J&W MINIX 780G mini-ITX HTPC mobo - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 17th Sep 2008, 08:22

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...-motherboard/1

This cute little 17cm square motherboard is absolutely jam-packed with features from PCI-Express to HDMI and High-Definition to 65W full AMD CPU support. Could this be the ultimate low power, ultra small form factor home theatre motherboard?

The boy 4rm oz · 17th Sep 2008, 08:55

I could see this being a great board for a DIY SFF HTPC.

M_D_K · 17th Sep 2008, 08:59

is lucky i've not ordered my jetway yet

, think i'll be picking one of these up

modgodtanvir · 17th Sep 2008, 09:39

Ite lads, awesome review

I think this might have just replaced that Jetway that I was considering...

Just out of interest - your power consumption figures. Are they for the a whole system, or just the board and CPU?

Tim S · 17th Sep 2008, 10:00

It's full system power consumption

ChaosDefinesOrder · 17th Sep 2008, 10:20

if the board is 12cmx12cm does that mean it can be mounted on a 120mm fan mount? :-)

The boy 4rm oz · 17th Sep 2008, 10:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder

if the board is 12cmx12cm does that mean it can be mounted on a 120mm fan mount? :-)

You could probably make a bracket lol.

steveo_mcg · 17th Sep 2008, 10:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim S

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...-motherboard/1

This cute little 12cm square motherboard is absolutely jam-packed with features from PCI-Express to HDMI and High-Definition to 65W full AMD CPU support. Could this be the ultimate low power, ultra small form factor home theatre motherboard?

~~17cm square no?~~ Thanks, fixed - Tim

Looks goood, i'm still shocked they get these things under 100w for a full featured proper cpu and all the gubbings.

Burnout21 · 17th Sep 2008, 10:50

want one! ITX plus PCI-E, might have found a better home for my 8800GTS then! I smell a shuttle upgrade for me, (Shuttle XPC SN41G2, with sempron slowness)

Paradigm Shifter · 17th Sep 2008, 11:09

That is one gorgeous little board.

I wonder if you would have the time to humour a request... would the Scythe Zipang Harry reviewed yesterday fit with it overhanging the NB/SB heatsink? With a 140mm fan pushing air down onto the whole motherboard, that might be an interesting way of cooling the whole kit 'n' kaboodle.

Something like the Shuriken might do the same job - that's a 'low profile' HTPC heatsink...

Nature · 17th Sep 2008, 11:38

What kinda case ya'll use fer that there testin'?

Tim S · 17th Sep 2008, 12:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder

if the board is 12cmx12cm does that mean it can be mounted on a 120mm fan mount? :-)

Apologies but it's 17cm sq - there was a typo in the article description...

mclean007 · 17th Sep 2008, 12:24

Quote:

With the correct driver and latest BIOS, everything ran perfectly well until we found the main heatsink overheated and locked up the system when we loaded it with video. J&W did warn of this, and while a small fan would be noisy and unappreciated, it would still be better than a system crashing - how many people will simply think the board is faulty and try to RMA it?

If it was overheating when running in spec (i.e. with a <=65W CPU, without overclock), then in my view it is faulty!

I love my Gigabyte 780G board. Looks like, overheating aside, the J&W is another worthy player.

ChaosDefinesOrder · 17th Sep 2008, 12:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim S

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder

if the board is 12cmx12cm does that mean it can be mounted on a 120mm fan mount? :-)

Apologies but it's 17cm sq - there was a typo in the article description...

Quote:

Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

You could probably make a bracket lol.

I suppose you could still make a braket for it to fit on a 120mm fan mount...

(yes this is purely "for the hell of it" speculation!)

Baz · 17th Sep 2008, 13:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by mclean007

Quote:

With the correct driver and latest BIOS, everything ran perfectly well until we found the main heatsink overheated and locked up the system when we loaded it with video. J&W did warn of this, and while a small fan would be noisy and unappreciated, it would still be better than a system crashing - how many people will simply think the board is faulty and try to RMA it?

If it was overheating when running in spec (i.e. with a <=65W CPU, without overclock), then in my view it is faulty!

I love my Gigabyte 780G board. Looks like, overheating aside, the J&W is another worthy player.

No it's the northbridge/southbridge heatsink that overheats when it's stressed by video or graphics and doesn't have any additional airflow. Under nominal circumstances it doesn't need additional air. Because we tested with a heatpiped heatisnk outside of a case there was no additional airflow passing over the board or downward from a lower profile CPU cooler like you would use on one of these boards.

EDIT: Jeeez Harry, leave yourself logged in!! >_< This is Bindi btw

toru173 · 17th Sep 2008, 14:07

Nice review, I've been looking forward to reading it. Pitty you didn't give Hybrid Crossfire a try! In the text, you mention that the PCIe slot is x8 compatible electrically - but the J&W datasheet lists it as only x4. Which is correct?

FIBRE+ · 17th Sep 2008, 15:17

Very interested if it will fit my Scythe Ninja Mini and MSI 8600GTS heatpipe\silent.

Will there be much of a performance hit on my graphics card as it's only x8 ?

ChaosDefinesOrder · 17th Sep 2008, 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIBRE+

Very interested if it will fit my Scythe Ninja Mini and MSI 8600GTS heatpipe\silent.

Will there be much of a performance hit on my graphics card as it's only x8 ?

x8 PCI-E v2.0 is identical bandwidth to x16 PCI-E v1 if that means anything...

E.E.L. Ambiense · 17th Sep 2008, 16:13

What a cute little board! I just bit on a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, so I'm prolly good for now. But this is something I'd consider for a little mod project. Emphasis on little.

The Infamous Mr D · 17th Sep 2008, 16:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIBRE+

Will there be much of a performance hit on my graphics card as it's only x8 ?

According to this article on Tom's, dropping from a x16 link to a x8 link shouldn't impact performance considerably.

Sorry for linking to the enemy, peeps

17th Sep 2008, 08:22	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	J&W MINIX 780G mini-ITX HTPC mobo http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...-motherboard/1 This cute little 17cm square motherboard is absolutely jam-packed with features from PCI-Express to HDMI and High-Definition to 65W full AMD CPU support. Could this be the ultimate low power, ultra small form factor home theatre motherboard? __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

17th Sep 2008, 08:59	#3
M_D_K Kiteninja Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: 2Bed Flat Posts: 5,224	is lucky i've not ordered my jetway yet , think i'll be picking one of these up __________________ MY Flickr -- My Website Canon 50D, 24-70L, 70-200L,1.4&2x TCs, 17-50, 10-17fish, Nifty, 580EXII, Lencarta Studio.

17th Sep 2008, 09:39	#4
modgodtanvir Prepare - for Mortal Bumbat! Join Date: May 2007 Location: Up a tree, Lincolnshire Posts: 1,963	Ite lads, awesome review I think this might have just replaced that Jetway that I was considering... Just out of interest - your power consumption figures. Are they for the a whole system, or just the board and CPU? __________________ Nexxo: Oh, and Relix is god, and ComputerKing is his prophet. Mankz: Meh. So what am I? dragon2309: Weak wristed...?

17th Sep 2008, 10:00	#5
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	It's full system power consumption __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

17th Sep 2008, 10:20	#6
ChaosDefinesOrder Vapourmodder Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Cambridge, UK Posts: 366	if the board is 12cmx12cm does that mean it can be mounted on a 120mm fan mount? :-) __________________ Current setup: Hiper Osiris \| Core i7 920 (Cooled by Noctua NH-U12P) \| Foxconn Renaissance \| 2x GTX280 \| Cooler Master UCP \| Corsair Dominator 3GB (soon to be 9GB) \| Creative X-Fi Titanium \| Vista Home Premium x64 \| OS Drive: WD Velociraptor 300GB. Storage: 1x 160GB, 1x 250GB, 1x 300GB, 1x500GB (incremental additions over the years! All Maxtor) \| Monitor: Dell 2709W

17th Sep 2008, 10:50	#9
Burnout21 is true bit-techer! Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Nott's Posts: 4,857	want one! ITX plus PCI-E, might have found a better home for my 8800GTS then! I smell a shuttle upgrade for me, (Shuttle XPC SN41G2, with sempron slowness) __________________ DFI P45-T2RS Plus, Q6600, 4GB Reaper HPC, GTX280 & FX3450, X-Fi Xtreme Music, 1570GB Storage

17th Sep 2008, 11:09	#10
Paradigm Shifter Lethargic Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 1,213	That is one gorgeous little board. I wonder if you would have the time to humour a request... would the Scythe Zipang Harry reviewed yesterday fit with it overhanging the NB/SB heatsink? With a 140mm fan pushing air down onto the whole motherboard, that might be an interesting way of cooling the whole kit 'n' kaboodle. Something like the Shuriken might do the same job - that's a 'low profile' HTPC heatsink... __________________ Core i7 920 D0 @ 3.8GHz \| 6GB Corsair 1600MHz \| Gigabyte EX58-UD5 \| XFX 4870X2 2GB \| 4TB \| WUXGA

17th Sep 2008, 11:38	#11
Nature Supermodder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Jinan, China Posts: 417	What kinda case ya'll use fer that there testin'? __________________ Peace, Love, Empathy, Respect, Generosity, Smiles, and Hugs

17th Sep 2008, 14:07	#16
toru173 What's a Dremel? Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 7	Nice review, I've been looking forward to reading it. Pitty you didn't give Hybrid Crossfire a try! In the text, you mention that the PCIe slot is x8 compatible electrically - but the J&W datasheet lists it as only x4. Which is correct?

17th Sep 2008, 15:17	#17
FIBRE+ Ultramodder Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Oxford Posts: 1,306	Very interested if it will fit my Scythe Ninja Mini and MSI 8600GTS heatpipe\silent. Will there be much of a performance hit on my graphics card as it's only x8 ? __________________ ++ASUS SLI Premium \| X2 3800 @ 2.6ghz \| XP-120 \| 2GB Mushkin \| 8800 GT \| XFI Music \| Seagate 320GB \ Samsung F1 1TB \| 520W Corsair HX \| 23" Dell S2309W ++ ++Zotac 9300 Mini ITX \| Intel E5200 \| Scythe Shuriken \| 2GB Corsair \| 8600 GTS (Passive) \| WD Black 2.5" 320GB \ Samsung F2 Eco 1TB \| Corsair VX 450W \| 42" Panasonic Viera++ ++Canon 400D \| Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 \| Canon 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 \| Sandisk Extreme III 4GB++My Ebay++

17th Sep 2008, 16:13	#19
E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Malabar, FL Posts: 2,727	What a cute little board! I just bit on a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, so I'm prolly good for now. But this is something I'd consider for a little mod project. Emphasis on little. __________________ Latest Builds: "Movie Sign!" • CheckMate - MotM May '09 ~~Nominee~~ Loser! • BluBawx I • Lumière Noire - MotM Apr. '08 ~~Nominee~~ Loser! • Razzle Dazzle • CMC Field Server • "Building Better Worlds" - MotM Feb. '08 ~~Nominee~~ Loser! • Biohazard • MicroSuperFly