ZOTAC IONITX-P-E: Can Intel's CULV Processors Reinvigorate Interest in NVIDIA's ION?
by Rajinder Gill on August 26, 2010 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Mini ITX
- ZOTAC
- NVIDIA
Had the IONITX-P-E been released a year ago, we’d have been singing its praises at this point. Trouble is, it’s being released today at an $170 MSRP, which puts it within a stone’s throw of an entry-level Clarkdale based mini-ITX build (and around $20 more expensive than "high-end" Atom based IONs). While ZOTAC’s MSRP fits at a mid-point between the two, the gulf in performance between the ION based systems and Clarkdale in certain benchmarks that fall outside the realms of video playback and web browsing is such that we think the ION systems should be cheaper, period.
Before we continue further down the path of negativity, we’ll weigh-up the potential positives in favor of ZOTAC’s IONITX-P-E. The first is a certain aspect of its low power consumption; it betters Atom’s by a few Watts during very light loads and offers more computational power in the process. In that respect, the CULV+ION combo can be considered somewhat of a success. Against Clarkdale though, things aren’t as clear cut because a 10 Watt idle/light load power saving considering the Celeron runs at less than half the operating frequency isn’t that impressive.
That leaves one more weapon in IONs current repertoire that may factor in swaying a purchasing decision; XBMC support - it appears Clarkdale is not currently/well supported by Linux for such use. If looking for full media center functionality, ION remains the better choice.
To ZOTAC’s credit, we found the IONITX-P-E stable and functional for everyday use, presenting us with no peripheral issues to speak of. So it’ll make a fine ultra-low power file server or media center that you can tuck away quietly in the corner of a room.
However, for us to unreservedly recommend the IONITX-P-E in today’s desktop marketplace, ZOTAC would have to do two things; one as we mentioned eariler is drop the price to around $150 and secondly, add more features. On the feature front, perhaps the ability to run the ION GPU and a discrete GPU in tandem (on-the-fly power switching between both as needed), Bluetooth connectivity, a bundled PSU and maybe even remote control functionality would sweeten the deal.
Without these additional features, we can’t imagine a situation where we’d gravitate towards the IONITX-P-E at the current MSRP instead of a better all-round Clarkdale system. Hence our closing advice is that you spend a little extra, and give the $170 IONITX-P-E a miss. Or shoot for something suitably lower priced based around Atom (or the single core Celeron 743) if all you need is a simple functional media player, as arguably, that’s all ION can do well regardless of which processor is at the helm.
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Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Worst idea ever? Why not compare to a pentium G9650? Naw... that would make toooo much sense. Anyway I'd suspect this ion system to be worse than even a G9650, which is undoubtedly cheaper.Rajinder Gill - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
If you read the testbed setup section, you'll see I mentioned why I did not test against the G6950 - because I don't have one. I agree though, the G6950 should sit in between the Celeron and i3-540 results.-Raja
plewis00 - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Can someone tell me what the actual name of this Pentium chip is?Is it the:
G6950
or
G9650
Because both seem to produce results in Google - I'm inclined to think it's the G6950 because that's what I see more but I genuinely don't know, even Wikipedia is not consistent (I know Wikipedia is not proof of anything).
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
It's the G6950http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43230
-Raja
Rajinder Gill - Friday, August 27, 2010 - link
Micro Center have a deal on the i3-540 at present ($99):http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results....
-Raja
Ninjahedge - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Hey,I have been seeing a few reviews of the Mini's here on Anand and I have a request (which could also be done right here in comments).
What has been done to make a tru HDPC+gamer mini? this board looks great (looks) but it seels that, until they make a micro NVidia card or do it vertically, you are still stuck with a cute box that will do everything but play Crysis 7- The Thaw.
What can be done with this box, a suitable case, and peripherals to make it run with the pack of average gaming machines (or TOTL 1/2 year old gaming machines....)?
Has there been an article about Gaming Mini's?
DigitalFreak - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
If you really want a gaming mini, you're better off going with a HM55 / Core i mini-itx motherboard. The only way you're going to get decent game performance is with a dedicated video card.Taft12 - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
He's right, this is not an appropriate platform for a mini gaming box.Here is the right place to start for that:
http://giga-byte.ca/products/product-page.aspx?pid...
This would be a fine step 2:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
since you can pick your own suitable ATX PSU to go with the CPU and video card of your choice. Now excuse me while I chop off my uncooperative arm that is reaching for my credit card!
sprockkets - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
eh, that case is like, weird.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
And it includes an proper power supply.
Or I would buy this nice barebone
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
And this time the pci ex slot is inner so you can use a dual slot card.
Roland00 - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
The SILVERSTONE SG07 has enough space to fit a 5970. The powersupply is also large enough for the 5970.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
That said there are three things against this setup from
1) ITX boards are way too crammed to have enough power states for a good overclock on the cpu.
2) ITX boards often have very little space to place a nice heatsink, sometimes a nice heatsink would be blocked via the memory or the videocard. Now you can alleviate the space problem with a small waterblock+cooler but most cases don't have enough space for that. For example the SG07 doesn't have enough space for a corsair h50
3) I have heard incidents where the 5970 overheats and freezes up on people during long gaming sessions when used in combination with the small case of SG07. A 5850 or a 5770 would be preferred.