Last week, when going through the "what's new" list of a local supplier, I found a gem: an inexpensive mini-ITX motherboard with a dual core Atom processor. This little marvel, the Intel D945GCLF2, does not even show up on the Intel web site - other than being noted as announced during IDF. Interested in what it was capable of, I bought one on the spot.
The idea of very low power processors that are "fast enough" for many applications is starting to catch on. It would be fair to say that Asus took the world by fire with their original Eee PC, and followed it up with the highly successful Eee PC 901 - spawning a whole new "netbook" category of sub-notebook computers with enough processing power for Internet access and every day tasks. Mind you, Asus dropped the ball by not hitting its initially announced $199 Eee PC price tag, however there are now very capable netbooks around $300, like some models of the Acer AspireOne.
Asus then followed by releasing the Eee Box, bringing low powered tiny desktops to the public - sure they won't run Crysis, but they will do office apps and internet browsing, for less money, and while only sipping power compared to gaming boxes, and they can save even more money by avoiding the Microsoft Tax, by shipping a friendly Linux distribution pre-installed on the computer.
Low power computers are in fact enough for most people's use, and make excellent second, third or fourth computers in a family home. After all, how much power do you need to run Open Office and FireFox? Not much.
Here is the specifications for the D945GCLF2, taken from its manual on the supplied CD:
- Mini-ITX form factor 6.75"x6.75"
- Dual Core Intel Atom processor
- one 240 pin DIMM socket supporting 533/667MHz single channel DDR2 up to 2GB in size
- Intel 945GC chipset: 82945GC Northbridge with integrated graphics, 82801GB ICH7 Southbridge
- GMA 950 integrated graphics
- S-Video output via Chrontel CH7021A SDTV/HDTV encoder
- RealTek ALC662 codec with HDA and 6 channel audio
- SPDIFF header on motherboard
- one PCI slot
- 8 USB2.0 ports (4 on back panel, 4 on two headers)
- one IDE interface
- two SATA2 interfaces
- one VGA connector
- one S-Video port
- one parallel port
- one serial port
- PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports
- Intel BIOS with SMBIOS support, Rapid BIOS boot, Express BIOS Update
- Gigabit Ethernet
- ACPI support, Wake on USB, PCI, PS/2, Lan
- supports Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows XP Home and Pro, 32 bit and 64 bit
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