ASRock Nettop ION 330

Post by **RDNZL** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:02 pm

Got an ASRock ION 330 system yesterday.

Intel Atom 330 (Dual-Core CPU)
NVIDIA ION graphics processor
Small (2.5L)
Silent (acoustic below 26 dB)
Stylish (High gloss outlook)
Energy Star 5.0 level (Low power consumption)
ASRock OC Tuner (Overclocking)
ASRock Instant Boot

It comes without an OS.

Installed Ubuntu Jaunty on it, and it runs very nice!

It should be able to play video in full hd 1080p, because it uses NVidia's ION chipset, haven't tested it yet.

Atom 330 runs default on 1Ghz, but it's overclockable (simply select in Bios to 2.1Ghz)

It uses between 30 and 25 watts depending on load.

Post by **drmacchi** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:44 pm

Asrock is part of Asus group, is Instant boot feature like the one from Asus? How many seconds to be operative? How could you test 1080p? i think is available only using powerdvd 9, or not? does it have serial ports? Thanks ! lorenzo

Post by **RDNZL** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:45 am

About instantplay, I don't know, it only works with Windows, and i'm running Ubuntu on it.

1080p playing is possible with Ubuntu too, but didn't test it yet.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Restr ... ayAndHDDVD

There is also a ASRock ION 330 config with a BlueRay player included.

It has no serial ports, but i'm using usb-serial adapters.

Post by **drmacchi** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:47 am

Where did you buy it? Online shop? Price? In Italy i can not find that. thanks

Post by **leechguy** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:33 pm

I was thinking about getting one of those to replace my current htpc. I noticed on a picture on some website that it contains two little fans which worries me a little as these small fans usually run at high speeds to get sufficient air flowing generating lots of noice. Is it really as quiet as stated?

Post by **RDNZL** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:14 pm

Yes, first thing I did was open it

Sadly I had no camera within reach.

But there is a very small fan on the chipset, and a larger mounted to the backside of the case.

The unit makes more noise than my Asus eeebox, don't know which dB level Asus has in their specs.

You can tweak the fan level in the Bios but didn't test it yet.

Post by **leechguy** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:04 pm

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I just buy one and see if the noise is really irritating while watching a movie. It's going to be in a closet behind a closed door, so hopefully it will be ok. Otherwise I'll just have to do some minor surgery and do a fan enlargement

I'm going to run XBMC Live on it by the way. I currently use an Asus M3N78-EM which has the GeForce 9300 chipset which is very similar (if not the same) to the ION. XBMC has support for vdpau so raw CPU power isn't necessary during playback of full HD content.

Post by **RDNZL** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:37 am

There are several install guides out there specially for the ASRock ION and XBMC.
Like this onehttp://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!25 ... !804.entry But I think you have found them as well.
Let me hear your story, I'm using it as a Linux server for the time being.

Post by **Herbus** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:33 pm

@RDNZL
What are your experiences until now? Im looking for a new HA server to run Homeseer, HSTouch server and future Plugwise. Connections do I need for RFXCom, Siemens M10, PMIX35 (all usb or converted rs232->usb).
Ive looked at the Eee box from Asus but this machine seems to be a lot slower and is missing a DVD-drive.

Any suggestions for new server hardware are welcome!

Herbus (Jos)