Getting the smallest computer you could fit into a space used to mean a small form factor barebones that far exceeded the cost of a full-fledged tower desktop computer.

Intel’s Atom processor has brought about more options when it comes to smaller PC sizes. The ASRock NetTop ION 330 sports a dual core Atom processor coupled with Nvidia’s ION (GeForce 9400M) chipset for a great multimedia combination. Phoronix has a look:

Not only does the ASRock Nettop perform well thanks to its NVIDIA ION GPU and Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor, but also the system has a very small form factor, runs cool and quiet, and comes with a great set of features. There is also great connectivity with HDMI, DVI, VGA, and S/PDIF, but this system lacks any integrated eSATA or WiFi or Bluetooth support. The ability to overclock the Atom 330 processor is also excellent and allows you to squeeze a bit more performance of the system if you so wish.

The overclocking bit should interest the tweakers among us not that it’d boost performance significantly but at least it’s there.

The old concept behind a home theater PC was to create a system that would visually fit in with the other components which usually turns into a noisey mess because you’re cooling off some power hungry components.

ASRock’s ION 330-BD on the other hand uses an Intel Atom 330 dual core chip paired with Nvidia’s ION platform for some low-power and high-performance media playback. TweakTown has a look:

As far as noise goes, the system is super quiet at default settings at
around 25db. We used the ASRock EZ Overclocking feature in the BIOS to
overclock the Atom CPU from 1.6GHz to 2.1GHz and to be safe we
increased the fan speeds by using the “Overclocking” fan speed option.
This does increase the volume from the system, but it’s not that loud
and cannot even be noticed at all whilst playing a game or watching a
movie.

Overclocking, dual channel memory, well this is one of the most interesting nettop PCs since…ever.