Zotac IONITX-A-U Atom N330 Dual Core 90-Watt PSU WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been waiting for this motherboard for a long time; finally a MythTV frontend which can quietly play high definition video and sip electricity while doing so. And one with so many ports on the back: HDMI, DVI and VGA for video; TOSLink Coax, SPDIF optical, HDMI and analog for audio. Gigabit Ethernet. Plenty of USB ports and one eSATA port. A feast of port flexibility.

While people have been talking about the Wake on USB function of recent revisions of this board; I find the Wake on LAN BIOS option more interesting. You can get an iPhone or other smartphone app which can wake the device via WiFi, making it easy to keep the computer in a low power state and only pulling Watts when needed.

My setup:
I've installed the 64-bit version of Mythbuntu 9.10 on a 60 GB Seagate Momentus laptop drive I had lying around.
2GB of PNY brand RAM allow me to allocate half a GB to the video card (BIOS setting); recommended for maximum video performance.
And a small Mini-ITX case complete the very simple hardware assembly.
I also installed XBMC, and that seems responsive and beautiful.
I first usedthe VGA connector for video, and the coax port for digital audio, but in the end, I ended up using an HDMI switch and getting both audio and video over that port which worked well.

I removed the included WiFi card, as I will be using hard wired Ethernet and would prefer to not include whatever minor Wattage the little card draws in standby.

I would not run this board fanless. I played a 1080i MPEG2 over the air video on it without a case and my infrared thermometer read the GPU temperature at 60

Zotac Atom N330 Dual Core WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard IONITX-F-E Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this after reselling my similar Zotac IONITX D-E (a.k.a. IONITX A-U, only no PSU included), as it simply didn't do it for me as an HTPC. The main issue with the D-E/A-U was that there were no PCI-E slots for a TV card of my choice.

That all changed with the F-E, which was released just a few months later. It's got the PCI-E slot that makes all the difference.

TV CARD:
If you have digital cable, you could technically just use the HDHomeRun (analog cable/NTSC not supported): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010Y414Q?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8

We, on the other hand, only have analog cable. Therefore, it needed to work with my current TV card, which is an analog/digital hybrid: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E2T6Y4?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8CASE
I use my board with this APEX case, which works quite well: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WCQYU6?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8MEMORY
The best memory to grab for any of these Zotac boards is Crucial's XMS sticks.

Go for the 2GB (2 x 1GB) if you don't intend to ever watch Blu-Ray movies:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CDLCGG?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8

Go for the 4GB (2 x 2GB) if you DO intent to watch Blu-Ray movies:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TPXULC?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8

Hope this helps! :)

Click Here to see more reviews about: Zotac Atom N330 Dual Core WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard IONITX-F-E

Product Description:
Experience fluid and vivid high-definition video playback with the ultra-compact ZOTAC ION platform. The mini-ITX form factor ZOTAC ION combines a high-performance NVIDIA ION graphics processor with a power-efficient Intel Atom processor for the ultimate eco-friendly platform that has no troubles handling regular web browsing, e-mail, & productivity and HD video playback tasks.

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Want to read more honest consumer review about Zotac Atom N330 Dual Core WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard IONITX-F-E now ?

Zotac Atom N330 Dual Core WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard IONITX-F-E Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this after reselling my similar Zotac IONITX D-E (a.k.a. IONITX A-U, only no PSU included), as it simply didn't do it for me as an HTPC. The main issue with the D-E/A-U was that there were no PCI-E slots for a TV card of my choice.

That all changed with the F-E, which was released just a few months later. It's got the PCI-E slot that makes all the difference.

TV CARD:
If you have digital cable, you could technically just use the HDHomeRun (analog cable/NTSC not supported): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010Y414Q?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8

We, on the other hand, only have analog cable. Therefore, it needed to work with my current TV card, which is an analog/digital hybrid: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E2T6Y4?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8CASE
I use my board with this APEX case, which works quite well: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WCQYU6?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8MEMORY
The best memory to grab for any of these Zotac boards is Crucial's XMS sticks.

Go for the 2GB (2 x 1GB) if you don't intend to ever watch Blu-Ray movies:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CDLCGG?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8

Go for the 4GB (2 x 2GB) if you DO intent to watch Blu-Ray movies:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TPXULC?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8

Hope this helps! :)

Click Here to see more reviews about: Zotac Atom N330 Dual Core WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard IONITX-F-E

Product Description:
Experience fluid and vivid high-definition video playback with the ultra-compact ZOTAC ION platform. The mini-ITX form factor ZOTAC ION combines a high-performance NVIDIA ION graphics processor with a power-efficient Intel Atom processor for the ultimate eco-friendly platform that has no troubles handling regular web browsing, e-mail, & productivity and HD video playback tasks.

Get 11% OFF

Want to read more honest consumer review about Zotac Atom N330 Dual Core WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard IONITX-F-E now ?