Atom-powered D945GCLF Mini-ITX motherboard now available
By Darren Murph 
posted May 19th 2008 8:18AM
posted May 19th 2008 8:18AM
[Via Tranquil PC's Weblog, thanks David]
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Hmmm, I was just thinking of replacing the VIA mini-itx board I have with something more powerful... might be time to have a look.
Its 64 bit too so it would make a super badass low power ZFS storage box. (ZFS crawls without 64 bit support.)
@ Mark that's the northbridge, not the processor. The atom is under the small heatsink in the foreground.
I keep wishing they'd slap HDMI and gigabit ethernet on one of these.
http://mini-itx.com/2008/03/06/intels-eaglelake-mini-itx-boards
HDMI & GbE as requested.
ok granted it would make the thing larger than you'd want. It is possible to add an old graphics card with a DVI-D connector.
like http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129087
and it's cheap
OOOPSS!!! that's PCI-E ...
@Shadowise: awesome catch. Might use one of those in an upcoming HTPC project.
Shadowise, thanks man, the GbE / PCIe was a dealbreaker.
Now I just need some SATA II port multipliers. ;)
You got that right, I'd seriously buy two or three of those.
Awsome! Cheap media centers for all!
I doubt theres the CPU power to decode some of the top of the line formats. That may be a dealbreaker for some.
They're actually £62.16 including VAT, which is quite a difference.
Their listed for $74.33 (Cad) at my favorite e-tailer.
And where would that e-tailer be?
I'd also like to know what that retailer may be..
its missing an HDMI port and opticle audio out.
but after all is sead and done can this thing run Vista MediaCenter and play back HD MKV files without needing help.
that CPU and video card may need help.
If this can play 1080p MKV's with a bitrate up to 12k i'm there. But really, if its a single core 1.6 I reall doubt it unless theres offloading to the gpu... but can any gpu now deal with x264 in mkv containers? (without all the fancy encoding techniques to get it working).
Yea, but it's got a parallel port. Seriously can you even buy something with a parallel port anymore?
@chris fredette
I recently got an ASUS P5N-D (a regular ATX board). Not only does it have a paralell port, but it also has a SERIAL port. Now that is a waste of space
serial ports are still the de-facto standard for remote controlling simple devices and headless servers. parallel ports, on the other hand, have no modern use what-so-ever. i'd much rather have a serial port or two than a parallel port.
isn't that the Intel Atom Z530??
While we're trying to shrink computers, I don't understand why we're still including parallel ports. Seriously, when was the last time any of us used a parallel port?
Yesterday actually
I agree Andrew. Parallel and even Serial ports should not be included anymore. If the user needs one then they can get a USB => Parallel/Serial dongle.
Adam:
I knew the first reply would be within minutes being someone saying they were using one right now or something, but 95% of us don't use one, or don't need to use one (as in, could update your 10 year old printer).
Unless you have a special application, in which case this computer isn't probably for you anyway, then the large majority of us don't need one anymore and they just take up space.
Actually, a lot of Mini-ITX boards are used in specialist applications, so the inclusion of serial and parallel ports aren't that stupid.
For example, a friend of mine does professional stage lighting at a theatre, and has a Mini-ITX PC controlling a DMX lighting setup via. Parallel.
My printer is a month old, it doesn't even have parallel! I use it for programming PICs which requires a fully wired port, USB dongles only provide the bare minimum needed for a modem, ie NOT fully wired and even in this day and age the serial programmers are still more reliable than the USB versions
unhappyrobot:
I kinda understand how you feel about parallel ports, but serial ports will be on computers for a very long time. A vast majority of UPSs, routers, switches, and 1000 other items that are often used around these boards require serial. Sure, you could use a converter, but then if you had a farm of these that would be a few thousand converters. Serial is pretty useful in some applications too when you wanna have something screwed onto the back of the case and not just a random usb connector that can pop off.
Gav: That's actually a good reason for it then. And Adam, yes, some people program with it. Like I said, MOST people don't use it. Obviously there are a few, but if you program for it, you probably don't use an atom powered mini PC right? And Gav, does your friend really need the smallest computer possible?
Really, I guess my point is moot because mini-itx is a set size and won't get smaller, and smaller versions already have the parallel port off. My point was more of a don't hold up the rest of us for those very few who do use it, but I guess if there's room on a mini-itx, it's probably the least used port on a computer now, but it's still used by some, so it might as well be left on.
It seems like mini is right about the size where they sometimes have them, sometimes don't. I've see mini-ITX systems with and without.
My carputer uses both parallel and serial.
Actually USB to parallel does not work for many parallel devices. Due to how the parallel port is normally integrated.
In other words I had to look long and hard for a pc with one cause the damn sunplus programmer, is slow as hell in usb, and the usb to parallel no workie.
Tis the Intel Atom 230 @ 1x 1.60GHz (Diamondville 45nm)
ahhh, the SC230 (how confusing is intels naming scheme)
http://www.techspot.com/news/29221-Intel-Diamondville-details-revealed.html
Wow, looks like I should have waited another week before picking up a Shuttle PC.
lol, "Note the maximum height component is the fan cooled north bridge chip (45mm above the main board)"
Thats not a CPU cooler there, thats the fan for the north bridge apparently.
Why do they need such a big heatsink. MIDs don't need it why does this thing?
And IMO I'd like to see a router board made from this. 4x Gbit, mPCI, no parallel.
That fan isn't for the Atom proc. It's for the north bridge chip.
Does this come with the linux preloaded on it?
Yeah, it's on that invisible hard drive in the photo, next to the copy of Duke Nukem Forever.
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/15/splashtop-linux-interface-coming-soon-to-every-asus-motherboard/
@Flagdibit
Why the sarcasm? It is definitely ok to not reply if you don't understand what you are planning to be sarcastic about.
As linked by Shane Reustle, embedded Linux is not that far away. And just so that you can understand; "embedded" does not require a hard drive.
>Awsome!
why? MAC mini eats anything this can do for breakfast.I don't see what the carry on is about these atoms, they are not only low power ,but they are low performance as well.In other words , they are crap.
I mean if you need a crap, slow pc , theres plenty of them around and they are often quite cheep.
Apples to oranges, no pun intended. Comparing this to a Mac Mini, which is a Core 2 Duo-based machine, is dumb.
Unfortunately, the Mini is completely outdated; there's no reason to keep selling that old hardware for $600.
I could see this coping well in a car PC
Although that might require a car first...
Damn :(
I like it, been thinking of making myself a HTPC, but I have a low budget and this is probably a long way over it.
There are ITX boards with HDMI, however they are expensive, and the reasonably priced ones usually come without a CPU which forces you to buy a very expensive laptop intel chip.
So any chance of some benchmarks on these atoms yet ?
Ok sorry google to the rescue.
http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-4412-view-Intel-silverthorne-atom-processor-benchmark.html
According to this Atoms are actually slower than a 900Mhz Celeron is there some special reason that Asus is putting this in an Eeepc ? It stinks, certainly good enough for phones, PMPs and the like but in laptops or media centers this thing will really suck.
Way way way better power consumption, better graphics card (obviously, as it WASNT MADE BY INTEL, zing).
*yawn* Wake me when we have dual and quad core atoms. I'm thinking quad core running at 1.6 GHz w/ power save feature that clocks it down to 400/800 MHz when the all that processing power isn't required. Oh, and how about an integrated Nvidia GPU instead of Intel - I like their Linux drivers. HDMI -- I need two of those, please.
For media center use you can't beat Intel Pentium Dual-cores 21XX series.
Mine can run HD video no problem and runs at a constant 18 degrees C with a zalman flower on it.
I was going to buy one of these but, no HDMI im out
Will this be faster than a 2.66Ghz Celeron D?
No way, this thing is slower than a 900mhz celeron-m
Celeron M is based on the Core architecture, but the Celeron D is not.
The 1.6GHz Atom will probably provide 55% of the performance of Celeron D 2.66GHz. (Not counting hyperthreading.)
As far as I can find:
PCMark05 scores
Celeron D 331 (2.66GHz) - 2632
(UMPCPortal ~0.87/MHz) Atom 1.6GHz ~ 1392
Considering the Celerons had an 84W TDP and the Atoms have a 2-4W TDP, half to two-thirds the performance isn't too bad.
That is one of the worst heat sinks ever. It's too damn tall and looks like it was designed by someone that last worked with a 486.
What's wrong with 486's.
That's the northbridge heatsink, not the CPU heatsink. ;)
I can has LVDS port?