NVIDIA Ion platform review roundup

A handful of sites have managed to get their mitts on a miniature test PC equipped with NVIDIA's Ion platform, and it looks like the line between netbook and laptop just got a whole lot blurrier. According to the testers, the setup delivers smooth HD video playback and could be a boon for the Home Theater PC market. It won't play Crysis, but the DirectX 10-compatible chipset should do World of Warcraft and Left 4 Dead justice. Though the company claims it'll only use 12% more power than comparative Intel 945GM/E-based solutions, PC Perspective found the test units to consume twice the wattage -- of course, it might be a different story when Ion-equipped PCs hit retail channels. NVIDIA says the platform will tack on about $50 to $100 compared to similarly-spec'd 945GM/E models, and the first two computers to use it -- one desktop and one netbook -- should be out early summer.

Read - PC Perspective
Read - Laptop Magazine
Read - Hot Hardware

[Fanfoot Posted Feb 4th 2009 12:15PM]

Agreed. Also using a netbooks with a relatively slow SSD and comparing it to the Ion platform with a fast hard drive. Kinda stupid.

They could easily have chosen a netbook with a hard drive. Installed an extra 1GB of RAM so both systems were at 2GB. Installed the same version of Vista on both. Disabled the second CPU on the Ion. Turned the screen brightness on the display down or even off when doing power measurements, etc etc.

Still, can't look a gift horse in the mouth. Best comparison we've seen so far.

[A7 Posted Feb 4th 2009 7:35AM]

Ion looks perfect for a HTPC. Now...the price??