ASRock ION 3D - A Next Generation ION HTPC
by Cameron Butterfield on January 14, 2011 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- ION
- ASRock
- Media Streamer
- HTPC
General Performance
As mentioned in other articles, raw synthetic benchmarks are not necessariliy a good benchmark for HTPC performance. The primary purpose of an HTPC is to provide seamless video playback and high image quality without dropping frames or displaying any other sort of distraction. That said I will be providing some of the same benchmarks as we have seen in other reviews as a point of reference.
USB 3.0 Performance
The Core 100HT suffered from a limitation on the total throughput of its USB 3.0 ports, due to the chipset not fully supporting PCIe 2.0 fully (see here). Equipment was unavailable to test the throughput of the USB 3.0 ports on the ION 3D, but we were able to confirm with ASRock that there was no PLX Bridge implemented on the ION 3D that would have improved the performance of the USB 3.0 ports over the Core 100HT. It stands to reason that ASRock might have been able to cut costs further by not including the USB 3.0 ports on a budget ION based HTPC, since it could be speculated that users purchasing a low powered ION HTPC might not especially care about having USB 3.0 ports, especially if the ports do not run at full speed anyways.
Windows Experience Index
Here we see that the ASRock ION 3D has a low processor score, which is expected. However, its graphics and gaming graphics scores very slightly outperform the Core 100HT that uses Intel HD Graphics. Of course all of these scores are blown away by the Vision 3D PC that utilizes an NVIDIA GT425M and costs roughly double the price of the ASRock ION 3D.
DPC Latency Check
Another important criterion for HTPCs is the ability of the system to handle real time streaming of audio and video without dropouts. A handy tool called the DPC Latency Checker helps in analyzing this. This tool was run multiple times in various HTPC scenarios. This test was somewhat of a tossup, as when files were played from the local HDD the bands stayed in the green, but if the system was streaming over the wireless network, it seemed that this caused a large amount of red spiking. Presumably this is because the processor is busy performing calculations for the wireless network card, and that takes CPU resources away from video tasks and increases the latency detected by this test. In actual usage, normal video files played just fine; it was only some 1080p content that displayed issues during streaming,
Simple Gaming
The ION platform is not really a gaming platform; however, a simple gaming test was performed in order to see some baseline figures for the capability of this system. We ran a timedemo of Left 4 Dead 2 on the highway level at 1280x720 and Low quality. The result was 22.16 FPS. A quick minecraft game at 720p was playable at an average of 28 FPS at normal rendering distance. The ION can definitely work on less demanding games in a pinch, but it definitely should not be your next gaming system.
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laytoncy - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
I think I'm going to wait until they start using Sandy Bridge in these. I'd love to see the Core 100HT-BD with the Sandy Bridge. I'm not holding my breath but I've been reading all these reviews and have a friend with the ION version and he loves his. I'm just not sure how much longer I can wait or if I'm going to build my own htpc. I figure I've waited this long I'll see if they can push some out this quarter.silverblue - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
The Brazos platform will be faster, certainly, however its GPU doesn't have the ability to decode BluRay 3D. You don't seem to have looked at this platform's ability to decode 3D, though (unless I've missed something).On the other hand, TomsHardware have reviewed the ASRock E350M1 and noted that Ion's CUDA cores throw out questionable quality when encoding, so it's all swings and roundabouts really.
erwos - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
I don't want to be "that guy", but it bugs the hell out of me to see HTPC reviews where they don't even see how many cablecard or ATSC streams this thing can record/display at a time. The modern HTPC is of debatable utility if all you're doing is streaming video; there are any number of embedded devices that will do that cheaper and better.stlbearboy - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
Exactly how many tuners do you expect to get in that case? My recording is done on an ATX motherboard with 13 total tuners. The reviewed system is a playback system, not a recording system.vol7ron - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
At least one for that case.Why in the world would you have 13 tuners? What kind of bootlegging business are you running?
Let me guess, you also have Starz, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and sports packages too.
erwos - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
You can connect tuners via USB (ATI) or over the network (HDHR). Shoving them straight into your computer is actually slightly odd to me.stlbearboy - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
3 Directv4 OTA
4 Cable
3 Clear QAM
This allows viewing to all every TV in the house via extenders. The most active at one time has been 9. I looked at the HDHR and have 3 HD-PVRs for Directv. Only Sports package is Sunday Ticket but with kids and diverse tastes I like the flexibility. You could use a NAS for storage and HDHR for tuners, although I could not imagine trying to comskip on an ION! But my point still remains, you buy that system for playback not recording. As to the question of how many streams you can record, that is a function of your HDD as ATSC does not take any encoding.
CSMR - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
24W is high power. Regular (non-atom) desktop computers can have similar idle power.Atom makes it unsuitable for anything except media use.
But now there are dedicated devices that are generally more convenient, and lower power. (Popcorn hour, Dune, etc.).
A full OS is not suitable for pure media use.
therealnickdanger - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
I'm still not sure how ANY device can be recommended for a home theater that doesn't support the full range of bitstreaming options. Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA have been in application for nearly five years. It is simply inexcusable to offer anything less than PERFECT support for these. Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD should be ashamed. Please don't take this question in a hostile way, but what kind of "home theater" are you trying to build?Next time a device claims to be a "home theater" device and doesn't support bitstreaming, send it back to the manufacturer. It's high time these folks learned that ANY modern HT device must support the following:
1. Full lossless and legacy bitstreaming compliance
2. 23.976 compliance
3. Simultaneous multi-video and multi-audio streams
Sheesh, it's bloody 2011.
Guspaz - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
So, in other words, this thing is pretty much the same as the old ION 330, except with a bluray drive and some front USB ports? I mean, the difference in both the CPU and GPU is very minor, Atom hasn't seen any major developments since it first launched a few years ago.