Two New Ions: ASUS AT3N7A-I and ASRock Ion 330
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 28, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
The Price Showdown
ASUS was very clever with the pricing of the A3TB7A-I. These days a Zotac Ion with an Atom 330 will set you back $169.99 without a power supply or $189.99 with the external DC power adapter. ASUS decided to undercut Zotac by $10 and is coming in at $159.99:
| Price | |
| ASRock Ion 330 | $379.99 |
| ASUS AT3B7A-I | $159.99 |
| Zotac IONITX-A-U | $189.99 |
| Zotac IONITX-D-E | $169.99 |
The third option, the ASRock Ion, is more difficult to compare as you get a lot more in the bundle. To see what the most affordable way into an Ion would be (assuming you don’t already have any components) I priced out barebones systems using the ASRock, ASUS and Zotac routes:
| ASUS AT3B7A-I | ASRock Ion 330 | Zotac IONITX-A-U | |
| Base Price (Motherboard + Accessories) | $159.99 | $379.99 | $189.99 |
| 2x1GB DDR2-800 | $29.98 | Included | $29.98 |
| Mini ITX Case + PSU | $38.99 - $49.99 | Included | $38.99 - $49.99 |
| Seagate 320GB 5400.6 2.5" HDD | $69.99 | Included | $69.99 |
| Internal DVD Slim Drive | $34.99 | Included | $34.99 |
| Total | $333.94 - $344.94 | $379.99 | $363.94 - $374.94 |
Curious. The Zotac would win the price comparison if it weren’t for one thing: even the cheapest mini-ITX case at Newegg comes with a power supply. So the $189.99 Zotac board with power supply doesn’t save you any money, you just end up with an extra mini-ITX PSU after you’re done with your build. Naturally you could opt for the PSU-less $169.99 model, but then ASUS has already got you beat on price by $10. The one thing I didn’t include is the cost of a WiFi dongle, because you do get WiFi with Zotac but not with ASUS.
Depending on how much you spend on a mini-ITX case, the ASUS AT3N7A-I will get you into an Ion system for around $40 less than the ASRock Ion 330. That’s not an insignificant amount of money, and something you could use to beef up some of the components. Ahem, SSD.
Who wins the price comparison? The newcomer ASUS, unless you want WiFi in which case the $169.99 Zotac IONITX-D-E is a better deal. The cheapest USB 802.11n dongle will set you back around $20, making the ASUS solution $10 more expensive.
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jwinckelmann - Sunday, September 13, 2009 - link
Hi,at least here in Germany the AT3N7A-I is officially sold with the noisy 6000 RPM fan. Totally unacceptable...
Bye,
Jan
nachtgeist - Sunday, September 6, 2009 - link
Very usefull rewiev, but i don't understand where is diffenrent between Asus and Zotac board for the 20% power consum diffenrent.Asus Express gate looks very good. But the power consum and noise fan is terrible.
When is poblem? Same CPU, same Chipsets and Asus takes 19W(?) more.
Abby - Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - link
A thousand Thaanks on effort writing this article and all the troubleshooting and also all the great help on sending bck faulty reports on behalf of us.Your enthusiasm on technology and service were greatly appreciated.
Thanks again.
best regards,
Abby
THG S**Ks hard~!
Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - link
Why not just use a celeron E1400 for $40, and maybe even overclock it?And yes, I would still trust my $50 ebay P4 865g system over one of these things. 166MHz FSB isnt just stupid, its like a sick joke.
deegee - Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - link
> Why not just use a celeron E1400The Atom CPU's lower power is the point of these.
You can also purchase the ITX boards with socket LGA775 or AM2 if you want a faster processor, but at a major increase in power use.
> I would still trust my $50 ebay P4
Trust? These are the same components as found on ATX boards, just a smaller form factor at 17cm x 17cm. ITX is designed for smaller size and lower power. Compare it to like buying a Mac Mini.
> 166MHz FSB
The Atom units are 533 FSB. Look at the "Rated FSB" value on CPUZ. The Bus Speed will be 1/2 for a two-way and 1/4 for a 4-way interleaved memory system. The regular ATX systems are the same for their FSB. You may wish to dl a copy of CPUZ and run it on your own system to see what the numbers mean.
deegee - Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - link
Sorry, fingers working faster than brain and no post edit... :-)DDR = double data rate, so 133 clock = 266 DDR freq, 2x interleave = 533 FSB, if I recall.
deegee - Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - link
I've been using an Atom PC for my surfing system for quite some time now. It has the Intel 945GCLF2D, 2GB RAM, Kingston 64GB SSDnow, in an Apex MI-008 case. On sale all the parts cost me about $300CDN. The case is 8.5"W x 12.5"D x 5"H (just slightly larger than an APC ES750W brick UPS), supports 2x 3.5" and 1x 5.25", and includes a 250W internal PS. It would work for a HS or HTPC since you could fit an SSD OS drive, a 1-2TB HD, and a DVD.I pulled the noisy fan off of the mobo and put a Noctua 80mm fan with the silencer connector (970RPM) blowing across the board from case vent-to-vent. It's so quiet you can hardly tell the system is on (it's half as loud as just a 3.5" HD's noise). The CPU runs at 25C, mobo at 40C. Temps go up by only ~5C under full load in Everest etc.
I'm running Windows 7RC and Kubuntu on it. Ubuntu (Gnome) is just too slow on the video. KDE performs not bad. But W7RC in Aero performs well, even on the GMA950. It is not as fast as my C2D or C2Q workstations of course, but it does ok for surfing. I also have a HS and HTPC but both of those are using C2D ATX, I personally wouldn't use an Atom for those since I prefer more performance, but for general surfing and a low-power system that I can leave on for downloading I don't care.
I'll probably upgrade the mobo sometime in the future to get the better video. I really recommend the small size and low noise of the Atom.
lordmetroid - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
I want to build a server/HTPC combo, thing is it will have to be in my home and I can't get proper rest with a fan humming in the background.I was thinking, would it be possible to build a completely fanless system using the IONITX-C-U? Using an SSD and the external power brick would give me a system without any moving parts. But what kind of temperatures would such a system generate?
snarfies - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
Asus and Asrock have repeated the exact same mistake that prevented me from considering the Zotac - Only three drive connectors. My MiniITX file server requires four: One for the SD Card reader, one for the optical drive, and two for the RAID1. The only Ion-based board that I know to support four drives is the Point of View Ion 330.strikeback03 - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
There are USB headers that can be used for a card reader