready To Ship - $415
That kinda blows up the budget. That HD tuner is one of the best available, it hardware accelerates and you can watch say SD DirecTV on the analog side and record an HD OTA (QAM Cable) on the other tuner, at the same time.
Getting a larger case is an option, I just have to find one I like.
There's really no place to cut corners and that would be using Vista with TV Pack (Fiji) so I can get my sub-channels, plus it records in H.246 (WTV).
If this was like Assassin's strictly media playback and encoding box, the money you would save by dropping the tuner and regular DVD burner could be spent on a BR Drive (read only), it would still be under $500 with tax and shipping ($445.02)
Not quite as fast as i3 when it comes to productivity and encoding BR for large display playback, but more than viable in a HTPC environment and given the price point, I'd say value and performance are on par with Intel's more affordable desktop solution and this an embedded mITX board!
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin /forum/post/19972227
I am starting to read a little more about zacate. I have a few reservations about the board as far as power of the CPU goes but appreciate that it will work for a lot of people.
I really like the Asus options.
Anyway, this is a rec build that I might do when everything is available. Not incredibly cheaper than the i3 but still might save some people a hundred bucks or so.
That board has alot of sex appeal to techies but, it depends on what you're going to do with it. For a silent desktop or a HTPC that you won't be doing any BR streaming over, it makes a tone of sense.
If you're going to be doing BR over your network, don't need USB 3.0 (though given the speed over 2.0, I don't see why you wouldn't) Wifi-N or Bluetooth, then you could get the cheaper MSI board when it comes out or the ASRock which will be about $100, saving $50-60 right off the top.
The Sapphire Pure Fusion makes likely more sense for what your trying to do.
It has Bluetooth, so you can use a Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse and one less USB device plugged into a port. Also a Sony Playstation 3 Remote and Controller would work especially with GameTime! Emulators. Even an old BT PS3 controllers would work better IMHO since I have never owned a MS console.
Also I doubt these with fans are very loud at all. In fact, I'd argue that its quieter than your i3 mITX build under load.
These boards open up all kinds of possibilities and things you wouldn't dare do with pure Intel Hardware.
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion /forum/post/19972074
I am really curious so see where the Jetway board comes in on pricing. With 4 SATA ports out-of-the-box and minimal everything else I have my eye on it for replacing my Pentium 4 home server. If it comes in right around where the current Gigabyte D525 board does it's a done deal -- the tie breaker being the PCI-e slot (although, yes, the thought of trusting all my data to a Jetway board gives me pause).
Jetway gives you pause huh? Interesting, they are a budget board maker but it seems their stuff stands up well. Especially there small form factor products.
The thing I don't like about this board is that they really skimped on ports. No Toslink port? Yikes! If you're using HDMI then this would be fine, but I use VGA for picture and Toslink for audio, means the min no fills board would be the ASRock.
Though this would make a really cheap HTPC...
$80 for the board
$21 for 2GB of Memory
$50 for inWin BQ656
$39x2 for Diamond 750HD TV Tuner USB
$45 for WD 5400rpm 320GB Laptop Drive
If you have standard cable, throw away your cable box! You would have two tuners (both ATSC).
$274 with Linux, $365 with Win7 Home
When budget allows you can get an external BR drive ($99 Plextor) for those runs to the Red Box (comes with Power DVD9 license).
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion /forum/post/19972074
I am really curious so see where the Jetway board comes in on pricing. With 4 SATA ports out-of-the-box and minimal everything else I have my eye on it for replacing my Pentium 4 home server. If it comes in right around where the current Gigabyte D525 board does it's a done deal -- the tie breaker being the PCI-e slot (although, yes, the thought of trusting all my data to a Jetway board gives me pause).
If these zacate systems handle OTA 1080i60 with decent picture quality than I'm in. I will probably go with one of the $100 dollar boards as all I really need is HDMI, desktop size ram slots, and a pcie slot. I will be moving most things on and off it over the network connection so USB3.0 doesn't mean much to me. I will be using WD green drives so sata 6Gbs doesn't mean much either. Can't wait to get some user reviews instead of only the professional reviews that have been out so far.
I already bought a 2g ram stick for $23 and win7 for $75 so I'm pretty much ready to go. I'm using my old case, HD, and blueray so this thing will be dirt cheap for me. Just still a little tempted to go pentium g620t w/radeon 6450.
So, what I didn't realize about the Jetway board was that it actually doesn't have a PCIe slot (it's PCI) and it's the single-core CPU. It might be even cheaper than cheap and probably still very good as a plain ol' file server. It has FIVE SATA ports. FIVE! This could be the killer cheap Home Server board I have been waiting for. I don't think it's HTPC-worthy, especially with the single-core APU.
"The future Mini-ITX motherboard uses the produced on 65- nm technology chipset Hudson-M1, with the single core 40- nm chip AMD Ontario (1,5 GHz e-240 or 1,2 GHz C-30) with radeon HD 6250, it has also two DDR 3-1333 SO-DIMM slot, five SATA ports, one slots PCI, dual gigabit ethernet, 5.1- channel audio, D -Sub, DVI and HDMI out. Jetway NF81-LF is aimed at the industrial and commercial market segment."
You probably won't see this on Newegg.com but at e-itx.com or logicsupply.com instead.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro /forum/post/19973747
If these zacate systems handle OTA 1080i60 with decent picture quality than I'm in. I will probably go with one of the $100 dollar boards as all I really need is HDMI and the pcie slot. I will be moving most things on and off it over the network connection so USB3.0 doesn't mean much to me. I will be using WD green drives so sata 6Gbs doesn't mean much either. Can't wait to get some user reviews instead of only the professional reviews that have been out so far.
I already bought a 2g ram stick for $23 and win7 for $75 so I'm pretty much ready to go. I'm using my old case, HD, and blueray so this thing will be dirt cheap for me. Just still a little tempted to go pentium g620t w/radeon 6450.
The only thing I ask is what will you be doing with the HD6450 that can't be done with HD6130?
Again I think your concerns are unfounded to a point.
Nobody has built it as an HTPC or Media Server or something and review it in a way that makes sense. They kind of look at it as desktop replacement which it can do as long as you don't ask it to do too much. Most people don't do more than read email and surf the web and it handles that just fine.
I'm going to see if I can get a few dollars together and get some parts and build an affordable HTPC myself. I don't have much laying around in terms of parts I can use.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dj4monie /forum/post/19973912
The only thing I ask is what will you be doing with the HD6450 that can't be done with HD6130?
Again I think your concerns are unfounded to a point.
Nobody has built it as an HTPC or Media Server or something and review it in a way that makes sense. They kind of look at it as desktop replacement which it can do as long as you don't ask it to do too much. Most people don't do more than read email and surf the web and it handles that just fine.
I'm going to see if I can get a few dollars together and get some parts and build an affordable HTPC myself. I don't have much laying around in terms of parts I can use.
Hey, I'm on your side. I'm hoping zacate will handle everything I need. I don't have a 3dtv or one that can handle 1080p60 so it should do everything I need. I also agree with you that we need a detailed htpc specific review of zacate. So far there has just been short blips in every review I have seen. I also know this will in no way replace my regor 250/geforce 450 desktop for gaming and just general use. I don't even get why they do gaming benchmarks in the reviews, pointless.
Quote:
IF THERE WAS any doubt that AMD's Brazos platform was going to become popular with the board partners or not, then the news that AMD has at least eight retail motherboard partners with a current total of 18 board designs on the way, should put that doubt to rest. The interesting thing here is that we're just talking motherboard design wins here, it doesn't include various small form factor barebone and system design wins.
Computerbase has gotten their hands on a slide from an AMD presentation revealing how many solutions each of AMD's board partners are working on. As such we're looking at four boards each from Asus and Gigabyte, although Asus will offer two mini ITX as well as two mATX boards whereas Gigabyte will offer four different mini ITX models. MSI will have a mATX board as well as two mini ITX models. Biostar and ASRock are both working on two unknown models and ECS, Foxconn and Sapphire will each offer a mini ITX model.
These are all consumer models as far as we're aware and shouldn't include embedded boards. Many of the boards have already been announced, including all of Asus' models, as well as a model each from ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI and Sapphire so far. As for the others, we're just going to have to wait and see what they have planned, although we wouldn't expect any huge surprises, as there's only so much that can be done with the platform.
We're still missing a few companies from the list, as we know that PowerColor/TUL is working on a solution or two that's not on the list. On top of that we'd expect to see at least a board or two from Zotac, again a company not on the list, especially as the company has already announced SFF solutions based on AMD's Brazos platform. ECS is also said to be readying a barebone solution according to the details leaked from AMD. Hopefully we'll be seeing most of the yet unannounced products on display at CeBit in early March, as this should give AMD's partners a bit more time to finish off their projects than what CES offered.
We can expect 2 more boards from Asus, which I would assume would be the same premium boards shown with less expensive hardware. Basically a mITX board without passive cooling, no WiFi and no Bluetooth but keeps USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0.
We've already seen both mATX boards.
There's four boards expected from Gigabyte, all mITX. I would assume still be a similar structure to its other boards. A loaded board, a mid-range board and a bargain/basic board.
Thus far we've only seen one and its M.I.A at this point on retail shelves.
mATX board from MSI, barebones from Elite Group and mITX from long time AMD partner Foxconn.
I knew Biostar would have something (2 projects) and an ASRock rep mentioned to expect a higher spec board that its $100-$110 board. I would assume that it would have USB 3.0/SATA 3.0 among other things.
There was a hardware delay which is why a majority of them will be available in March and full lines should be out before the end of spring.
Every budget will be represented, but the highest spec board I still don't think will hit more than $160-$170, I don't see how much more you can squeeze on a tiny footprint than what Asus and ECS have done with their passive models.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro /forum/post/19974016
Hey, I'm on your side. I'm hoping zacate will handle everything I need. I don't have a 3dtv or one that can handle 1080p60 so it should do everything I need. I also agree with you that we need a detailed htpc specific review of zacate. So far there has just been short blips in every review I have seen. I also know this will in no way replace my regor 250/geforce 450 desktop for gaming and just general use. I don't even get why they do gaming benchmarks in the reviews, pointless.
We're both on the same side no concerns. I know there's always a risk when your a early adopter.
I think some of the other sites like silent pc will end up doing a HTPC based review and that should sort out some stuff.
I want to get some of this pricing sorted out a bit more. Seems anything with legacy ports on it will be under $130 Street. Provantage claims the MSI cost $160 MSRP. So I guess that means for $20 more you can get WiFi-N and Bluetooth (Sapphire Pure White). The Asus Passive mITX is listing for $140-$150 Euro. But even at $150, it will be cheaper by about $20 than the cheapest Atom with WiFi and about $30 less than the ION board with Passive Cooling that Asus makes.
So are there some software tests that you guys want me to run on my 780G rig comparing it to the Zacate rig that I'm building later this week? I haven't really gotten into benchmarking much, but I'd be willing to give it a shot if it's not that hard to do (and I can do it during unattended periods of time when the TV isn't being used)
What's the difference between the hudson E1 and D1 chipset. The onlything I could tell was that one has a mini sata (and an extra regular sata) while the other does not.
Originally Posted by NickB
What's the difference between the hudson E1 and D1 chipset. The onlything I could tell was that one has a mini sata (and an extra regular sata) while the other does not.
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