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Those interested in the Jetway NC92-230-LF Mini-ITX motherboard can read the reviews of this board at Phoronix and Modders-Inc. Both reviews provide ample detailed pictures of the board, with Phoronix having published the benchmark results in their previous article Intel Atom On Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuSE, Mandriva.

Read the review at Phoronix: Jetway NC92 Atom IPC Motherboard

Read the review at Modders-Inc: Jetway NC92 Series Mini-ITX

You can buy this motherboard from Newegg (under the JetWay JNC92-230-LF reference).

As a reminder, the Jetway NC92 Mini-ITX motherboard is available with either a single core Atom CPU (NC92-230-LF) or the new dual core Atom 330 CPU (NC92-330-LF). See my previous post for more details.

Technorati Tags: 945gc, atom, Jetway, mini motherboard, mini-itx, review

For some time, I have been wanting to provide an up to date list of the Mini-ITX motherboards available on the market.

This post is the first of a series, starting with the comparison of the Mini-ITX motherboards with AM2/AM2+ socket.

There are currently 7 boards available:

• Albatron KI690-AM2
• Albatron KI780G
• J&W MINIX 780G-SP128MB
• Jetway NC81-LF (JNC81-LF)
• Jetway NC62K (JNC62K)
• Magic Pro MP-NC81
• Magic Pro MP-NC62K-LF

As some of the Mini-ITX motherboards share the same specifications (OEM versions under different names), I have grouped the boards in the table below to keep it simple.

Technorati Tags: 4 SATA, 780g, AM2, AMD, dvi, GeForce 8200, HDMI, J&W, Jetway, Magic-Pro, mini motherboard, mini-itx

ZOTAC has announced the nForce 630i-ITX WiFi motherboard that we mentioned last week.

This new Mini-ITX motherboard has the same features as the ZOTAC nForce 630i-ITX board with the addition of integrated 802.11b/g WiFi.

Note: we were hoping for 802.11n WiFi on this board, as there are other Mini-ITX boards - such as the Magic-Pro MP-NC81 (similar to the Jetway NC81-LF board) - which are available with 802.11n as add-on.

ZOTAC nForce 630i-ITX WiFi specifications:

• CPU: LGA775 socket for Intel Core™ 2 Duo/Quad/Extreme CPU
• Chipset: NVIDIA nForce 630i
• RAM:  2 x 240-pin DIMM, up to 4 GB of DDR2 800 RAM
• Storage: 2x SATA ports, 1 IDE port
• Expansion slot: 1x PCIe x1 slot
• Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7100 integrated graphics, 1x VGA output, 1x DVI output
• Audio: 5.1 audio
• LAN: Fast Ethernet (10/100 Mbps)
• WLAN: Integrated 802.11b/g WiFi
• I/O:  8x USB 2.0 ports (4 external, 4x internal via onboard connectors)

Read the press release here.

Product page here.

[Update: fixed the number of SATA ports from 4 to 2. Tech specs of web site indicate 4, pictures show 2]

Technorati Tags: 630i, Jetway, Magic-Pro, mini motherboards, mini-itx, WiFi, ZOTAC

Jetway has published details on their new NC92 Mini-ITX motherboard series, available with either a single core Atom CPU (NC92-230-LF) or the new dual core Atom 330 CPU (NC92-330-LF).

Compared to the NC91-230-LF board (similar to Intel’s reference board D945GCLF), the NC92 mini motherboard series features Gigabit LAN and a daughter board expansion connector.

It would be good to see Jetway announcing compatibility for their DVI daughter board; currently daughter boards providing additional serial or LAN ports are reported compatible with the new Atom N92 mini motherboard series.

Here is a comparison table of the different Jetway boards with Atom CPU:

Technorati Tags: 330, 945gc, atom, Jetway, mini motherboard, mini-itx, N230, N91, N92

The team at gOS have built a custom PC named Andoid G2, as a tribute to the newly released Android G1.

The G2 PC - in a new “Android” shape - is based on a JetWay J7F2 Mini-ITX motherboard and features a VIA C7 800MHz CPU, 1GB RAM and a 80 GB hard drive. It runs gOS 3.0 Gadgets.

It is being auctioned on eBay witl all proceeds being donated to DonorsChoose.org via the TechCrunch Challenge.

Read the article here [via CNET News]. You can also look at the pictures of the build process here.

Technorati Tags: Android G1, C7, G2, gOS 3, Jetway, mini-itx, VIA

SweClockers has reviewed the Jetway NC81-LF Mini-ITX motherboard. They used the Jetway motherboard with a AMD Phenom X3 8650 triple core CPU (2.3GHz, 95W TDP) and compared it to the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H Micro-ATX motherboard.

They found the Jetway board’s performance to be close to the Gigabyte board - although slightly below.

1080p VC-1 HD playback did provide a good surprise, with the Jetway board requiring much less CPU that the Gigabyte (27% vs. 38%). Could the sideport memory be responsible for this? Regardless, this makes the Jetway board a very good candidate for HTPC.

Finally, power consumption of the Jetway board did not exceed 115W when the Gigabyte peaked at 146W for the 3DMark06 test. This is consistent with the 110W measured by EPIACENTER.de when paired with the Athlon64 X2 5000+ CPU (89W TDP - review here). A good point for this Mini-ITX board.

Overall, they liked the Jetway NC81-LF Mini-ITX motherboard, being a fully featured board, with decent onboard graphics, and good for HD playback.

Limitations are with the lack of PCIe (1 PCI slot), inability to overclock, and the use of SODIMM RAM.

Read the full article (translated from swedish) here  [original article] [via the inquirer].

Technorati Tags: 780g, Gigabyte, Jetway, mini motherboard, mini-itx, nc81-lf, phenom, sideport

EPIACENTER.de has reviewed the Jetway NC81-LF Mini-ITX motherboard. They used the Jetway motherboard with a AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ dual core CPU (2.6GHz, 89W TDP) and tested the mini motherboard with Windows XP, Windows Vista Knoppix and Kubuntu 8.04.

They found the Jetway board’s performance to be below the Intel DG45FC they tested previously using an Intel Core2Duo E8500 dual core CPU(3.16GHz, 65W TDP), and the power consumption to be the highest compared to mini-ITX motherboards they reviewed, going over 110W during Prime95 test. They indicated they were disapointed with the performance of the 780G graphics, which fell below they expectations.

Read the full article (warning: partially translated from german) here  [original article].

Note: the choice of a 89W TDP CPU for the review is questinable, when AMD offers the Athlon64 X2 5000+ CPU with a lower 65W TDP (F3 stepping) or better: the AMD Athlon64 4850e CPU (45W TDP). This would have provided quite different power consumption results. The absense of Phenom CPUs (like the 9150e for example) is also noticable, as the 780G chipset peforms at its best when coupled with such CPU.

Technorati Tags: 780g, athlon, Jetway, mini-itx

Mini-ITX.com has reviewed five Atom Mini-ITX: Intel D945GCLF motherboard, Gigabyte GA-GC230D, Jetway JNC91, MSI MS-9830, and Intel D945GCLF2 (featuring the Dual Core Atom 330).

They found the D945GCLF2 to stand out thanks to it’s Dual Core Atom CPU, without compromising the power consumption, while the MS-9830 did offer the lower power consumption thanks to the use of the 945GSE chipset, and was the only motherboard in the reviewed that offered DVI.

Read the full review here.

Technorati Tags: 945gc, 945gse, atom, Gigabyte, Intel, Jetway, mini motherboard, mini-itx, MSI