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Why dont OCUK sell the Intel Atom Chip?

There are some mini motherboards you can use it with though. Micromart had a write up about building a small PC for the kitchen. Cost around £200 to do and had a intel atom chip in, small case, 1gb memory and ubuntu installed.
 
Normally comes pre-installed into ITX motherboards which we do not currently stock.

We are looking at brining ITX to OcUK.
 
Why would you want one for a desktop PC? It's very slow compared to anything from the last five years. Unless you want to save every last watt of power usage then it's pointless.
 
i saw a great mod somewhere, this guy made a pc that also had an itx computer installed in it, switching from monster to eco mode depending which was required.

theres nothing wrong with the atom with light computer usage. ok your not going to game, encode videos but surfing maybe some reading, writing its perfectly adequate. Nvidias new ion platform should make it a much more capable with its GeForce® 9400 graphics chip, being able to play 1080p videos no problem and do a spot of transcoding :)

reference_photo5.jpg

htpc/server anyone? glue that on a 1Tb harddrive/ssd voila :p
 
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Mattus said:
Why would you want one for a desktop PC? It's very slow compared to anything from the last five years. Unless you want to save every last watt of power usage then it's pointless.
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Extremely cheap and efficient, if you do not need any more power from a chip then why pay more? Besides they do have the potential to be very powerful at the next die shrink :)
 
Mattus said:
Why would you want one for a desktop PC? It's very slow compared to anything from the last five years. Unless you want to save every last watt of power usage then it's pointless.
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They're actually surprisingly good for basic day to day usage; I reviewed one of the MSI Wind based Advents for an internal news/review magazine when I worked for the purple shirts; about a year ago, and was pleasantly surprised by the atom.

You wouldnt want to do heavy duty work on them; we have our C2/Phenom/I7 for that, but it WAS capable of running 720p video (1080p at a push if optimal codecs used), internet browsing, word etc. The hyperthreading helps ofc as it seems more responsive for it, being a single core chip, especially with a light install of Windows XP.

For a light, low noise/power, internet/server machine; I could see the attraction.

Performance wise for day to day tasks, it didn't seem any slower than my old AthlonXP+ (Barton), coupled with a decent amount of RAM and reasonable HDD and thats absolutely fine for light usage!
 
I'm sure something will turn up if they can get a good deal on atom gear. Hopefully they'll have the good sense to pick the boards with more than two sata ports. ;)
 
I'm wating for intel to pair it with a different northbridge.

Single core 4W
Dual core 8W

Northbridge >20W + has fan

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The Nano/Ion platform in combination with the 9400 would make the ultimate living room 1080p-capable media centre. Quiet, cool.... much more efficient than a desktop system!
 
I'd be interested in this - tho only if as decto said the boards had an efficent NB too - I could do with a low power/quiet ITX platform to build my next NAS around.
 
yeah, isn't the problem that while its a low power chip itself, its coupled with a ludicrously crap chipset so in effect its actually not low power, isn't amd's lowish power chip supposed to draw more power, be FAR faster, but can be coupled with a really low power chipset so uses around the same overall system power. Not to mention you can whack in a multitude of options and intergrated chipsets for media playback.

Though intel are supposedly, stupidly long after its available finally trying to come up with a chipset to match it too rather than using a completely outdated one.
 
drunkenmaster said:
yeah, isn't the problem that while its a low power chip itself, its coupled with a ludicrously crap chipset so in effect its actually not low power, isn't amd's lowish power chip supposed to draw more power, be FAR faster, but can be coupled with a really low power chipset so uses around the same overall system power. Not to mention you can whack in a multitude of options and intergrated chipsets for media playback.

Though intel are supposedly, stupidly long after its available finally trying to come up with a chipset to match it too rather than using a completely outdated one.
Click to expand...

pretty much, though the majority of amd chipsets people are comparing are m-atx boards and not ITX. its not a huge issue for most peopel but obviouslly if you are going for an itx board then the amd's are out of the question straight away. There are of course itx am2 boards around, but they are more expensive - you're looking at about £75-£80 minimum board only.

Ive been waiting for intel to sort out a decent chipset for a while now - it would make a fantastic all round media player. if nvidia are getting there first then ill go for the nvidia board, as long as it isnt hideously expensive.
 
instead of buulding a kitchen pc for £200 why not just buy a netbook for £200 with atom inside and u can take into the kitchen, living room, wherever you need it?
 
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