Onkyo's tiny ION-based P3 nettop has an even tinier removable DVD-ROM

If you're concerned about the future obsolescence of your miniscule Atom-based nettop, chances are its choice of optical storage is not what's bothering you. But, if that's what keeps you up at nights, Onkyo's P3 is your Ambien. Its ION platform sports the usual 1.6GHz Atom 230 proc, 2GB of memory, and 160GB hard drive. The DVD-ROM is a separate module that clips into a groove on the side and, while details are slim, that doesn't look like a standard form-factor to us, so if a Blu-ray upgrade or the like ever surfaces don't expect it to be cheap. The P3 itself (pictured again below with an LCD friend) isn't exactly a bargain to start, with an estimated MSRP of ¥69,800 (about $770) when it ships in March of next year. That's the price you pay for modular design.

[NOOOOPedro Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:22AM]

Looks nice, but $770 is too much

[gerrrg Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:16AM]

Pretty...




expensive. :O

[tylersmyler Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:39AM]

ya, totally too $$

I would have considered this as a HTPC otherwise

[benahad Posted Oct 19th 2009 4:50PM]

I'm full of tinier men!

[JohnnyRico Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:25AM]

Holy moly, $770?! At that kind of money, I could build an Atom 330 with ION, 4gbs ram, 1tb drive, and a blu-ray drive for far less.

[jedi Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:37AM]

...or alternately you could just buy 2 or 3 (other) ION systems.

Spend half the money now and put the rest in an envelope and tape it to the case.

Spend the other half for upgrades as needed.

[Alan Strangis Posted Oct 19th 2009 11:10AM]

Yep. ION 330 is a much better deal, and a dual core processor to boot...

http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1652

Either that or a Revo with a cheap external drive. In either case, the Onkyo is grossly overpriced.

If it had a dual core Atom 330 AND a BD instead of DVD, it might be worth considering, because it's certainly WAY prettier than the ASRock, but not THAT much more pretty. :)

[pvito Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:33AM]

You can buy this with a dvd drive for $770

OR a PS3 Slim, an Xbox 360 AND an Acer ION based Nettop with the same features!

WTF are they smoking? There is no way this MSRP is correct.

[Skippy Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:47AM]

Does this price possibly include the above pictured lcd aswell?

[Skippy Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:49AM]

or perhaps the phrase "the P3 itself" answers my silly question

[fourthletter Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:57AM]

Ridiculous price although

"that doesn't look like a standard form-factor to us"

I'm sure if you open the optical enclosure it's just a laptop style optical drive which you can swap out for a BD drive if you want.

[Alan Strangis Posted Oct 19th 2009 11:12AM]

I'm not entirely sure you can put any BD drive in there. Unless this is just a mock up, it's a slot loading mechanism, which would make a DIY project annoying as hell.

[Plexus Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:05AM]

Just look at that soundbar under the monitor, and then wonder why Onkyo , which is an HIFI component producer, suddenly comes out with a ION machine with optical drive.
I may be wrong but I'm ready to bet that this thing is aimed squarely at the HIFI/home media market, probably as an add on to Onkyo home theater in a box, which is the only one of its kind that may be worth to buy.

[animeGhost Posted Oct 20th 2009 10:25AM]

I was hoping I wasn't the only one who noticed that... who knows why they decided to make a nettop computer of all things!

[YpoCaramel Posted Oct 19th 2009 12:29PM]

Onkyo's always demanded a premium, but a rather reasonable one given their AV products' high quality. So it seems rather pointless arguing what you could build for the same price. But at the same time, what does Onkyo really bring to this HTPC? Is there a nice sound processor instead? If there's nothing really there, then maybe it is better to build your own.

I also the get the impression electronics in Japan are a little bit pricier than the US.

[sandra Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:10AM]

Please manufactuers stop with the damn Atom 230/270 processor, it's far to underpowered for even simpler tasks, the 330 is only like $20 more and is much better, well unless you like looking at a spinning hour glass, then maybe the single core Atom is fine.

[Burke Hamblin Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:30AM]

Looks like it belongs in a lab on Kamino.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:39AM]

Or just buy an ASRock ION-330 which isn't that much bigger and uses a standard slim "laptop" DVD player that can easily be removed and replaced in the future.

Oh and it's cheaper too, and uses the dual core Atom 330.

[hmmwv Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:47AM]

Next step is probably integrating it with Onkyo receiver.

[GreatSunJester Posted Oct 19th 2009 10:20AM]

I still hope to build (or just buy) an Atom based media PC for my house. I have hopes for them after this weekend. A friend of mine built a new computer for his mother and we had it over hooked up to my 42" LCD TV (via VGA, no HDMI output). Atom 330, 2 gig ram and a terabyte drive. No ION, just the basic Atom system.
Running Windows 7 with VLC installed. First thing we tried was Youtube - ran several videos in normal and 'HD' mode, windowed and full screen. Ran quite nicely, not perfect in full screen but far better than I would have thought. Then we ran a XVID encoded movie and a ISO of another movie. The only time there were hiccups was in Full screen when the overlay would come up.
Impressed me by a lot. I think I'll go with an ION myself, but I think I could be satisfied with a plain vanilla Atom 330 system.

[Alan Strangis Posted Oct 19th 2009 11:17AM]

ION based is totally worth it if you have HD content (mkv, divx etc) - and with the GPU accelerated Flash update just around the corner, will make a huge difference.

Heck, I've even played L4D on my ASRock, in 720p mode on my 46" Sammy. Given the low margins on the components, it's pretty tough to build your own for cheaper than a pre-built ION 330 (or Revo), though you DO have more flexibility in a DIY situation.

[WhyNot Posted Oct 19th 2009 10:37AM]

$770?! Spend another $100 for that HP Touchsmart 300 (or whatever it's called) and get something that takes up just the space of an LCD screen, has a wireless keyboard and mouse, 4GB ram, 360GB HDD, Dual Core processor, etc....

[darok3k Posted Oct 19th 2009 1:48PM]

that thing looks like a wii!! (i just had to say it!)

[Nicnac Posted Oct 19th 2009 5:51PM]

so it will play Blu-ray, but it still can't play full screen 'HD' Hulu... riiiiight

[simbr Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:53PM]

Nvidia and Adobre are working on Flash acceleration
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/gpu-accelerated-720p-flash-video-gets-demoed-on-a-netbook-smoot/