Final Thoughts
The overall cost for the system is around $315 with these components. That includes the Wi-Fi card, antenna, RAM and hard drive. You can buy something very similar from http://www.logicsupply.com/products/jt_t_1610 Logic Supply for about $360. None of those prices include the operating system.
This system won’t set any performance records.
Overall, it seems responsive enough for web browsing and light office work. It’s very small, completely quiet and unobtrusive – except for the relentlessly glowing blue LED. Maximum power under a full Prime95 load was about 25W. Idle power was around 16W (hard drive rotating and Wi-Fi on.)
I’ll probably experiment more with this in the next several months, getting impressions from family members. Overall, I’m intrigued, but I can’t help thinking that a 1.6GHz Atom may just be overwhelmed by the sorts of tasks we do around here. For example, my daughter is a heavy user of PowerPoint for her classroom work, and plays a lot of web games.
Still, it’s cool to see something you can build that’s this small, utterly quiet and easy to assemble. It’s so easy to build, that this will likely become popular among hobbyists and Car PC enthusiasts. This would also make a great little project for a school tech project – it’s that easy. So if you have a need for a simple, low-power, compact PC, check out this particular set of components. At the very least, you’ll have a little fun with it.
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10 comments
Jerry
October 14, 2009 at 9:20 pm (UTC -7)
I agree, only one video port is needed, DVI or VGA, although I’m not so sure this has the power to run the stream to an HDMI port. I see it has two headers for 4 more USB ports so they could have put more external ports or left space to allow you to make that choice. What I find appealing about this is the wireless networking so it can be used as a headless box for monitoring like video or weather.
Ryan Meray | ctechsinc.com
October 15, 2009 at 7:11 pm (UTC -7)
I suppose you’d be able to hook it up to a lot of aftermarket LCD mounts, but it is disappointing it doesn’t work with more monitors as-is. That’s definitely more of a failure of the LCD manufacturers than anything.
This system is a great example of several design annoyances that I think need to be stomped out as soon as possible.
There is absolutely no reason, not since the invention of DVI-I, for there to be a VGA port on motherboards. I get it, it’s cheaper than including a DVI-to-VGA adapter, but it also takes up precious I/O panel real-estate that could be allocated to extra USB ports, eSATA, some digital audio jacks, or other much more awesome things. Maybe 5 years ago you could point out that most people didn’t have DVI capable devices, but now, VGA is the exception and it should be treated as such.
Next up, that cooling system is woefully ineffective if you want to run it as a car pc. I’ve put car PCs together, and cooling is absolutely critical. If you want passive cooling in a vehicle where the insides can get smokin’ hot, you’ve gotta have a beefier heatsink than that, even on an Atom. Either that, or some sort of active cooling, even if it’s just an exhaust fan and a chassis designed to pull air across all of the heatsinks en route to the exhaust.
Finally, the price point is absurd. $300+ without an OS? A netbook is cheaper, and it’s got an LCD worked into it. They’re trying to extract a premium price for this, and I don’t think the market is there for it.
Larry Cook
October 16, 2009 at 6:35 am (UTC -7)
I built a nettop based on this motherboard a few months back, with a primary design goal of very low power consumption in a 24/7 low utilization file server application, and have been very happy with it. You left out one important characteristic that distinguishes this motherboard from many of its peers: it uses Intel’s 945GSE chipset (the same one used in many netbooks), as opposed to the 945GC that is more commonly used in nettops.
The 945GSE is rated for 6W TDP, as opposed to the 945GC at 22W. So any nettop using the 945GC will use a lot more power than this one, and will also require a larger heat sync and usually a fan. If you look at many of the otherwise nicely designed mini-ITX Atom-based boards, for example, you’ll see that the fan is placed over the chipset, while the Atom is cooled passively. The 945GC also does not seem to support DVI (at least in the many boards I compared for this project).
Craig
October 16, 2009 at 11:23 am (UTC -7)
I continue to be amazed by the little processor that could. A few months ago, I built the following system for a local garage. They needed a small system for their billing, inventory control and net access. We installed windows Vista Home Premium and its running just fine. All in something the size of a toaster!
$207 Total
APEX MI-100 Black Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply – Retail $56
• With Power Supply: Yes
• Motherboard Compatibility: Mini-ITX
• With Side Panel Window: No
• External 5.25″ Drive Bays: 1
• External 3.5″ Drive Bays: 1
• Internal 3.5″ Drive Bays: 1
• Expansion Slots: 1
• Front Ports: USB, Audio
• Model #: MI-100
• Item #: N82E16811154084
Intel BOXD945GCLF Atom processor Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo – Retail $65
• With Cooler: Yes
• FSB: 533MHz
• South Bridge: Intel ICH7
• Number of Memory Slots: 1×240pin
• Memory Standard: DDR2 667
• PCI Slots: 1
• PATA: 1 x ATA 100 2 Dev. Max
• SATA: 2 x SATA II
• Model #: BOXD945GCLF
• Item #: N82E16813121342
Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model KVR667D2N5/2G – Retail $19
• Cas Latency: 5
• Heat Spreader: No
• Voltage: 1.8V
• Model #: KVR667D2N5/2G
• Item #: N82E16820134192
Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YD 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM $40
• Cache: 16MB
• Form Factor: 3.5″
• Average Seek Time: 8.9ms
• Parts: 3 years limited
• Labor: 3 years limited
• Model #: WD2500YD
• Item #: N82E16822136010
LITE-ON 22X DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model iHAS222-06 – OEM $27
• Type: DVD Burner
• Cache: 2MB
• Model #: iHAS222-06
• Item #: N82E1682710628
Dustin
October 17, 2009 at 8:13 pm (UTC -7)
$300 is definitely a little high for the specs of that setup. For about $360 shipped, I bought an Asrock ION 330, which is slightly bigger, but comes with the dual core Atom 330, Nvidia ION graphics, 2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, 6 USB ports, VGA and HDMI out (also comes with a HDMI-VGA adapter in the box), and a slim line DVDRW drive. It is still very quiet, very low power consumption, while only missing the built-in wifi. Performance for general tasks is more than adequate, DVD ripping is plenty fast, and if you utilize the NVidia GPU, h.264 transcoding is better than my Macbook. As a small, silent, low powered HTPC, I’ve been very happy.
Loyd Case
October 18, 2009 at 12:08 pm (UTC -7)
For me, it’s the “slightly bigger” part that’s problematic. This unit really is so very small.
Dustin
October 18, 2009 at 7:08 pm (UTC -7)
Your unit is 7″ x 7″ x 1.5″. The Asrock is 7.5″ x 7.5″ x 2.75″, bigger yes, but not drastically so. My point was more about the capabilities of the Dual core 330 with the Ion processor than the size itself. With these it seems every bit of added horsepower helps.
As a side note we have a few 22 in. Acer monitors in the office that have the mounting holes on the back not occupied by the stand (perfect for mounting one of these boxes).
Steve
January 10, 2011 at 5:19 am (UTC -7)
Hi Loyd,
Thanks for this test very interesting !
I am hesitating between “Morex T1610″ and “Morex M350″.
Which one do you think would be best ?
Thanks,
Best Regards,
Steve
admin
January 26, 2011 at 5:04 pm (UTC -7)
If I were building one today, the M350 looks pretty neat.
HaYen
February 8, 2011 at 12:07 am (UTC -7)
Win 7? Why not MeeGo?