By way of Nano Processor
We have fallen in love with Intel's Atom 230 processor, a tiny powerhouse delivering one.6GHz of electrical power on a motherboard the dimension of an open DVD situation. It exhibits a whole lot of promise for the future of residence computing: at final a media centre-capable Pc in a tiny sufficient form issue that will not appear and sound like you've acquired an electrical energy substation sitting next to your Television.
But the Atom-powered board isn't without a crucial difficulty - in that it only has assistance for the positively Neanderthal PCI graphics slot, as opposed to the far more contemporary PCI-E. It is a severe, deliberate hobbling of the platform by Intel that does impact its overall performance as a media centre Computer: it couldn't take care of recent games, and could only run 1080p video with a firm overclocking boot up the processor's behind.
Enter Via's Nano processor and Epia mini-ITX board. check here It truly is the exact same size as Intel's, but the chip runs at 1.8GHz, and - crucially - consists of a PCI-E slot. It puts Intel's board to shame but there is a catch in that it's not actually offered however, and Through have yet to finalize the form it's going to come in. Even so, we'd never allow that stop us putting the pre-manufacturing model by means of its paces.
Admittedly, we were slightly skeptical about Via's newest venture: the company has a spotted history, to say the least. From severe technical difficulties utilizing their prior processors with AGP graphics cards, to an nearly-firm-destroying patent wrangle with Intel suffice to say Through is at the infamous finish of chip companies.
Thankfully, the Nano seems set to place all that animosity in the past, and demonstrates the firm is finding its feet again. The Nano utilizes the same C7 architecture as Via's preceding mini-CPUs, and as a result is backward compatible with older mini-ITX motherboards. The Epia motherboard itself includes Via's newest CN896 Northbridge, which is where the PCI-Express support lies, as effectively as an onboard VGA port. Alas, there is no created-in DVI port as of nevertheless - a chief complaint of a colleague is that he would be unable to plug in a Tv tuner card and output higher definition broadcasts at the same time.
As with the Atom motherboard, the Epia contains passive cooling on the processor itself, and has a single small low-energy fan on the Northbridge. The Nano achieves this by immediately scaling the functionality and voltage states based mostly on the temperature of the die, which leads to optimal cooling without having affecting functionality. Not only does this cease your laptop melting but it also optimizes the electrical power consumption of the processor - the Nano will draw a minimal of 5W, and greatest of 25W. So in spite of not quite equaling the Atom from a straight efficiency angle, it stands head and shoulders above on the electrical power/functionality ratio.
A drama out of a Crysis
But there's one particular issue we have neglected to mention: the Nano will run Crysis. We coupled the board with an ATI 4850 and a gig of ram then ran Crysis in DX9 with all settings on ‘high'. It attained an astonishing regular of twenty frames per 2nd - which admittedly isn't that smooth, but is at least playable. There was some slightly odd blurring all around the HUD, but for the most component the South China Sea looked as good as we'd count on from a fully fledged bargain Computer. Higher definition 720p video playback was acceptable, but the processor's touted capacity to perform back 1080p fell a tiny quick, with video clips enjoying gradually. An overclocked processor might have handled the total 24 frames per 2nd, but our test model didn't give tweaking the BIOS as an alternative. Nevertheless, with a low-cost graphics card occupying the PCI-E slot the GPU will be in a position to get the strain of HD playback without a dilemma.
Through clearly has the technical clout to knock Intel's Atom out of the ring, but it lacks Intel's canny advertising and marketing and brand recognition. If By way of can smooth out the niggles we skilled on the processor and card, it'll definitely be a winner the Nano could be the merchandise that launches Through into the stratosphere.