Viewing page 9 of 9 pages.
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
HDMI Output
The board does not have a native HDMI port — it is provided via a DVI
adapter. The HDMI signal was picked up by our Asus
MK241H LCD monitor (1920x1200) without difficulties and audio was passed
through successfully as well. According to the chipset specifications, GeForce
8200 supports 8-channel LPCM audio output, which makes it step up from AMD's
chipsets, which currently only output HDMI audio in stereo.
Wireless Connectivity
The included WiFi module worked fine, giving us a strong, consistant signal
at a 25 foot (~8m) distance from our lab's 802.11g router. We did not encounter
any drop-outs though it was never in long-term use. It should be noted that
the WiFi adapter added 5~6W to the system's power consumption, whether it was
connected to a network or not. We've seen external USB WiFi adapters use more
than 10W extra, so this is actually quite reasonable.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The first Zotac product we reviewed, the NF610i-ITX,
seemed like a rush job, but the Geforce 8200-ITX is a much more polished product.
It has a nice set of features, including HDMI with 8-channel LPCM audio and
wireless connectivity. Power consumption was excellent and the IGP was quite
capable for video playback. Our sample was also a suspiciously good overclocker.
The board's main problem is the driver issue that prevented us from getting
Blu-ray playback working. The ultimate mini-ITX application is the home theater
PC, so this is a huge downside. We expect this problem to be ironed out in the
near future though — after all, the board's hardware is more than up to
the challenge. What can't be fixed is the apparent (but not explicit) lack of
support for higher TDP CPUs. This a more minor issue — few users (we hope)
would throw a 125W TDP chip into a mini-ITX case anyway.
There are only a handful of retail mini-ITX motherboards available for the
AMD platform at the moment and the Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX seems to be one of
the cheapest of the bunch, making it a no-brainer if you don't mind the negatives
noted above. Its low price makes the Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX a tempting lure.
We wouldn't blame anyone for taking the bait.
|
Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi
|
PROS
* Very low power consumption when idle/during video playback
* HDMI with 8-channel audio
* WiFi
* Overclocks well
* Tempting price
|
CONS
* Blu-ray playback issues (driver problem)
* Apparent 95W CPU limit
|
Our thanks to Zotac
for the GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi sample.
* * *
Articles of Related Interest
Asus P5N7A-VM: Geforce 9300 IGP
Asus
P5Q-EM G45 mATX motherboard
Asus
M3A78-T: AMD's IGP Gets Another Boost
Intel
DG45FC: Loaded LGA775 Mini-ITX Board
Zotac NF610i-ITX: A Compact Core 2 Solution
Asus
M3N78 Pro: Geforce 8300 & HybridPower Explored
* * *
Discuss this article in the SPCR forums.
| Help support this site, buy from one of our affiliate retailers! |
|
