Maximum PC nettop RSS Feed

Intel Fast Tracking Pine Trail Debut

Paul Lilly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:45:45 -0600

Expect to see quite a few netbook and nettop deals this holiday shopping season, especially if Intel forges ahead with plans to fast track the introduction of its upcoming Pine Trail platform.

"Intel is planning for a fast transition to Pine Trail. To generate excitement for the platform ahead of launch, Intel is planning a press release in late December publicly disclosing the details of the platform," X-bit Labs claims to have read in an Intel document.

Should Intel aggressively push Pine Trail ahead of its launch, consumers could see a fair number of pre- and post-Christmas day sales on older Atom platform-based netbooks and nettops. And look for plenty of coverage at next year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Intel's Pine Trail platform will include a bunch of next-gen Atom Pineview processors, which will come with an integrated graphics core, a built-in DDR2 memory controller, a new core-logic set, and other goodies.

Image Credit: laptoping.com

The "Little PC" is a Fanless Nettop Sporting a 1.6GHz Atom Processor

Ryan Whitwam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:07:33 -0600

If you’re in the market for a completely silent PC that also happens to be tiny, this is your lucky day. The Stealth LPC-395F, or “Little PC”, is a small fanless Atom-based nettop system with a front facing 2.5-inch hard drive bay.

The entire chassis measures 6.54 x 6.18 x 1.89 inches. The system comes with the Atom N270 at 1.6Ghz, up to 2GB of RAM, dual Ethernet, a Compact Flash slot, and optional WiFi (for $50). The Little PC is able to run on 12-19V DC so it can even be used in a car. The Stealth LPC-395F is available to order now for $795. Supply your own hard drive.

ASRock Unveils Three Ion Nettops, One with Blu-ray

Paul Lilly — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:00:28 -0500

More Ion-powered nettops are on the way, including three new models from Asus subsidiary ASRock. All three up the ante over the company's previous nettops with RAID support, eSATA, MCE remote (not on the lower end model), and a few other odds and ends. Blu-ray even makes a cameo in the higher-end unit.

The three new machines consist of the Ion 330Pro, 330HT, and 330HT-BD. Each one comes spec'd with an Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz, up to 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, Nvidia's Ion graphics, up to 1.5TB of total hard drive space, DVD or Blu-ray drive, 7.1 channel audio, Gigabit LAN, 802.11b/g/n WiFi (330Pro excluded), and the usual assortment of ports (HDMI, USB).

No word yet on price or a release date, nor is there any mention of what OS the machines will use (we're guessing Windows 7).

Image Credit: ASRock via xbmcfreak.nl

Acer Launches $330 Ion-Powered Nettop with Atom 330 CPU

Paul Lilly — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:10:52 -0500

The busy guys and gals over at Acer have put the final touches on the company's revamped AspireRevo R3510-U9012 "one-liter nettop." Kicking things up a notch over its predecessor, the refreshed PC now sports an Intel dual-core Atom 330 instead of a single core Atom 230.

It also comes built around Nvidia's Ion platform, 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB hard drive, six USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, eSATA, WiFi, and Windows 7 Home Premium, fast becoming an obligatory OS in any new OEM setup. Not a bad spec sheet for a $330 nettop.

"The AspireRevo is a practical and highly adaptable nettop for the home -- powerful enough to take on games but so thin, it can be neatly hidden from view," said Susan Hu, Desktop Product Manager for Acer America. "It's also energy-efficient and quiet."

One of the coolest features of the AspireRevo is its ability to connect to the back of an LCD or TV panel with a VESA attachment. In essence, you could turn your swank LCD HDTV into a respectable all-in-one. And did we mention it's only $330?

Image Credit: Acer via HotHardware

New Intel Atom Chip Shipping in March

Paul Lilly — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:13:57 -0500

To kick off the new year, Intel plans to start shipping its Atom N450 processor clocked at 1.66GHz, which is slightly faster than the 1.60GHz Atom N270. At $64, it's also slightly more expensive by a couple of Hamiltons.

But if you're holding out for a faster Atom chip, you may consider waiting until March when Intel starts selling its Atom N470 chip for $75. The upcoming part will kick things up a notch with a 1.86GHz clockspeed, or 200MHz faster than the N270. That's a pretty significant boost in the Atom world, even if the amount of cache (512KB) remains unchanged.

Both new chips will fit in the same FCBGA8 socket that current netbooks use. That means you can also expect some new desktop Atom chips in the pipeline, though details are scarce at the moment.

VIA EPIA-P720 Pico-ITX Motherboard Plays 1080p Passively Cooled & Fits in the Palm of your Hand

Justin Kerr — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:56:13 -0500

In the small form factor graphics market, Nvidia’s Ion has been stealing the headlines lately, but it turns out VIA might be gearing up to give them a run for their money. Built on a new standard known as “Pico-ITXe”, the company has released their EPIA-P710, which claims to be capable of full 1080p video playback using nothing more than passive cooling. Of course we were skeptical at first, but they have finally backed up their claims by posting a short clip on YouTube showing the board in action.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this new part is how full featured it is given the size. It sports 3 USB 2.0 ports, has both SATA and IDE, as well as Gigabit Ethernet support. As you might expect, the current build is pared up with a VIA C7 1.0 GHz processor, but apparently this is still more than enough to handle anything the VX855 Media System Processor can’t handle video wise.

Looks like this might make for a decent Home Theatre PC motherboard, but we won't know until we see one for ourselves. What do you think?

Hello Kitty Pounces on Nettop

Paul Lilly — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:24:54 -0500

How do you drive the point home that a nettop is under powered and not a suitable replacement for a real desktop system? Color it pink and slap Hello Kitty's mug all over the place.

And that's exactly what Irvine, California-based Moneual Lab has done with its new MiNEW A10 nettop PC. The company has taken what was once a sweet looking chassis and coughed up a pink hairball. And if that's your thing, only you already own an A10, don't fret - Moneaul will provide the cutesy transformation for around $123.

Underneath the hood, the Hello Kitty-inspired nettop purrs with an Intel Atom 230 processor (1.6GHz, 512KB L2 cache), 1GB of DDR2 RAM, integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows XP Home Edition.

Image Credit: Moneaul via Engadget

Acer Announces Aspire Revo 3600 with Dual-Core Atom, Ion Chipset

Paul Lilly — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:00:40 -0500

Acer's overhauled Aspire Revo 3600 nettop picks up where its predecessor left off. Like the original Aspire Revo, the new 3600 model supports HD video courtesy of Nvidia's Ion platform, but the latest iteration trades in the comparatively anemic single-core 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor for a 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330.

Right off the bat, doubling up on cores will come as a boon to anyone, um, aspiring to do more than basic tasks with the Aspire Revo. Other specs include 4GB of DDR2-533 memory, an HDMI port, and VESA mount compatibility.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: Acer via dandg.bg