Enter the Mini-ITX.com online store

Projects

September 05, 2017
Choosing the right DC-DC PSU

August 27, 2015
AMD's Project Quantum

August 13, 2015
The Redstone PC is the ultimate Mini-ITX Minecraft Machine

October 09, 2014
The "Restomod TV"

April 09, 2013
Installing NAS4Free

February 28, 2013
Building an XBMC 12 Home Theatre PC

January 25, 2011
XBMC Guide updated to version 10.0

August 06, 2010
Building a Green PC

February 15, 2010
Building an ION powered HTPC with XBMC

October 10, 2008
The "Cambridge Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 2008"

Mini-ITX Online Store

September 12, 2008
"Florian", the DVD burning robot

September 05, 2008
The "i-EPIA"

May 22, 2008
The "GTA-PC"

April 14, 2007
The "Digg" Case

January 19, 2007
The "ITX-Laptop"

December 07, 2006
The "Tortoise Beetle"

October 02, 2006
The "DOS Head Unit"

August 31, 2006
The "Janus Project"

August 05, 2006
The "Leela PC"

June 26, 2006
Nano-ITX in a Football

May 17, 2006
The "EPIA Alloy Mod"

April 11, 2006
Neatorama's Collection of Case Mods

February 18, 2006
The "Rundfunker"

October 24, 2005
The "ITX TV"

October 06, 2005
The K'nex-ITX

August 05, 2005
The "Waffle Iron PC"

July 21, 2005
The "Supra-Server"

July 18, 2005
The "Mega-ITX"

July 07, 2005
The "Encyclomedia"

May 25, 2005
The "Accordion ITX"

Mini-ITX Online Store

May 16, 2005
The "FileServerRouterSwitch"

May 15, 2005
The "Mini Falcon"

May 13, 2005
The "Bender PC"

May 11, 2005
The "BBC ITX B"

May 10, 2005
The "Frame"

April 20, 2005
The "Jeannie"

March 09, 2005
The "Cool Cube"

January 30, 2005
First Nano-ITX Project?

January 17, 2005
The "iGrill"

January 15, 2005
The "Gumball PC"

December 15, 2004
The "Deco Box"

December 03, 2004
The "TERA-ITX"

October 06, 2004
The "Coealacanth-PC"

September 17, 2004
The "Gramaphone-ITX-HD"

August 26, 2004
The "C1541 Disk Drive ITX"

August 25, 2004
The "SEGA-ITX"

August 13, 2004
The "Quiet Cubid"

August 06, 2004
The "BMWPC"

July 14, 2004
The "Moo Cow Moo"

July 02, 2004
The "Mini Mesh Box"

Full alphabetical archive on right hand side of page...


Zotac ION-ITX-A Review
Posted on May 12, 2009 Go to:

Final Thoughts

Click to launch image viewer

We chose to compare this board against a socket Mini-ITX motherboard because there simply isn't another embedded Mini-ITX board with its capabilities around at the moment. The full gamut of video and audio ports, low power consumption and most importantly video acceleration capabilities make the ION-ITX the perfect 1080p HTPC board.

Click to launch image viewer

The built-in DC converter and external AC adapter of the ION-ITX-A makes sense when paired with a small enclosure without a power supply such as the M350 pictured above. This was our test machine. We installed Vista from USB memory stick. We could attach an external Blu-Ray drive to this.

Mini-ITX enclosures supporting optical drives tend to have their own power supplies. These PSUs would reach the parts bin quickly with the ION-ITX-A, meaning unnecessary expenditure. There are some other powering scenarios that require either some cunning cabling (Molex Y Adapters are your friend), a little more thought (Vehicle PCs, slimline optical drives) or simply can't be done (full size optical drives are a no no). But there's always the ION-ITX-B to consider, which has a traditional 20-pin ATX power connector, single core fanless Atom 230 processor and no Wi-Fi.

The current HTPC board of choice, the socket 775 Zotac 9300-ITX-Wi-Fi has an Atom powered challenger, and it is a worthy opponent. We would choose the 9300 in situations where we wanted to build a more multi-purpose machine with 1080p playback capabilities, and the ION-ITX when we wanted a more single use machine - or where processor speed isn't a deciding factor. The ION is perfectly capable of running Vista, and is the fastest embedded Mini-ITX board we have tested to date.

We have never recommended embedded Mini-ITX boards for 3D gaming and although the ION-ITX makes great strides in this department, we still don't. Choose a Mini-ITX board with PCI Express x16 and a decent graphics card, or better still consider a larger form factor.

The ION-ITX boards are amongst the most expensive of the Atom powered boards, but this reflects their capabilities. If you do not require the ION chipset features then there are now many alternative dual core Atom powered Mini-ITX boards starting at around half the price that just about manage 720p playback through CPU willpower alone.

We struggled to come up with some decent Cons to match the Pros for this board. None of them would be deal breakers for us, and most are surmountable. There's always the Zotac 9300-ITX Wi-Fi for people who want more power.

Pros

  • Atom powered - fast, low power consumption
  • ION chipset and capabilities
  • Will play any media file you throw at it
  • Generous range of modern ports
  • Integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi on the ION-ITX-A
  • Built in power supply on the ION-ITX-A can make for a very small system

Cons

  • 90W power limitation on ION-ITX-A (though not the ION-ITX-B)
  • Video acceleration may require additional software purchase
  • Additional cabling required for optical drives
  • Not many PSU-free Mini-ITX enclosures available
  • No expansion slot
  • Heatsink size of ION-ITX-A (not B) rules out 1U chassis
  • More expensive than Intel chipset Atoms

<-- Back to Mini-ITX.com

*Advert* AMD and NVidia Bundles suitable for OpenELEC! *Advert*
AMD, NVidia and Fanless Impactics in stock at the Mini-ITX.com Online Store. We serve the UK, Europe, USA, Infinity and beyond.
Order in stock items before 7.00PM GMT and we'll ship same day!


Board Finder
Case Finder
Mini PC Finder