Posted 10/02/09 at 07:42:45 AM by Paul Lilly

Nvidia's Ion platform has gotten off to somewhat of a slow start, but that's starting to change thanks to Acer, Lenovo, and Zotac, all of which have recently launched Ion-based mobos and nettops.

Relative newcomer Zotac (founded in 2006) just launched its Ion-based ITX-F motherboard series for use in nettops. And in a nod to the power of customer feedback, the company's new 'F' series also sports a PCI-E x16 expansion slot.

"Zotac always listens to user requests for features. End users loved our Ion ITX series motherboards, but some requested PCI Express expansion. We listened and thus the Zotac Ion ITX F series was born," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, Zotac International. "Our engineers managed to integrate PCI Express x16 expansion without sacrificing any of the award-winning features either."

Acer, meanwhile, recently released its AspireRevo AR1600-U910H nettop with an Intel Atom 230 processor (1.6GHz) and Nvidia Ion LE graphics, and it streets for under $200.

Finally, Lenovo has jumped on the Ion bandwagon with the launch of its IdeaCentre Q110 nettop here in the States. Priced twice as much as Acer's cut-down model, Lenovo's version comes with the same Aton N230 processor, but uses the regular Nvida Ion graphics chip.

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Posted 09/18/09 at 12:39:07 PM by Paul Lilly

Holy marketing, Batman, have you seen what Zotac has done with its GTX 285!? In a move sure to delight Dark Knight fans, the graphics card maker today announced a new limited edition GTX 285 featuring artwork of Gotham City's caped crusader on the heatsink.

"Batman: Arkham Asylum adventure has received glowing reviews from press all aorund the world just like our Zotac GeForce GTX 285 has. Putting them both together to make the Zotac GeForce GTX 285: Batman Edition was an obvious combination for us," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, Zotac International.

More than just a pairing of artwork to graphics card, Zotac is also bundling in a coupon for a full copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum, which gamers can redeem at Nvidia's nZone, Zotac says.

Perhaps somewhat of a missed opportunity, Batman will have to fight crime using Nvidia's reference clockspeeds. The GTX 285 comes clocked at 648MHz on the core, 1,242MHz on the memory, and pumps the shader clock at 1,476MHz, which are all identical to a stock GTX 285.

No word yet on price or availability.

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Posted 06/25/09 at 09:15:11 AM by Paul Lilly

Zotac, a relative newcomer to the videocard market, has doubled up the amount of GDDR3 memory found on most GTX 275 videocards to 1792MB. Sparkle and EVGA are the only other two GPU partners to pack the same amount of memory on the GTX 275.

"We try to deliver the best performance value for gamers. With the new Zotac GeForce GTX 275 1792MB, we've managed to achieve a balance of performance and value for those that demand more video memory for gaming at extreme HD resolutions," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, Zotac International.

Additional memory aside, Zotac's GTX 275 follows closely Nvidia's reference specification, with core, shader, and memory clockspeeds checking in at a 633MHz, 1404MHz, and 2268MHz, respectively, 240 stream processors, and a 448-bit memory interface.

No word yet on price or availability.

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Posted 11/03/08 at 09:28:46 AM by Paul Lilly

The mini-ITX form factor is still alive and kicking, and to prove it, Zotac has just expanded its mini-ITX lineup with the nForce 630i-ITX WiFi motherboard. As the board's nomenclature suggests, WiFi comes integrated with 802.11b/g support, as does graphics chores, which are handled by Nvidia's GeForce 7100 chipset.

The pint-sized board comes ready for Intel's lineup of Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors with support for a full 1333MHz frontside bus. RAM support, on the other hand, comes somewhat gimped topping out at DDR2-800 instead of DDR2-1066 or DDR3. Other features include:

• Eight USB 2.0 ports (four on back panel, four on pin header)
• Onboard 10/100 Ethernet
• HD Audio 5.1
• Dual display ready (VGA / DVI)
• Four SATA II ports with RAID Support

Not a bad feature-set for a compact board, particularly if you're in the market for an HTPC build, where the integrated WiFi could end up a major selling point.

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