Thursday, March 8th 2012
Colorful Announces Its First Mini-ITX Barebone for Gaming
Colorful is well-known for its highly innovative graphics card designs, it is one of China's leading graphics card brands. Some of its graphics card designs have captured our imagination. Its latest creation is a DIY mini-ITX barebones system for gaming, called Desert Eagle. The package consists of Colorful's own-design slim-form-factor (SFF) chassis, which bears a swanky combination of red and black, with ample perforations and and top handles; a custom-design, low-profile Colorfire AMD Radeon HD 6750 graphics card (Colorfire is Colorful's Radeon-selling brand); a mini-ITX socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the Intel H67 chipset (model: i-H67HD U3); and a 300W PSU.Chassis
The chassis is Colorful's own design, it measures 228 x 262 x 110 mm, weighing 3.7 kg. It's made of an aluminum alloy. The side panels are designed to be hollow, and dampen noise. It has perforations on the front, bottom, top, and left-side to help air-flow. Internally, the chassis features a downside-up layout (think: BTX), so the right-side panel of the chassis opens up to reveal two 2.5" drive bays (well, actually hooks, to screw the drives onto); while the left-side opens up to the motherboard and graphics card. As a result of the design, the fans of the graphics card draw air from the perforations on top of the chassis. The case has two metal handles, that help you transport it to your LAN parties. The front-panel includes one USB 3.0 port, and a USB 2.0.Graphics Card
As mentioned before, Colorful is packing a Colorfire Radeon HD 6750 1GB graphics card. The card is built in a low-profile design, spans across two expansion slots (which are present, in this case), and uses a dual-fan cooling solution. The card features clock speeds of 700 MHz core, with 1000 MHz (4.00 GHz effective) GDDR5 memory. Display outputs includes one each of DVI and HDMI.Motherboard
The Desert Eagle kit includes Colorful's own i-H67HD U3 motherboard. This mini-ITX motherboard is based on the Intel H67 chipset, and supports current "Sandy Bridge" and next-gen "Ivy Bridge" Core processors. It uses a 4+1 phase VRM to power the CPU. The CPU is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, and a mini-PCIe (for wireless LAN cards).
SATA connectivity includes two each of SATA 6 Gb/s and SATA 3 Gb/s internal ports. Other connectivity includes 8+2 channel HD audio with optical SPDIF output, gigabit Ethernet, DVI, D-sub, and HDMI for display outputs (which you'll probably not need), and six USB ports on the rear panel, of which two are USB 3.0 SuperSpeed. The board uses high-grade Tantulum capacitors, next to more conventional Japanese conductor-polymer ones.The PSU
Now, onto the last component of the package, the PSU. Colorful includes a 300W flex-ATX PSU with the Desert Eagle ITX Gaming System barebone. This PSU is 80 Plus Bronze rated, and Colorful claims it provides sufficient power for any of the popular LGA1155 processors and the included Colorfire HD 6750 graphics card. The OEM is Enhance Electronics.Since the Desert Eagle is a barebones package, you need to augment it with your own LGA1155 processor, DDR3 memory, and storage (SSDs or HDDs). Colorful did not give out pricing details. As for availability, Colorful operates in Asia and Europe, so that should be the availability area, as well.
The chassis is Colorful's own design, it measures 228 x 262 x 110 mm, weighing 3.7 kg. It's made of an aluminum alloy. The side panels are designed to be hollow, and dampen noise. It has perforations on the front, bottom, top, and left-side to help air-flow. Internally, the chassis features a downside-up layout (think: BTX), so the right-side panel of the chassis opens up to reveal two 2.5" drive bays (well, actually hooks, to screw the drives onto); while the left-side opens up to the motherboard and graphics card. As a result of the design, the fans of the graphics card draw air from the perforations on top of the chassis. The case has two metal handles, that help you transport it to your LAN parties. The front-panel includes one USB 3.0 port, and a USB 2.0.Graphics Card
As mentioned before, Colorful is packing a Colorfire Radeon HD 6750 1GB graphics card. The card is built in a low-profile design, spans across two expansion slots (which are present, in this case), and uses a dual-fan cooling solution. The card features clock speeds of 700 MHz core, with 1000 MHz (4.00 GHz effective) GDDR5 memory. Display outputs includes one each of DVI and HDMI.Motherboard
The Desert Eagle kit includes Colorful's own i-H67HD U3 motherboard. This mini-ITX motherboard is based on the Intel H67 chipset, and supports current "Sandy Bridge" and next-gen "Ivy Bridge" Core processors. It uses a 4+1 phase VRM to power the CPU. The CPU is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, and a mini-PCIe (for wireless LAN cards).
SATA connectivity includes two each of SATA 6 Gb/s and SATA 3 Gb/s internal ports. Other connectivity includes 8+2 channel HD audio with optical SPDIF output, gigabit Ethernet, DVI, D-sub, and HDMI for display outputs (which you'll probably not need), and six USB ports on the rear panel, of which two are USB 3.0 SuperSpeed. The board uses high-grade Tantulum capacitors, next to more conventional Japanese conductor-polymer ones.The PSU
Now, onto the last component of the package, the PSU. Colorful includes a 300W flex-ATX PSU with the Desert Eagle ITX Gaming System barebone. This PSU is 80 Plus Bronze rated, and Colorful claims it provides sufficient power for any of the popular LGA1155 processors and the included Colorfire HD 6750 graphics card. The OEM is Enhance Electronics.Since the Desert Eagle is a barebones package, you need to augment it with your own LGA1155 processor, DDR3 memory, and storage (SSDs or HDDs). Colorful did not give out pricing details. As for availability, Colorful operates in Asia and Europe, so that should be the availability area, as well.
16 Comments on Colorful Announces Its First Mini-ITX Barebone for Gaming
btw i like the concept, small board with huge card
From what i saw 6850 draw's about 40w more than 6750 but damn near DBL's it in performance, seem's like an easy choice to me but then again WTF do i know :roll:
I also spot a Samuel 17...nice CPU cooler. I've got a few of these in operation.
LC
Good to see pre-built mini-ITX gaming rigs.
EDIT: There's a low profile HD 6850 (sadly only sold in Japan)
en.expreview.com/2011/08/08/afox-low-profile-radeon-hd-6850-graphics-card-goes-on-sale/18661.html
:)
We had a thread about the HD 6850 on [H], I looked around for one...and couldn't find it. Contacted them through their website and no response. Now I know why.
An HD 6850 in my little wesena ITX...now that would rock, although I think the HD 6670 is pushing the thermal envelope. It get's warm fast, although a little dollop of MX2 helped a little...
Best,
LC
Unfortunately there's a real shortage of "gaming" low profile cards.
www.techpowerup.com/162071/AFOX-Readies-Single-Slot-Radeon-HD-7850.html
EDIT: Damnit, brain fart. Read single-slot, thought low-profile.
Also, AFOX has offices in the US
www.afox-corp.com/en/where_to_buy.asp