Some time ago I have been writing a post about “Possible uses for your old Mini-ITX motherboard“. The word “old” was there but you may do same things with your “new” mini motherboard. Why am I recalling this post? It is because as one of uses there was mentioned “NAS” (network attached storage). It would let you to keep your files in one central point that may be accessed from all your home computers (laptops, desktops, htpc, smart phones and whatever more you may use at home). It looks that this idea have not been so bad as it have been brought to life and very deeply described by Chris Lowry.
Monthly Archive for March, 2010
If you want to build your own HTPC and you are still not sure about it’s components, you are in the right place. Nowadays when you build your own media center most probably you will demand from it at last these points:
- To be silent (do not disturb you in everyday life and when you watch movies)
- To look elegant or to be totally hidden (mounted on back of your TV)
- To be capable to play Full HD movies (1080p resolution)
Continue to ‘Building Silent 1080p Full HD Media Center HTPC. Part 1.’
ZOTAC have announced their ION2 based upgrade kits. What exactly is this and why can you want it? If you have bought Mini-ITX motherboard before ION was on the market you may now easily expand your computer. ZOTAC upgrade kit is nothing else than a ION2 GPU (GT218) based graphic card designed to fit to your Mini-ITX chassis.
You may think that it is some crazy computer case mod – but you would be wrong! This chassis have been made by Lian Li computer case manufacturer and have already been tested by techPowerUp as they have received a pre-production version. This case is looking strange and bizzare but one of its main purposes is to present the attached Mini-ITX motherboard. Definitely it stands out of the crowd of most same looking computer cases. If you want something unique this chassis is for you!
It looks that there will be more and more ION 2 powered nettops on the market soon. A few days back I have been writing about ZOTAC’s ION 2 based nettop and here is another one Barebone XS35 announced by Shuttle. Their mini computer is equipped with Intel’s dual-core Atom D510 CPU, clocked at 1.66GHz and Nvidia’s second-generation Ion 2 graphics.
Big Bruins blog have posted a review of Intel D510MO Mini-ITX motherboard. This mini motherboard is powered with 1.66GHz dual core Intel Atom processor and is fanless – cooled with heatsink. They have tested it with SSD (solid state drive) and fanless Pico PSU so they got totally noiseless system! Motherboard is very easy to expand as it is build with two memory slots, two SATA ports, a PCI slot, a mini PCI Express connection, and a few of USB ports.
Zotac have announced their first mini computer powered by Mini-ITX motherboard with ION2 chipset onboard! That is wonderful news for all HTPC enthusiasts! ION2 is supposed to be even more powerful that first generation of ION (that is still the best solution for hardware encoding on Mini-ITX motherboards).
Sapphire have released a new IPC-AM3DD785G ITX motherboard with AMD socket AM3 stand. Their mini motherboard support DDR3 memory and AMD CPUs rated up to 65W TDP. This motherboard is in Mini-ITX small form factor – but it is not worse from most of “big” motherboard featuring dual DDR3 memory slots and a PCI-Express 16-lane expansion slot.
CyberPower have announced a new version of their compact LAN Mini H2o V2 PC. This mini-pc is packed with the latest Intel LGA 1156 Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs with P55 chipset and super-fast and smooth Direct X 11 graphics. They claim that it is one of the smallest and fastest Mini Computers on the world. For sure it can rival with many of full size desktop pc’s and it measures only 11.25 (L) x 8.75 (W) x 7 (H) inches and weighs under 10 pounds. It have been built with LAN gaming in mind.
