ZOTAC IONITX-B-E Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz Mini ITX ION Platform Motherboard/CPU Combo

Comment:
Quiet, low-power computer used as a host for my voip phone service and to stream to laptops over wireless. I have a 1.5TB low-power hard drive and 2GB RAM installed running XP pro. I am running it headless with no monitor or keyboard, and control it remotely using vnc. This serves my purpose very well, at a good price. I would purchase this unit again.

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As an average user I rely on the posts to help guide my purchases. This board is not fast at all and the video is ok. Why even sell a board that wont play youtube or hulu, and takes 15 minutes to Rip a CD. I bought this primarily to back up my music and its going to take 6 months to load. If your the type you doesn't mind updated the BIOS and overclocking the CPU which will Void the lifetime warranty, you may be ok with this board, but for me what is the point in a system that runs like a Pentium 2.

Comment:
This was the perfect frontend machine for my MythTV installation. The VDPAU in MythTV .22 and NVidia ION features mean that the CPU is running at around 16% when watching 1080i MPEG2 from a HDHomerun. Basically, for around $250 (Board, RAM, HD and I already had a case) I had a full HD frontend with all the greatness of MythTV with HDMI out.

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I bought this board along with the Apex MI-008 Case - Mini ITX to build a home theater PC for my home. Listen guys, this board is FAST! I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate and I have it connected via HDMI to my Samsung HDTV. Graphics and HD Audio are terrific. I watch a lot of movies and this is the perfect HTPC in my opinion. I highly recommend it!

Comment:
I have to agree with RICHARD in this review. Its a pretty decent board, I used this as a tester for a carputer and its convienent to have 6 USB ports with 3 options for video. The VGA port is very flimsy(if you dont know your strength you will break it). The atom processor is exceptionally slow; the heat sink gets very hot even with air circulation, and it needs a fan like its sister board. I am no longer running this board, now using INTEL DG45FC. Would appreciate a board with a 775 processor slot.

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I bought this Mobo with a bare bones kit about 2 months ago and i have nothing to complain about it for the price and performance. I use it mainly for internet surfing and as a media PC for watching movies. I also chose this specific mobo due to it had a 512mb Nvidia Geforce 9500GT built in. I have played a few games as well with it (SAW the game and Left 4 Dead) and i receive 50 - 60 FPS. Good mobo for a relaxed user. only thing i wish is that it could came with a PCI or PCI express

Comment:
The first board was DOA and still waiting on a refund for it, the second one was fine. Over all the board is ok, the design and layout could be a bit better. While building the system you do EVERYTHING in just the right order your fine, if you forget something or want to add something later your SOL, you pretty much have to tear down the system and rebuild in order to add anything its so tight in there.

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At first I didn't think this was going to work, the video was choppy just watching digital tv. But, after updating the bios, downloading the latest video driver from Nvidia, and updating flash to the 10.1 beta, I can watch hdtv, hulu, and netflix with no problems. I have installed both Windows 7 and Mythbuntu and have not had any problems. The mini pci express slot will work with a wifi card, if you can figure out how to attach it.

Comment:
The motherboard worked as advertised and is a good value. The only problem I had was that it wasn't clear in the Technical Manual or description that most High Density SIMM Chips in tandem (memory DDR2) wouldn't work with the unit. I purchased the maximum 4GB (2GBx2)indicated by the specs. However, the unit would not recognize the total amount of memory (only 2GB when inserted in the two slots). When I contacted a rep from ZOTAC they referred me to a list of SIMMs that were tested and approved. Unfortunately, most high density chips of memory will not work with this motherboard!

Comment:
I bought this with the barebones kit. Had the Apex mirror case, 2 gigs of kingston ram, and I also picked up the LG Sata DVD burner. All went together pretty easily. Does everything I needed, HDMI with sound, Digital Optical out to my surround, and streams movies from my Windows home server with ease. Media player does run a tad slow with menu's, but thats to be expected with an Atom. Win 7 Ultimate runs great on this board! I rate it a 5 out of 5 because I knew what I was getting for the money, and it performs great for me. Do take out the power supply before you build, and put it in last, much easier than taking the front off.

Comment:
Tried to build a silent computer using this Zotac Motherboard and an OCZ mini pci express solid state hard drive card. The card and the motherboard are incompatible. you don't have the required 7.1cm to accommodate the length of the pci mini card. The Zotac guide says this slot is reserved for a pci mini wifi card, but if you are going that route, get the more expensive version of this board that has the mini coax hard wired onto the right hand side of the board.

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My first motherboard install, very easy and intuitive, great performance.

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Performance is somewhat limited with streaming online(Hulu, youtube, ect..). I didn't really expect to have this problem with a machine designed for this purpose. The VGA connector does seem flimsy. Don't expect to run 2 vga monitors with it. You can't use a DVI to vga adapter. The DVI port is a DVI-D only, not a problem for most but be aware. The processor and GPU run very cool and no fan is necessary, resulting in a very quiet computer. Windows XP installed quickly and drivers were very easy to install. The integrated video card seems very responsive. I built 3 of these for a small company to run web based apps on dual monitors. They work very well for this task, and I would recommend them for this type of application.

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I bought this to use as a HTPC. The size and power consumption is perfect, but the processor left something to be desired. I was able to play movies on it over my home network without any problem, but as soon as I tried to watch some shows on Hulu, it started dropping frames. Even with 4 gigs of ram! I installed all of the necessary Nvidia software and tweaked it, still no luck. The processors were still cranking aroun 93%. Its good for browsing the internet, but that's probably about it.

Comment:
It looks like The NVIDIA folks took a high quality video card and addded a computer to it, instead of the other way around! Easy install and set up, Has worked perfectly right out of the box. This is my fist ION kit and I am impressed with the power. I run Win XP Pro with 4 GB RAM and it runs all my games no problem, quiet too, since doesn't need a CPU fan. The VGA connector seems a little flimsy, the way it is mounted on the board. Might break off if not careful but I am using the DVI connector anyway.