Hardware Jetway JNC62K (GeForce 8200 on mini-ITX)

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/05/20/jetway-jnc62k-geforce-8200-mini-itx/1

Nvidia's latest GeForce 8200 IGP is (finally) here and we take a look at a special little mini-ITX motherboard from Jetway to see if High-Definition capable things can really come in small packages.

 

Damn, i like the look of that, might have to build a new media centre.

 

Such a cute little power house. Not too expensive yet far more usable (is that a word) than all them Atoms and stuff. I wouldn't mind having one! Would nicely fit to weird cases.

 

Yes usable is a word (I think) lol. Yeah this would be great for a HTPC, that's got me thinking.

 

Maybe it's time to try out an HTPC.. I think I'm sensing a pattern in these posts. Hm.. Time for a bit of research, methinks.

 

I'm wondering why the power consumption flatlines at idle?
The three lowest consuming all don't go below 50W. Why is this?

 

love that board. such value for money, started saving already! if i can it passively cooled with a laptop HDD and a slimline DVD-ROM ideal HTPC! make it the size of a Wii...

 

It's quite probably to do with the efficiency of a 750w power supply at such a low draw. After all, you're talking about around 7% of the max power it can provide. At 7% it's incredibly unlikely the psu is that efficient. Throw it on a 200w dc-dc supply, and that 50W will drop.

Speaking of power efficiency, does the board happen to support undervolting at all? That'd shave off more power consumption and heat as well.

Either way, this is a definite candidate for the server I've got planned for next year. I may have to chat to my flatmate about this!

 

My thoughts exactly. But I would very much like Richard to try this out Or perhaps give his opinion on it.
It seems pretty silly testing power efficiency/consumption of a low wattage system with a PSU designed for extreme consumption.

 

I believe we should see a comparison between the 780G and the 8200 on gaming too. When the 780G came out, you had the review including gaming stats. But not on the 8200. Also there isn't any word about Hybrid SLI!!!

 

It only has a PCI slot, so you are unlikely to get a decent graphics card in there, let alone on that could then help with hybrid SLI.
I still really want one of these and unfortunately still can't justify one.

 

Good review. As Panos said, it would be good to see some gaming results. I am specifically interested in the HybridPower function.
You mention it has issues such as having to switch between IGP & Discrete. How is this done and is it easy to do?
What are the power consumption figures for general idle, general usage and Blu-Ray playback when paired with something like a 3870/8800GTS when the discrete card is powered down and only IGP is being used?
I am looking to build a media centre that is capable of playing some games such as racing or puzzle games and would seriously consider sticking a 3870/8800 in there so long as the idel/general usage power consumption is not significantly higher.
Otherwise I will stick to my plan of using a 780G + 3450 in crossfire.


Also, there is a mistake on the first Blu-Ray graph (BD-DVD Playback - 1080p HD, h264). The Intel results are mis-labled as a second set of 780G results (i think anyway).

 

Whilst I agree it would be nice to see some results with Hybrid SLI, it is impossible to do on this board. If you look at it, you can see that there is only a PCI slot for expansion (the yellow thing on the left).

You can get PCI graphics cards, but they are very old and will be badly bottlenecked by the interface.
AFAIK Hybrid SLI uses the PCIe bus to allow the two GPUs to talk to each other, so actually uses a lot more of the available bandwidth. This would mean it would be nigh on impossible to do with just a PCI slot.

Maybe with another board though?

 

Wow, impressive! I've been tinkering with the idea of a mini-ITX build sometime, so this just makes it more concrete. Great job, guys. Thanks for the review.

 

Looks like it may be the ideal upgrade to my existing media centre to reduce the size down from mATX and also reduce the power consumption as well as add blu-ray capable playback which currently the board I have cannot do.

 

Seems like a great little board at a good price with a reasonable suite of features.

I have been trying to find jetway's website to get a hold of official manuals. I am looking to build a new media PC running LMCE (Linux Media Centre Edition) and using a network boot so I don't need a HDD (The gigabit ethernet means I shouldn't need one as my house has CAT5e running through it ). I'm not really on the whole HD bandwagon yet but may want to start soon so I like the feature set offered by this board.
I see in your BIOS screenshots that there is an "Onboard PCIE LAN Bootrom" I'm trying to find if that does what I think it does!?

Also I'd like to know what kind of HSF was used in the tests as obviously I am looking to get a small case for my small board and don't want to compromise cooling.

If anyone can help it would be most appriciated

 

It'd be great to build one of these into a slim box that could be mounted on the back of a large LCD screen. Because the surface are is so large it could be thin rather than tall.

all in one media centre!

 

Woulda been nice to have some IGP gaming comparisons.

 

Sorry it should be a 550W Corsair VX, not 750W. Corrected*

We don't have anything smaller than this in.

We are saving 8200 versus 780G for a separate article - also including Hybrid SLI/CrossFire with a more tailored look into games and features etc. The 790GX is also out soon which will offer better performance, as is the 8300 IGP if you want to game - we might just do a group test, don't know yet.

 

Tis a shame Bit-Tech is based so far away from me, I've got a 200w DC-DC psu and brick sitting here. If you weren't so far away, I'd simply loan it just to see how low a power draw this setup would take.

Sorry to be a pain but is there a chance of checking undervolting options for me tomorrow when you guys are back in the office?