ASRock ION 330HT-BD nettop gets unboxed and cracked open on video
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 7th 2009 8:16AM
posted Nov 7th 2009 8:16AM
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"The Atom CPU could unquestionably use a bit lot more oomph..."
Engadget, the day you "get" the Atom CPU and what it's intended for will be a much brighter day for everyone.
But... Steve Jobs said that netbooks and nettops were junk. How dare you think different!
I have one of these and it works like magic. Full HD movies, games and all the desktop apps I want plus my electrical bill dropped by 30% because my computer runs 24/7 anyhow and its so silent I can't figure out if it runs or not if it were not for the LEDs. Its a dream come true.
Thanks nVidia for the ION, thanks Intel for the 330 and hanks ASrock for making it cheap :)
Amen, I think allot of people just don't "get" it.
I agree with everybody in this thread...
Though I don't have the BD, this thing handles HD media files no problem, and with an external Hauppauge tuner works as a full-fledged Windows 7 Media Center. Even better, with a simple script, it's easy to get Boxee to launch from W7MC, and control it all with a Harmony One.
http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1652
I'll upgrade to BD when internal BD drives drop a bit more in price, but other than that, this thing cranks out great video (and audio) for a very reasonable price. The only drawback is HD Flash video, but Adobe's GPU friendly Flash should be out very shortly.
Unless you want to play high end games on your media PC, this thing is amazing. I'm sure the equally spec'ed Revo and Asus devices perform just as well. I've totally given up on using the 360 as a media player.
"'',,,HAIRY,,'',,,
Sorry nubs, Its because we come from a differenct backrounds.
An analogy is that I cannot go back to driving 4 cylinder loser cars like honda civic and toyota poop. Once you have grown up driving BIG BLOCK V6 and V8's driving a small enging makes you want to puke.
Same thing here how can I go from using i7's to using an Atom? the lag makes you sick!
I want that. I would dual boot XBMC Live and Windows 7 on that bad boy.
Better yet, you can launch Boxee directly from W7MC with a simple patch from missingremote.com, and when you exit Boxee, it automatically goes back to W7MC.
screw boxee =P you can run XBMC directly within windows 7, theres a windows app.. or if your adventurous use a virtual machine for the xbmc operating system
Wherefore art thou Flash 10.1? I can't wait until gpu accelerated flash makes all of these nettops full blown HTPC contenders.
I can't wait until Flash gets replaced with something that sucks less.
You mean like Gstreamer FFmpeg for HTML5 that actually has hardware acceleration?
You'll be waiting around for a very long time. Sliverlight was a drop in the ocean so what chance does ffmpeg html5 have?
Developers don't like Microsoft's piece of crap "flash" alternative? We will take a nice open HTML 5 standard though...
How much does this model cost? I saw the base model from newegg which is $350, but this one has a BR drive, which I can't find where I would be able to buy.
Yeah! Point at it what you talking about. Only this only way I can follow you *rolleyes*
And why does he have to put such a highlight on the end of "here"? Like he's talkin with a child/pet.
asrock suckit :)
I also was wondering about the remote that comes with the machine, can it wake it up from standby? shutdown? hibernate mode?
Basically, a certified remote can do this. At list my HP DV7's remote can turn it on/of /wake/sleep.
This is a nice device, but I cant understand is that it's priced over a PS3 which also have all the features in this plus a HDD and full gaming power. Any thoughts?
Not true, your ps3 can't play mkv, rmvb, etc
Because PS3 subsidizes its cheaper console with more expensive games.
underpowered POS.
don't want
It makes a great HTPC for the money
It makes a great _media center_ for the money
Why don't these manufactures use notebook cpus ... atom processors are garbage
Then the price would go up by £100. The Atom is very, very cheap.
Newegg has the barebones w/DVD drive for $350. You still need to add RAM $50 and HD $50 at a minimum, so a starter system really is more like $450. A little on the pricey side considering you can get a much more powerful system for a little more, including OS. Mac Mini's are equipped with a not so shabby C2D with 3mb of cache, more than enough to push almost anything including full HD flash. There are several Dell's as well that would be similarly equipped and small.
For the price the Acer AspireRevo seem like a much better value for this segment, at as little as $200 for a atom+ION box.
It says barebones, but only the OS is missing (2 friends bought them last month):
From Newegg's specs under Features:
Intel Atom 330 (Dual-Core CPU)
NVIDIA ION graphics processor
2GB DDR2 800 MHz memory, support dual channel, maximum memory capacity 4GB
2.5" HDD 320GB
DVD Super Multi (Slim type)
Small (2.5L)
Silent (acoustic below 26 dB)
Stylish (High gloss outlook)
Energy Star 5.0 level (Low power consumption)
ASRock OC Tuner (Overclocking)
ASRock Instant Boot
Thanks for the correction. It's better, but the Revo still seems like the better "deal", but the ASRock is at a non-insignificant amount cheaper than the Mac Mini, Dell, or other pre-fab solutions.
LMAO! I paid less for my AMD Phenom II 955 3.2ghz on an MSI 790fx board with OCZ 4gb DDR3 1600mhz ram/512mb Geforce 9600GTS/22x dvd writer/OCZ 600W psu and a WD 500gb HD! wtf is this cr@p so expensive? ROFL!
I have had the non BD-version of the machine now for about a month and it works really well for watching movies. Only thing is that one needs to get (buy after trial runs out) a third party matroska codec to be able to watch even 720p without stuttering as e.g. xvid doesn't have a hardware-running version of it.
or you could just get K-lite with MKV for free
I have the ASRock Ion 330 and absolutely love it. Only issue I have is with Hulu content (Flash) which should be fixed w/ next version.
Is there enough space/expansion slots to insert a TV Tuner such as the Hauppauge HVR-2250 and card to make the unit function like a TIVO/PVR?
Would it be better to go with a DVICO/TVIX HD M-6500A and installing available tuner card to get PVR functionality?
Or maybe someone can suggest something better?
Thanks,
TV
I'm using the Hauppauge dual external WinTV HDR 1950 (analog cable and OTA HD) which works great. There's no room for an internal card, or I would have went with that option.
I also needed the external because I bought the earlier model in the summer (non-HT model), and that didn't have IR built into it.
Alan, thanks for your input. I haven't considered the external devices from Hauppauge. I will have to go back and have a better look.
It's too bad the ASRock doesn't have expansion slots.
I may have to look at building my own small form factor HTPC, but I'm sure I would exceed the price of the ASRock because I would go for a better processor and maybe a better sound card with TrueHD, and of course PVR functionality.
TV
ASROCK ION... Ive had one for a while now, doubtful initially... now I don't know what I would have done without it, great device.
I love the ASRock Ion systems but I wish they made one in a case that supports 2 x 3.5" hardisks, dam hard putting 3TB of pr0n on these things.
1: Love the looks of the system, inside and out. I'm pretty sure that was a laptop blueray drive, so smart choice for space.
2: The Optical drive / HDD bracket looks exactly like my Thermaltake's. Good call again.
3: Running an Atom 330(Asus board) + 2GB RAM + 1TB Storage + Ubuntu Server for an NAS so I can stream media across the apartment to different Xbox's running XBMC. Haven't turned it off in 6 weeks. Power bill insignificantly raised, and the Processor doesn't go above 10% so far. Plenty of power for the money.
4: Do Want
But what good is the geforce goodness for a Ubuntu server?
(*an* ubuntu server?)
The $200 Revo is single core. For a fair comparison, you need the $330 Revo.
At that price, The ASRock has 160 GB more HDD, and a DVD drive.
Acer has Win7 and smaller size (maybe less practical depending on where you want to put it).
Anyone know if the remote is IR or RF? Either way, where is the remote receiver located (IR or RF)?
If I didn't already re-purpose my old Compaq SR2038X for HTPC goodness, I would be foaming at the mouth. It may not have BD, wireless, or able to run HD files all that smoothly, but I only needed to spend $35 at Radio shack to get the VGA and 3.5" audio cables, and $20 on the 360 wireless receiver. Emulation bliss.
1 Dual Core Aspire Revo is a great computer.
2 To Strider:
Engadget, the day you "get" the Atom CPU and what it's intended for will be a much brighter day for everyone.
Damn right, how do they people not understand what the hell the Atom is supposed to be for!
3 . I recently purchased the MediaGate M2TV, plays full BD rips 1080p mkv rips flawlessly. That with my external HD are a great pair and I only paid $100 for the media drive far cheaper than anything else.
I have 2 of the DVD versions.
Hulu, netflix, wifi, DVD's, 1080p, low-medium end gaming.. Unlimited uses and codecs. Popcorn and every other multimedia device can't even compete!
I personally love these little beasts!