Web News: Albatron 754 mITX reviewed, VIA's Carbon-Free Comp

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MikeC
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Web News: Albatron 754 mITX reviewed, VIA's Carbon-Free Comp

Post by MikeC » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:06 am


autoboy
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Post by autoboy » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:35 am

This quote from the end pretty much summed up my entire thoughts.
Unfortunately, that spark doesn't shine as brightly as it should. The KI51PV is a great idea on paper, but Albatron's execution is hampered by a handful of questionable design decisions and missing features. Albatron should be taking full advantage of the capabilities of the nForce 430 chipset, including its support for high definition "Azalia" audio and Gigabit Ethernet. There is no good reason to handicap the chipset's GigE controller with a 10/100 Fast Ethernet PHY.

On the BIOS front, the KI51PV really needs temperature-based fan speed control. This feature is a must-have these days, and even more important for Mini-ITX boards destined for home theater PCs. The KI51PV should have performed better in our ATA and USB tests, too, although with a Turion 64, it held its own remarkably well against dual-core Socket AM2 systems.

The KI51PV's niggling flaws aren't show-stoppers, but they're hard to forgive given the board's $310 price tag. That price is in line with the cost of other Mini-ITX boards with real CPU sockets, so it isn't necessarily exorbitant. Still, it's tough to tolerate even the slightest indiscretion when you're dropping three bills.
I was really looking forward to this board and hoping to see a price of $150-$200. 754 Semprons at 1.6Ghz are cheap, very low power, undervolt well, and are powerfull enough to run HD television. Athlon 3400+ for 754 now are 90mn and run at 2.4Ghz. They can be found cheap too. The 6150 was exaclty the right chipset to use. However, without HD audio, no fan control, no voltage control, poor overall excecution, and too high a price, really makes this board a huge disappointment for me. This would have been the perfect ITX HTPC board.

Core 2 Duo boards cost the same, support dual core, and come with a pci-e x16 port for upgraded graphics if you want. All tuners can now be found in USB versions so a PCI slot is not crucial.

nightmorph
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Post by nightmorph » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:56 am

For that kind of price, Core2Duo/Core Duo, and Socket 939 X2-capable mini-ITX boards are available from vendors like Commell (about $330) -- and they're much more full-featured, to boot, including room for up to 2GB RAM. nForce 6150/430 chipsets are even available.

Socket 754 needs to die.
Last edited by nightmorph on Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

autoboy
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Post by autoboy » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:32 pm

nightmorph wrote:For that kind of price, Core2Duo/Core Duo, and Socket 939 X2-capable mini-ITX boards are available from vendors like Commel (about $330) -- and they're much more full-featured, to boot, including room for up to 2GB RAM. nForce 6150/430 chipsets are even available.

Socket 754 needs to die.
Where? This is the first modern AMD itx system I have seen. There are some for Geode processors but I have not found any for S939. Also, it seems most of the intel boards are for the Core Duo, not the C2D.

nightmorph
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Post by nightmorph » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:18 pm

autoboy wrote:
nightmorph wrote:For that kind of price, Core2Duo/Core Duo, and Socket 939 X2-capable mini-ITX boards are available from vendors like Commel (about $330) -- and they're much more full-featured, to boot, including room for up to 2GB RAM. nForce 6150/430 chipsets are even available.

Socket 754 needs to die.
Where? This is the first modern AMD itx system I have seen. There are some for Geode processors but I have not found any for S939. Also, it seems most of the intel boards are for the Core Duo, not the C2D.
Let me see if I can scrounge up a few links:

http://epiacenter.com/modules.php?name= ... nt&sid=842
http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info ... cts_id/552

Actually, I managed to find several more powerful boards after finding this thread and then searching the web. Commell makes the most powerful mini-ITX boards available, it seems. In fact, they have some interesting ideas that allow for C2D processors to be used. Some searching elsewhere should turn up some more results for you.

autoboy
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Post by autoboy » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:54 pm

Socket 939 X2-capable mini-ITX boards are available from vendors like Commell (about $330) -- and they're much more full-featured, to boot, including room for up to 2GB RAM. nForce 6150/430 chipsets are even available.
Ummm, so where are those AMD 939 boards? All your links where the same Intel boards I have been talking about all along.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:09 am

To the best of my knowledge there are no S939 mini-ITX boards that are available retail, and probably there never will be now that 939 is "dead". An AM2 m-ITX will be awesome though.

nightmorph
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Post by nightmorph » Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:41 am

Yeah, I might have been thinking about mATX 939 rather than miniITX, sorry for the confusion. Supposedly Albatron is preparing miniITX AM2 boards, at least according to a few other reviews on this 754 board.

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