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Hardware ASRock ION 330HT-BD Net-top Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 27 Nov 2009.

  1. Sifter3000

    Sifter3000 I used to be somebody

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    In addtion to a dual-core Atom 330 CPU and Nvidia's Ion chioset, ASRock's Ion 330 net-top also sports a Blu-ray drive. Is it worth the asking price when weighed up against a budget PC?

    :geek:
     
  2. stonedsurd

    stonedsurd Is a cackling Yuletide Belgian

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    Mod: Fixed, thx
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 27 Nov 2009
  3. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Conclusion: Ion good, Atom still mediocre at best.

    Depends if you count things like the Iphone as a "Mobile Internet Device" ;-)
     
  4. tripwired

    tripwired Deploying Surprise in 3... 2...1...

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    Great review. Really tempted by the machine, but that cooling is truly sub-par. What are the temps going to be like after 6 months with a user that doesn't remove dust from their machine regularly - eg. installing a HTPC for parents, or grandparents.

    I wonder if a bit of modding could get a decent fan in there somewhere, although really, one shouldn't have to do that when paying over £300 for the hardware.
     
  5. eldiablo

    eldiablo What's a Dremel?

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    Will this flash update also support the intel chipsets with which the atom started out?
    Would be nice if i could finally play some flashgames on my aspire one.

    Also did you guys pay attention if it would be possible to squeeze in an 80mm fan or something like that in the 2nd harddrive compartment?
    Or wouldnt it be able to draw some air if you squeezed it in there?
     
    Last edited: 27 Nov 2009
  6. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    We were talking "MID" not portable internet "convergence" device, like a phone.
     
  7. John_T

    John_T Minimodder

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    Why oh WHY do so many manufacturers take no notice of noise? I really don't understand it. Are they all deaf? Do they all sit there at work with their iPods plugged into their ears & just forget about it?

    This machine is now very close to what I want, but I want it silent...
     
  8. Combatus

    Combatus Bit-tech Modding + hardware reviews Lover of bit-tech Super Moderator

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    The latter - its a 2.5in drive bay with no clearance beneath it so no way you'd fit any fan in there really and as you mentioned, it wouldn't be able to draw in air either.
     
  9. John_T

    John_T Minimodder

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    Just for a giggle, I wonder how many of these you could fit inside that LianLi PC-C32 case - I reckon at least six...
     
  10. sandys

    sandys Multimodder

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    I had similar noise issues with an Aopen 945VXR MiniPC, I just thought that was how it was supposed to be but when I had to RMA it for an IR failure the replacement was whisper quiet, my original fan must have been faulty, mine was cooling a 1,6Ghz Core Duo so should require more than that machine, sounds like yours is faulty as with 2 fans it has much more cooling than my Aopen.
     
  11. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    Would be more than happy to get an Atom 330 board w/ ION and four S-ATA connections.. Would do great as a media server/player.
     
  12. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    Although you have to built-it yourself. Have a look at Zoltec ION-A motherboard. It's a fanless design, (PSU has no fan, nor the CPU/GPU), life time warranty. A fan is provided in the case you ever need it (not enough air flow trough the case... but the fan is fairly quiet for it's size, and you can add yourself from vibration damping attachment to help even further, if you are that picky. Now the most noisy component in your computer will be the HDD, and optical drive when a disk is inserted and used.
     
  13. ChaosDefinesOrder

    ChaosDefinesOrder Vapourmodder

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    hang on, did I somehow miss that Windows Media Player in Windows 7 can play Blu-Ray movies?
     
  14. Shagbag

    Shagbag All glory to the Hypnotoad!

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    That's your view, but I really don't see what the first two have got to do with it. Net-tops are not gaming boxes, so there's no need for Windows. As to Ion, the jury is still out on that one.
     
  15. Combatus

    Combatus Bit-tech Modding + hardware reviews Lover of bit-tech Super Moderator

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    The noise was simply coming from the blades of the 30mm fan. It's so small it to spin at a rediculous rpm to shift any air hence the noise. Chances are your Aopen machine had larger fans which by default would probably be quieter - yes the ASRock has two fans but one of them is quite simply pathetic.
     
  16. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    With a codec yes.


    One question that was not addressed. Was Windows 7 32 or 64-bit was used. And was 32 or 64-bit video codec used (Windows Media Player 12 32 or 64-bit)?
     
  17. Ross1

    Ross1 What's a Dremel?

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    I dont seem to have the fan problems with the first asrock ion 330... it stays pretty cool and pretty quite.... making it pretty much the perfect htpc! (rather than what you see to have). I would try putting ubuntu + xbmc on it.... works amazingly, especially the movie/ tv show scraping. uses dxva, which is a must for the ion.
     
  18. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Im using Ubuntu on one. Flash playback is completely non-existent making it crap for internet and iplayer/hulu etc
     
  19. Combatus

    Combatus Bit-tech Modding + hardware reviews Lover of bit-tech Super Moderator

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    We used PowerDVD for that but it does support H.264, Xvid and DivX out of the box which is handy.
     
  20. ChaosDefinesOrder

    ChaosDefinesOrder Vapourmodder

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    Just a codec is not enough to play Blu-Rays, you have to have the licensed decoder of the copy protection system in order to play Blu-Ray discs, hence even Media Player Classic: Home Cinema can't play Blu-Rays (yet)

    right, the screenshot accompanying that was misleading then as it looked like the video playing in WMP was the Blu-Ray video...
     
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