ASRock's High-End Vision 3D HTPC Reviewed
by Ganesh T S on October 3, 2010 10:20 AM EST
One of the main challenges faced by ASRock in designing the Vision 3D was to handle the extra heat generated by the GeForce 425M. While the Core i3-370M has a TDP of 35W only, the GPU has a TDP of 27W. While the Core 100 had a fan on top of the CPU and another fan to keep up the air circulation / ventilation within the unit. While a similar solution could have been used in the Vision 3D, it would have made it necessary to have fans with higher noise potential. In this section, we will try to analyze the thermal design of the Vision 3D.
The GeForce 425M MXM module has a TDP of 27W, and it is passively cooled. The MXM card is fully covered by a thermal copper pad and this is connected to a heat sink of sorts with a thick copper heat pipe, as can be seen in the picture below.
The Vision 3D uses a pure blower solution and gets rid of the case fan altogether. The blower and a thermal pad are placed above the processor and the H55 chipset as shown in the picture below.
The above two thermal solutions are combined together as shown in the picture below.
The single blower solution replaces the blower and fan solution of the Core 100. However, the single blower solution requires ventilation slots around the bottom panel to taken in the cooler air from the surroundings. It is advisable to place the unit on a hard surface so that the bushes at the bottom keep the unit raised. This allows for better airflow.
Though blowers are often thought of as being noisier than fans, the elimination of one of the fans (when compared with the Core 100) results in a quieter solution, as we will see further on in the review.
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firewall597 - Monday, October 4, 2010 - link
Thats not very fair to say "to me its only worth $---"The product was built with 3D and high end in mind, if this isnt what you need then you shouldn't buy it. Doesnt make it worth any less. There was a fairly accurate breakdown of costs early in the article that laid out how narrow their profit margins could actually be. I would assign this much more value then, say, anything from apple with a similar price tag. If you know what I mean.
If you're only going to need $599's worth of the parts, then buy a lesser box for $599.
andygallo - Monday, October 4, 2010 - link
Everyone has a different experience with drive manufacturers. For me WD has always been reliable. I still run the original 36GB Raptor that I got 5 or 6 years ago and it's still fast as hell and have no issues at all. I have a couple of other WD's that are older than that running great in my storage server. If I were to blanket generalize my experience, however, I would say Seagate and Maxtor are crap.CUDA is NOT CPU+GPU in parallel, CUDA is simply an API that allows GPU computing. The "parallel" in CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is simply referring to the fact that a GPU is a massively parallel processing unit. What that means is, for certain specific tasks (like HD video encoding/decoding or fluid dynamic models), you can just dump to the GPU for the processing since it is far and away better at running these types of tasks than a traditional CPU. The CPU pretty much does nothing if CUDA is being called.
Also CUDA is NOT supported on AMD/ATI cards, CUDA is specifically for Nvidia. Last I heard, AMD/ATI's solution was called Stream, but I dunno if that's still the case.
From my experience with HTPC builds, Nvidia is definately the way to go. HD video acceleration (DXVA/DXVA2 for Windows or VDPAU for Linux) has MUCH better support on Nvidia cards (VDPAU doesn't even support ATI cards, so if you wanna use XBMC, use a Nvidia card). I've had quite a few h.264 encoded HD videos that couldn't be accelerated on an ATI card that worked flawlessly on an Nvidia. I have yet to see the opposite (and don't get me started on Intel's X4500 "video acceleration"... what a joke). From what I understand that stems from how the video was encoded and that ATI is far less forgiving than Nvidia. Could be a driver issue, but I've seen this disparity since I started playing with h.264 and even today am still able to reproduce the issue (at least 3 years).
humba - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
I believe there's one bit missing from the article - a comparison to some of the competing models that could server as a HTCP. I've been using a mini with Win7 and external Blu-ray and I'm very much interested in the Vision 3D. But I'd like to know how it compares in terms of upgrading (Macs are a PITA in that department - especially the 2010 variety - and I'd much rather have a 240GB SSD than a 500GB slow noisemaker), and noise (even under significant load the device stays very quiet).Also.. since this is HDMI 1.4 - can you now drive 2560x1600 over HDMI? Dell claims their 2008 30" model does that resolution over HDMI.. and it sorta works (movies are fine... windows look messed up but I suspect the supposedly dual link capable DVI to HDMI adapter may be at fault)?
Tros - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
I am also interested in a comparison. Especially with that kind of price-tag.Also: Is that a newer mac-mini, or and older one? I'd understand the newer one being hard to upgrade, but the older ones not much harder (ifixit.com) than this Vision3d model.
humba - Monday, October 4, 2010 - link
I have the older mini. I agree, it's not that hard to upgrade - however, it's not something for the faint of heart.ganeshts - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
As we review more SFF HTPCs, we will present what you want :) We will have the Zino 410 reviewed soon.From HTPC viewpoint, a Mac Mini simply doesn't make sense even though a lot of people use it. There is no HD audio bitstreaming, no native BR drive support. I don't think we ever will reivew a Mac Mini in this space (although Anand reviews them from the general PC perspective, with a section for HTPC).
These PCs from ASRock are primarily targeted towards the DIY market (slowly moving to the layman consumer). As such, they are very easy to upgrade. The HTPC comes with a brochure outlining steps to replace anything and everything you want inside (Even the MXM card!).
Yes, HDMI 1.4a and DVI dual link port can both drive 2560x1600 according to nVidia. We didn't test it out personally, but we have no reason to doubt nV's or ASRock's claims in that department.
humba - Monday, October 4, 2010 - link
Couldn't you just have the software player decode TrueHD / DTS MA to PCM and stream that over the DP / HDMI port? And there's an aftermarket BR upgrade - again not for the faint of heart, but until not so long ago, there weren't any viable alternatives.Aikouka - Monday, October 4, 2010 - link
I didn't even realize that Dell released a new SFF PC for media purposes until I read this article, so naturally, I was curious enough to check it out. I saw the initial price of $299 and was intrigued... is a non-streaming HTPC for a decent price possible? Well, it seems Dell brought my hopes up and subsequently squashed them like a bug. The biggest problem I found with the Zino HD410 is that if you want something decent, it's going to cost you....When I customized the HD410 to an acceptable level, it cost $699. The biggest problems seem to be my need for Windows 7 Professional and the Radeon 5450. I use Windows 7 Professional, because I prefer being able to remote into my HTPCs rather than having to turn the TV on just to make a simple change. Home Premium does not allow incoming RD connections, but does allow outgoing. The issue is that Dell charges $100 to upgrade from Home Premium to Professional... the same "upgrade" on NewEgg is around $40. You also need the 5450 to support bitstreaming, but the only way to get the 5450 is through the higher-end models which start at $499. I also find the requirement of a 500GB HDD in the higher-end models fairly useless... I don't need that much space on the drives and would rather reduce the size to save money.
For that price, I'd probably just consider building a PC using Thermaltake's ElementQ case. It's about the same width (~8" vs ~8.5"), but the Thermaltake case has 5" more depth to it, which shouldn't be an issue in an entertainment center.
Aikouka - Monday, October 4, 2010 - link
Clarification, the customized price on the Dell Zino HD410 is $599, not $699. My bad!Zap - Sunday, October 3, 2010 - link
That "thick copper bar" on the MXM copper plate is a heatpipe. If it really were a "thick copper bar" then it would probably overheat before you finished booting into Windows. Heatpipes do not have to be round.