As is quite apparent by now Nvidia’s ION chipset provides a “good enough” dose of graphics performance to give Intel’s Atom processor some legs with multimedia playback.
Now, there are two major reasons to pay close attention to the Mini 311. It may follow the prior Minis in terms of size and style, but it’s the differences within that promise to make this a new, refreshed machine. For starters, HP has loaded Windows 7 onto this machine. We waited for what felt like forever to finally have Windows 7 available for netbooks, and we can confess that it really adds a touch of style and functionality compared to older models with XP.
If you’re going to stick with the small form factor may as well go for the slickest looking one.
September 18th, 2009by Rafael HernandezNo comments
Sometimes you just can’t get enough computers for the tasks at hand so you go and shell out another chunk of change for your next purpose-built computer, at least one computer manufacturer finds that unacceptable.
DFI’s upcoming Hybrid P45-ION motherboard combines an Intel Atom and Nvidia ION chipset on to an Intel Core 2 capable motherboard making for two computers in one case. Interesting choice should you need an extra server or other low-power computer to do tasks while you use the Core 2 components to do your real computing.
Nvidia has released their latest ForceWare driver sets for Microsoft Windows operating systems. The new drivers sport several improvements and bug fixes that should be especially interesting to OpenGL and Windows 7 users. Here’s a peek at some of the changes:
Adds support for OpenGL 3.1
Adds support for CUDA 2.3 for improved performance in GPU Computing applications. See CUDA Zone for more details.
Includes several new control panel features and numerous bug fixes. More information can be found in the release documentation.
Here are the links to Nvidia’s download site for Windows XP:
It’s tough to match the flexibility that Nvidia’s ION platform offers. It takes the lowly Intel Atom processor, pairs it with a power friendly system chipset which sports a moderately competent graphics core built-in, the perfect combination for media playback.
The bottom of the Zotac ION holds the CMOS battery. Next to the battery is a Mini PCI-E slot with an AzureWare AR5B91 802.11b/g/n WiFi card installed. Of course, this Wifi card is optional and if you wanted you could remove it completely and install some other device into the Mini PCI Express slot it occupies.
A nice choice for those HTPCs out there and the included 802.11n wireless should be more than capable of streaming high definition content.
Nvidia has released a Beta set of drivers for their GeForce graphics card lineup and ION system platform bringing them up to version 190.38.
The drivers present the users with bug fixes and a new power management setup users can customize to set desired performance levels for DirectX and OpenGL programs.
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.
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.
Despite all of the enthusiasm over netbooks and the amount of lightweight and long life computing freedom they offer the chips powering them are certainly up to the task of providing a decent experience on the desktop as well.
The particular model we tested is sold a complete system, with pre-installed Windows Vista Home Premium. Very soon models with the free open source Linux based OS will too be available, we also expect choice between HDD and SSD drives, different configurations of its complement and so on. At this time this is the very first model on the market and its job is to provide toy with all the essentials while sparing you from any problematic experiences (everything is pre-configured, all the drivers are pre-installed too – all you have to do in order to use it is get it out of its box).
It’s a slick little system for sure, a little too slick, it just might tempt you into buying multiple systems…I know it beckons me.
The netbook arms race is heating up once again and this time Samsung is busy preparing their salvo into the market. The company is preparing an 11.6″ netbook computer which is pushing dangerously close into the notebook size department which would defeat the purpose of a netbook in the first place….
Anyway Samsung is looking to bring in Nvidia’s ION platform into it which should see the GeForce 9400M chipset working along side Intel’s N280 processor for some battery saving yet totally usable multimedia experience.
You might just have to wait a while though as it’s not expected to be released until late October.
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.
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.
Nvidia’s Ion platform combines their low-power, yet powerful, 9400M chipset with Intel’s Atom processor for an extremely compact and power friendly computing solution.
While this is the first NVIDIA ION nettop that we have tested under Linux (along with being the first ZaReason system we have reviewed), we were left being quite pleased with the Ion Breeze 3770. When using the proprietary Linux driver from NVIDIA, the GeForce 9400M GPU works great with an Intel Atom processor and delivers excellent video playback capabilities and is able to even run some games. Aside from faster graphics, when factoring out the other hardware differences with today’s tests, the NVIDIA MCP79 performs about the same as the Intel 945 with ICH7 Southbridge.
A modern desktop PC with just enough performance and devoid of most noise due to low power consumption…yes it’s tempting.
As is quite apparent by now Nvidia’s ION chipset provides a “good enough” dose of graphics performance to give Intel’s Atom processor some legs with multimedia playback.
Nvidia has released their latest ForceWare driver sets for Microsoft Windows operating systems. The new drivers sport several improvements and bug fixes that should be especially interesting to OpenGL and Windows 7 users. Here’s a peek at some of the changes:
