Monday, August 17th 2009

ASUS Preps AT3N7A-I A330 NVIDIA ION Mini-ITX Motherboard

by
btarunr
 Discuss (17 Comments)
ASUS finally decided to roll out an NVIDIA ION platform based mini-ITX motherboard, with the AT3N7A-I A330. As the name suggests, this motherboard embeds a dual-core Intel Atom 330 processor running at 1.60 GHz. With two DDR2 DIMM slots, the chipset supports dual-channel DDR2-800 memory. Located at the center of the board is a big, fan-heatsink that is common to the chipset and CPU. The chipset embeds GeForce 9400M mGPU, which connects to its displays using D-Sub and HDMI. Storage is care of three SATA II ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, JBOD support.

The lone expansion slot is a PCI. Connectivity options on this board include gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, eSATA, and ten USB 2.0 ports in all. Audio is handled by a VIA 8-channel HDA codec that also provides optical and co-axial SPDIF outputs. The AT3N7A-I A330 hits stores in this month, at an expected price of 112 Euro.
Source: DonanimHaber

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17 Comments on ASUS Preps AT3N7A-I A330 NVIDIA ION Mini-ITX Motherboard

#1
tkpenalty
ASUS should learn from zotac.... external PSU ftw.
Posted on Reply
#2
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
I would have loved an open-ended PCI-E x8 slot.
Posted on Reply
#3
Shou Miko
Asus should have put a PCI-E 2.0 x16 on the board :(
Posted on Reply
#4
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
looks like sex on wheels for a media PC/HTPC - CPU power + GPU/cuda power

i mean look at it, for once an atom system with the power for 1080P movies, and its got HDMI, optical and RCA SPDIF outputs, 8x USB 2.0, e-sata, 8 channel analogue...


this thing is legendary win, with its only flaw being a PCI slot instead of PCI-E (even open ended 4x, would have been great)
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#5
csendesmark
tkpenaltyASUS should learn from zotac.... external PSU ftw.
....and fully passive (huge) heatsinks ^^
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#6
buggalugs
Musselslooks like sex on wheels for a media PC/HTPC - CPU power + GPU/cuda power

i mean look at it, for once an atom system with the power for 1080P movies, and its got HDMI, optical and RCA SPDIF outputs, 8x USB 2.0, e-sata, 8 channel analogue...


this thing is legendary win, with its only flaw being a PCI slot instead of PCI-E (even open ended 4x, would have been great)
It does nothing for me. I have a AMD HTPC with a low power 4850e and 780 board and its just good enough for 1080p but i plan on upgrading for more grunt. At least the CPU the rest is ok. I cant imagine this thing is going to perform good enough for me.
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#7
AsRock
TPU addict
whats the power usage ?..
Posted on Reply
#8
OnBoard
tkpenaltyASUS should learn from zotac.... external PSU ftw.
Stick in Pico-PSU (www.cartft.com/image_db/picoPSU.jpg), that's what I have in my C16-Mini-ITX project (that has been on hiatus for a year :p).
Posted on Reply
#9
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
buggalugsIt does nothing for me. I have a AMD HTPC with a low power 4850e and 780 board and its just good enough for 1080p but i plan on upgrading for more grunt. At least the CPU the rest is ok. I cant imagine this thing is going to perform good enough for me.
nvida GPU + cuda + coreAVC codec = 1080P with no sweat, on this system.


is your 4850e + 780 ~35W like an atom system? doubt it (cause you know, my media PC is about the same specs and it uses 50-90W depending on CPU voltage)

The other point is, this is mini ITX. such power in a tiny form factor is uncommon.
Posted on Reply
#10
Easy Rhino
Linux Advocate
psft. wake me up when they start making pico-itx consumer based boards with PSUs ready to go.
Posted on Reply
#11
Wile E
Power User
Can this output 7.1 (or even 5.1) Audio from the HDMI output?
Posted on Reply
#12
AsphyxiA
SOMEONE FREAKIN PUT A PCI SLOT ON THE BOARD!!!!!!!!!!!! about time I'd say, this will be sex on wheels for anyone doing a mini htpc. Also Wille I think that the 9400 does support 5.1, now 7.1, I'm not sure. However for entry level HTPC, this is great!
Posted on Reply
#13
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
Wile ECan this output 7.1 (or even 5.1) Audio from the HDMI output?
it should. nvidia just need an SPDIF cable from teh soundcard to the video card - i'm sure theres connectors for both on the motherboard, even if they didnt integrate the connections by default.
Posted on Reply
#14
Wile E
Power User
Musselsit should. nvidia just need an SPDIF cable from teh soundcard to the video card - i'm sure theres connectors for both on the motherboard, even if they didnt integrate the connections by default.
Well, I only ask because I know my 8800GT would only do stereo thru spdif inputs.
Posted on Reply
#15
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
Wile EWell, I only ask because I know my 8800GT would only do stereo thru spdif inputs.
well yeah, they need an encoded signal going into them for more than that.

it all depends on what the soundcard can do, if it has encoding or not (which some realteks do these days)
Posted on Reply
#16
AsphyxiA
Musselswell yeah, they need an encoded signal going into them for more than that.

it all depends on what the soundcard can do, if it has encoding or not (which some realteks do these days)
yeah but will the chipset support 7.1 via HDMI? I know that if I build an HTPC, I'm not going to use on board and would run video and sound through the HDMI port on the back of the board. I'm pretty sure the chipset DOES support it
Posted on Reply
#17
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
i honestly dont know with nvidia. it all depends on the soundcard.

with ATI it depends on the video card, since its built in.
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