Zotac NVIDIA Ion Motherboard: SFF Goodness
Introduction and Specifications
NVIDIA's Ion platform generated quite a buzz when news first broke of the company's plans late last year. As such, we've been keeping on top of Ion-related developments and have posted a number of stories related to Ion, beginning with our coverage of the platform at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. We followed that up with an evaluation of NVIDIA's own Ion reference system, and a few weeks back took a look at the first design win announced for the platform, the Acer Aspire Revo.
Today though, we're going to take a look Zotac's brand new Ion-based motherboard. What makes this product interesting to us is that it's the first one designed for the do-it-yourself crowd looking to assemble their own small form factor systems. The model we're going to feature here is outfitted with a dual core Atom N330 processor, integrated WiFi and HD audio, and of course the NVIDIA Ion platform processor. Zotac's Ion motherboard has a few other tricks up its virtual sleeve as well, but we're not going to give everything away right here. Read on for the full scoop and check out what has the potential to be one of the more sought after mini-ITX platforms released to date...
Zotac's Ion Motherboard
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Motherboard |
Zotac IONITX-A | |
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CPU |
Intel Atom 330, soldered onboard | |
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CPU Cores |
2 (Dual-Core) | |
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CPU FSB |
533 MHz | |
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GPU / Chipset |
NVIDIA ION | |
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GPU Engine Clock |
450 MHz | |
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Shader Clock |
1100 MHz | |
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DirectX Support |
DirectX 10 | |
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Size |
Mini-ITX Form Factor, 6.7in (170mm) x 6.7in (170mm) | |
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Cooling |
Passive (Quiet), Additional fan included, installation optional | |
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Memory Type |
Dual-Channel DDR2 | |
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Memory DIMM Sockets |
2 x 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM | |
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Memory Speed |
667 MHz / 800 MHz | |
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Maximum Memory Size |
4 GB | |
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Storage |
3 SATA 3.0 GB/s ports, 1 e.SATA 3.0 GB/s port, SATA RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 1 MOLEX power connector (powers up to 3 SATA devices) | |
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Display Connectors |
VGA, HDMI, DVI | |
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# of Monitors Supported |
2 | |
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USB Ports |
10, (6 on back panel, 4 via pin header) | |
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Bus Connectors |
1 Mini PCIe Slot | |
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HDTV Support |
720p, 1080i, 1080p | |
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HDMI 7.1-Channel Audio |
Yes | |
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Audio |
Realtek ALC662 (5.1 channel HD Audio) | |
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Digital S/PDIF Outputs |
1 Optical, 1 Coaxial | |
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HD 5.1 Audio |
1 HD Audio Port, (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in) | |
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Ethernet |
10/100/1000 Mbps + WiFi | |
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PS/2 Keyboard Port |
Yes | |
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WiFi Support |
802.11n (Optional) | |
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Additional Features |
90W AC/DC Adapter, PureVideo HD, Blu-Ray Playback, Solid Caps | |
We've posted a number of articles related to NVIDIA's Ion platform here at HotHardware in the last few months. We've gone in-depth on many of the platform details in those previous articles, so we won't do the same again here. If, however, you'd like to brush up on some of the specifics, we'd recommend taking a peek at these HotHardware articles:
The Acer Aspire Revo is the most recent article, with coverage of the first design win NVIDIA announced for the Ion platform. In our NVIDIA Ion Reference PC Platform Deep Dive article, we cover the details of NVIDIA's reference ultra small form factor Ion PC, and in our GeForce 9300 / 9400 mGPU coverage, we cover all of the pertinent details regarding the NVIDIA Ion chipset itself.
