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
WinRAR 3.9 x64
This benchmark compresses our AT workload consisting of a main folder that contains 954MB of files in 15 subfolders. The result is a file approximately 829MB in size.
Bibble 5.0
We utilize Bibble Labs' Bibble 5 v2 to convert 50 RAW image files into full size JPEG images with the program's default settings. This program is fully multithreaded and multi-core aware.
The lack of Hyper Threading and frequency bandwidth makes any kind of crunching tasks painfully slow on ION. Having said that, the Celeron is definitely the lesser of two evils here, showing a marked improvement in performance over the Atom.
File Transfer to USB
In this test we use Sharkoon's USB QuickPort with a 1TB Western Digital hard drive and transfer a 1GB file from a 1TB HDD connected to the Intel PCH.
USB performance is not quite as fast as what a good H55 based motherboard can manage, but 39 seconds is quite repectable in this test, as we've tested a number of socket 1156 motherboards that can't break the 45 second mark.
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Powerlurker - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
XFX just released a single-slot 5770 which would probably be a great match for a more gaming oriented mini-ITX system.-BubbaJoe- - Friday, August 27, 2010 - link
I'm using a Asus M4A88T-I DELUXE + Athlon x3 445 + a 5770 in a silverstone sg05, thing plays BF2:BC2 at max settings at 1080pI think this qualifies as a mini-gamer :D
chomlee - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
First off, I want to say that I have been watching the Ion chipset and was really thinking of purchasing an itx board last year so I could put together a mini HTPC.Here is the issue. I recently purchased a patriot box office for $65.00 at newegg and for an extra $60.00, I put in a 500 gig hard drive. I have a file server that I keep all my pictures, music, and movies on and I stream it over my home network.
Anyhow, my point is, as far as HTPCs go, my patriot box office does everything I need. I even am able to stream blue ray iso files over the network with flawless playback (using NFS, not SAMBA). The only downside is that it has a very plain gui and unlike a ION mini itx, you cant install XBMC on it. Anyhow, with the availability of boxes like this that are extra small and cheap and other devices such as the boxee box comming out in November, there doesn't seem to be a niche anymore for HTPCs unless you plan on some moderate gaming.
kmshark - Saturday, August 28, 2010 - link
I had bad performance with my MKV Bluray files over the network using the PBO... it would play but had intermittent drops/etc. I though it was due to my MKV files being full 1080p + 5.1 or 6.1 FLAC just too much - but I was doing this via SAMBA from my 2K8 server.... so maybe it works better via NFS? For your ISOs, are you playing the hi-def audio?mino - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
While Clarkadle has more rwa power the drivers are STILL a mess.Case in point - a STUPIDLY PRIMITIVE DX8 Worms World party simply crashes on Intel IGP while it runs happily on any ATI/NV IGP since 2004 ...
While Intel seems to has invested heavily in support for benchmarks and current titles (aka review titles) the general 3D support is still a nightmare.
Cerb - Friday, August 27, 2010 - link
Yes, it is. Even not counting GMA500, it is. One more reason to look forward to Bobcat; and for normal machines, to go AMD. The added single-threaded i3 performance is small, and made up for quite well, especially if you stick to 785 or newer IGP.CSMR - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
A combination of old tech. Why would anyone bother with this? It's even more expensive than Clarkdale. Now a Clarkdale CULV would be more interesting.sprockkets - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Seeing as how Zotac's ION Atom boards are priced, this isn't bad at all. Just wish the pci slot was faster.In any case, I prefer a system be fanless and compact, which that H55 board isn't. This might come close.
While having a built in PS is nice, what if it breaks? There goes the whole board. Besides the cases this would go into already have ITX sized power supplies anyhow. The one here is nice since it allows for an optical drive and two 2.5 drives: one SSD and one high capacity notebook drive.
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/c299
Wineohe - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Having experienced the trials and tribulations of Nvidia's GF8300 onboard graphics over HDMI in an ASUS board for AM2, I will not soon sign up again. I can't imagine buying a board with these chipsets. It's indicated in the review that they had no issues. Did you confirm that the HDMI works flawlessly? Did you check to see if it would work with an AV Receiver of switch. Can you adjust for over scan on a 720P Television in the NVidia control panel. Can you effectively adjust resolution at all over HDMI? Does the HD sound work perfectly after every reboot.Again not for me.
sprockkets - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
"Stepping out to a discrete GPU, the ION systems get blasted to smithereens by the i3-540. ION lacks the raw muscle required to handle the GTX 275. 1.875GHz is the maximum stable frequency we achieved on our processor without running out of cooling headroom."That's not ION's fault if the pci slot is really x16m, that's the fault of having a low clocked CPU and an older generation one to boot.
Still, for the average person, this is much better than Atom. Same thing is happening on the laptop front as well.