Nvidia Ion as HTPC

[canadaneedsmusi]

Hey everyone. I gave up on my last HTPC attempt and sold it. I'm thinking of trying again.

I'm looking into the ASRock 330 Ion. Atom 330, with Nvidia Ion.

Now I know it can do 1080P. But will it work for an HTPC?

I have an HD-PVR, so I obviously want to use that. I would also like to use Windows 7, and it's media center. I know there is DVBLink.

Any issues that anyone can see?

Thanks.

Dave.

[protovision]

I took the plunge and bought the first ION-based nettop I found in Toronto, the ASRock ION 330:

CPU - Intel® Atom™ 330 (Dual-Core CPU)
Chipset - NVIDIA® ION™ graphics processor
Memory - 2GB DDR2 800 MHz memory, support dual channel, maximum memory capacity 4GB

VGA - NVIDIA® ION™ graphics, support DX10 / Full HD 1080p (Blu-ray / HD-DVD)* playback (*Blu-ray/HD-DVD disc is supported by Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive.)

HDD - 2.5” HDD 320GB
DVD - DVD Super Multi (Slim type)(some configs come with Blu ray drive for extra $$)
I/O - 1 x HDMI (with HDMI to DVI adapter), 1 x D-Sub VGA, 6 x USB 2.0, 1 x S/PDIF (Optical)
LAN - Gigabit LAN
Sound - HD Audio 5.1 channel
System Acoustic - Below 26dB
Power Unit - 65W /19V Adapter
Dimension - 195mm (W) x 70mm (H) x 186mm (L)
Volume (liters) - 2.5L
Weight - 1.69Kg

Its a little lacking in styling, but very small, clean, and shiny. In terms of size, its about the size of 2 Wii's stacked. Here's a pretty good review that covers all the basics.

Unpack (2 mins):
It comes in a small box, well packed, with its external power supply (smaller than most laptops), HDMI->DVI adapter, and a non-slip pad, which I recommend using since the unit is so small and light and has no rubber 'feet', its possible that ejecting a disk could cause it to recoil. I hooked up the HDMI to my TV, and powered on. The blue power button is probably bright enough to be seen from the space shuttle, I'll have to hack it a bit.

OS Install (20 mins):
With plans for this to be my Media Center, I installed Windows 7100. Installation went smoothly, except of a rare problem that few others will run into... I have no wired USB keyboards, so I could only start the default OS installation with my USB mouse. NOTE: have a standard, no-drivers-needed-in-DOS USB keyboard handy.

This is the first MB I used with a fully integrated Nvidia chipset (I'm an ATI guy since they were in Toronto), but so far I really like all the built in features. For some reason, when I load up the supplied drivers disk, it doesn't seem to want to install anything, so I went into the drivers folder on the disk, and started the setup from there. Everything then seemed to install correctly (I have to find out if 'FirstGate' on the NIC is worth activating).

Once Windows was installed and stable, I dove into setting up Media Center (7MC). I plugged in my WinTV 950Q USB tuner, and started the 7MC setup, telling it yes I am in USA (not really, ATSC + Canada still not supported in 7MC, WTF?), and here's my zipcode (nearby US town) as per my Vista MC setup. Once the channel scan was done, I was able to receive approx 28 digital stations, half in HD, with my CM4221HD antennae. I made a few quick corrections for the guide listings, and I was back in PVR land.

Observations:
The unit runs a little hot, but it was also very hot in my apartment, so ambient air wasn't helping much. It's very quiet, in a dead quiet room, you might hear it, but most other devices are louder, I think my TV even gives off more noise on mute. The parts inside look to be very standard, and *upgradable* (desktop ram, 2.5" HD, laptop optical drive), so that's nice not being locked into them.

I haven't tried playing back Blu ray yet, but will soon. Playing back 1080i HD looks great so far, no stutters. Navigating the guide listings is a bit slower than my previous media center pc, but barely noticable. Time-shifting/pausing live tv worked perfectly.

To sum up, "I'm lovin' it".

[rpr]

I am using a Zotac Ion Atom 230 based board as a MythTV frontend, and it is working great as well for me, with mixed SD and HD content.

[canadaneedsmusi]

Well, that didn't take long, haha. Thanks for your help.

[derek_in_ottawa]

Did you overclock it?

Do you use the quick boot feature?

Do you use a remote with it? how do you start it up? remote keyboard? IR? bluetooth? harmony remote?

What media player software do you use with it? Is hardware acceleration used in most applications?

What about Flash video? FLV?

Does VLC media player work with it well?

Internet surfing?

What about updating to 4Gigs ram? Do you have any feedback on the performance with 2 Gigs ram?

[Qwavel]

I bought one.

I found it to be too noisy. For comparison, the fan noise is louder then an HP slimline. Worse though it has another strange, pulsating noise.

I took it back to the store where we compared it to another unit which turned out to have the same noise.

I returned it.

[protovision]

More experiments over the weekend...

I reinstalled Win 7 x64 this time, since the atom 330 supports 64bit, and since Media Center is about the only thing I'll be running on this.

The pc is a little slower navigating/EPG in Media Center than my previous core duo laptop, but still very usable. I haven't tried overclocking yet, but probably will this week.

So far, I like the Asrock alot, quiet, low powered, great media center box so far. I'll try blu ray on it this week. No probs with timeshifting/pausing live tv (1080i). I do miss having an esata port like my last laptop, but I can live with it.

I'm using the MS Media Center keyboard + remote (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...oard,1098.html), and have no problems. It seems that once the pc goes to sleep, I can only wake it using the 'sleep' button on the keyboard, but that might be tweakable in the bios somewhere. I trained my Harmony 880 with the codes for the remote, so no prob there.

I haven't tried the quick boot since I think you have to leave your password blank, but might try it soon. For me, sleep mode is fine for now. FWIW, the instant boot simply reboots the pc at shutdown, and puts it to sleep on reboot, waiting to be awaken.

Flash seemed fine, will have to try some HD clips. I didn't try VLC yet. With Media Center running, I was at 1.25GB RAM in use, so upgrading might be necessary if you plan on running a bunch of stuff in the background, otherwise, for Media Center, 2GB is fine, and fast enough.

I have a separate PC for playback of hd dvd/blu ray, but eventually the ASRock might take on those duties as well, and I don't expect any difficulties.

[derek_in_ottawa]

Thx for the info.

Do you watch much DivX? or perhaps HD content? (BD rips?)

Do you use DivX Player?

Regarding the noise, there was a BIOS update to get the two fans to not "oscillate" and make a louder noise when combined.

[Admiral Michael]

I'm curious as to the Blu-Ray playback capabilities of this device because, as stated, it would make a great HTPC.

[lima20]

Originally Posted by protovision

I took the plunge and bought the first ION-based nettop I found in Toronto, the ASRock ION 330:

CPU - Intel® Atom™ 330 (Dual-Core CPU)
Chipset - NVIDIA® ION™ graphics processor
Memory - 2GB DDR2 800 MHz memory, support dual channel, maximum memory capacity 4GB

VGA - NVIDIA® ION™ graphics, support DX10 / Full HD 1080p (Blu-ray / HD-DVD)* playback (*Blu-ray/HD-DVD disc is supported by Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive.)

HDD - 2.5” HDD 320GB
DVD - DVD Super Multi (Slim type)(some configs come with Blu ray drive for extra $$)
I/O - 1 x HDMI (with HDMI to DVI adapter), 1 x D-Sub VGA, 6 x USB 2.0, 1 x S/PDIF (Optical)
LAN - Gigabit LAN
Sound - HD Audio 5.1 channel
System Acoustic - Below 26dB
Power Unit - 65W /19V Adapter
Dimension - 195mm (W) x 70mm (H) x 186mm (L)
Volume (liters) - 2.5L
Weight - 1.69Kg

Its a little lacking in styling, but very small, clean, and shiny. In terms of size, its about the size of 2 Wii's stacked. Here's a pretty good review that covers all the basics.

Unpack (2 mins):
It comes in a small box, well packed, with its external power supply (smaller than most laptops), HDMI->DVI adapter, and a non-slip pad, which I recommend using since the unit is so small and light and has no rubber 'feet', its possible that ejecting a disk could cause it to recoil. I hooked up the HDMI to my TV, and powered on. The blue power button is probably bright enough to be seen from the space shuttle, I'll have to hack it a bit.

OS Install (20 mins):
With plans for this to be my Media Center, I installed Windows 7100. Installation went smoothly, except of a rare problem that few others will run into... I have no wired USB keyboards, so I could only start the default OS installation with my USB mouse. NOTE: have a standard, no-drivers-needed-in-DOS USB keyboard handy.

This is the first MB I used with a fully integrated Nvidia chipset (I'm an ATI guy since they were in Toronto), but so far I really like all the built in features. For some reason, when I load up the supplied drivers disk, it doesn't seem to want to install anything, so I went into the drivers folder on the disk, and started the setup from there. Everything then seemed to install correctly (I have to find out if 'FirstGate' on the NIC is worth activating).

Once Windows was installed and stable, I dove into setting up Media Center (7MC). I plugged in my WinTV 950Q USB tuner, and started the 7MC setup, telling it yes I am in USA (not really, ATSC + Canada still not supported in 7MC, WTF?), and here's my zipcode (nearby US town) as per my Vista MC setup. Once the channel scan was done, I was able to receive approx 28 digital stations, half in HD, with my CM4221HD antennae. I made a few quick corrections for the guide listings, and I was back in PVR land.

Observations:
The unit runs a little hot, but it was also very hot in my apartment, so ambient air wasn't helping much. It's very quiet, in a dead quiet room, you might hear it, but most other devices are louder, I think my TV even gives off more noise on mute. The parts inside look to be very standard, and *upgradable* (desktop ram, 2.5" HD, laptop optical drive), so that's nice not being locked into them.

I haven't tried playing back Blu ray yet, but will soon. Playing back 1080i HD looks great so far, no stutters. Navigating the guide listings is a bit slower than my previous media center pc, but barely noticable. Time-shifting/pausing live tv worked perfectly.

To sum up, "I'm lovin' it".

How much did you pay for this and where from?

[protovision]

I bought mine from a computer store at Spadina/College in Toronto for $420.

Canada Computers has them, including the blu ray version, but it's $200 more.

Make sure to get the ION version (ASRock ION 330), there's another ASRock 230(?), looks identical, but it doesn't have the NVidia ION chipset, not dual core, and no HDMI output.

[LucHF]

I've found that the Zotac ION ITX A - U will be perfect. low power and very quiet.

[avengingangel]

Try installing XBMC Live on your ION.

IMO it's one of the BEST multimedia players out there. It plays every file type you throw at it, has lots of customization options as well as great scripts and plugin support.

Best of all it's FREE and OPEN SOURCE

[markjanzen]

has anyone tried building their own Ion HTPC? is is cheaper than the asrock one?

i heard there is a new Ion board that only does directx 9 (so no windows 7) but its cheaper and would still work for a HTPC...

[badkarma]

That budget Ion board isn't out yet. You can probably build a Ion system (N330) for around $350+tax depending on parts selection.