Home | News Archive | March 2006

MSI's C7 CPU Mini-ITX board
March 14, 2006

MSI's first C7 powered Mini-ITX board was on show at CeBIT, targeted at the industrial market. The MS-7199 utilises VIA's C7 CPU and CN700 chipset, with a 533MHz FSB. The board is fanless, though nobody on the MSI stand could tell us how fast the CPU will run in the production version. Presumably up to 1.5GHz, judging by the offerings on display from other manufacturers. Connectors on the board we spotted were: DVI; VGA; S-Video; 2 x USB 2.0; Ethernet; 2 x PS2; 2 x Serial; 3 x 3.5mm audio; 1 x DDRII DIMM slot; 2 x SATA; 1 x 40 pin IDE and 1 x 44 pin IDE.

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Inside AOpen's next miniPC
March 10, 2006

We took a look inside AOpen's next generation of miniPC - the MP945-VX - measuring just 6 x 6 inches. AOpen have achieved this feat with a tiny Intel 945GT chipset motherboard.

More pictures and specifications

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VIA show C7 boards at CeBIT
March 10, 2006

VIA's forthcoming motherboard range was on display at CeBIT, the EPIA EN, EK and CK. The EPIA EN and CK are both powered by C7 CPUs, whilst the EK is Luke Corefusion powered.

Pictures and specifications

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Visson's Nano-ITX Vehicle PC
March 10, 2006

Visson Technologies' VCPC-101 is the first vehicle PC we've seen based around the Nano-ITX form factor. The enclosure is a rather fetching blue finned Aluminium affair measuring 211 x 215 x 80mm.

Inside the VPC-101

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Gigabyte's 2.0 GHz C7 CPU Mini-ITX board
March 10, 2006

The first C7 board we saw at CeBIT was on display at Gigabyte's stand, and was their GB-T1B., with VIA's CN700 + 8237R chipset. The GB-T1B can be powered by a 1.0 GHz VIA C3, or a 1.5 or even 2.0 GHz VIA C7 processor, all using VIA's new V4 bus. Connectors include: 2 x SATA; 2 x IDE; 1 x DDRII 533 DIMM (up to 1GB); PCI; 10/100 Ethernet; 2 x USB 2.0 and 3.5mm audio jacks.

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AOpen's i945GTt-VFA Intel ViiV Mini-ITX board
March 10, 2006

AOpen's i945GTt-VFA Mini-ITX motherboard uses a 945GT + ICH7MDH chipset and Intel Core Duo or Solo CPU, reaching the criteria for Intel ViiV compliance. Front side bus speed is 533 or 667MHz, with corresponding DDRII 533 or 667 SODIMM memory support.

More pictures and specifications

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AOpen's i915GMt-FA Pentium M Mini-ITX board
March 10, 2006

We snagged a slightly clearer picture of AOpen's i915GMt-FA Socket 479 Pentium M Mini-ITX motherboard, which uses Intel's 915GM + ICH6M chipset. Front side bus speed is 533MHz, though both DDR II 533 and 400 is supported in two DIMM slots. The two red connectors on the board are SATA sockets, though there is also a legacy IDE socket. Once SATA slimline optical drives become widely available we expect IDE sockets to make way for SATA altogether on top end Mini-ITX boards, freeing up valuable board real estate. The CPU heatsink is of course removed for display purposes. Audio is Realtek ALC880 7.1 through up to 6 x 3.5mm audio jacks, while Ethernet is of the Gigabit variety. Display is either VGA or S-Video, with 2 x Firewire and 4 x USB 2.0 ports available on the rear and 4 more USB 2.0 as pin headers.

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Selection of SIS chipset Mini-ITX boards
March 10, 2006

SIS had many embedded Mini-ITX boards utilising their chipsets on display at CeBIT. Over 50 Mini-ITX boards now use SIS chipsets. Here are a selection of them, plus a couple of Thin Clients from HP and Toshiba - also powered by SIS.

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Shuttle's XPC mini X100
March 09, 2006

Shuttle's XPC mini X100 is their move into markets beyond the Cube design to a smaller form factor. The X100 packs an Intel Core Duo T2400 processor, ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 3D-graphics accelerator on upgradable MXM module, SATA II 3.5in hard disk, and slimline slotloading optical drive into a package approximately A4 paper sized (210 x 297mm) and 53.5mm high.

More pictures and specifications

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Albatron's Geode NX Mini-ITX board
March 09, 2006

The other Mini-ITX offering at CeBIT from Albatron was their KI741CX, a SIS 741CX/964 chipset board powered by an AMD Geode NX (fanless up to NX1750). This is more of a budget board than the KI51PV, typical in design and features to many boards to be found on the SIS stand. The novel Northbridge heatsink design is to allow airflow upwards through the heatsink when the board is mounted on its side.

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Albatron's nForce4 Mini-ITX board
March 09, 2006

Albatron's KI51PV motherboard isn't like any Mini-ITX you've seen on this site before. It is an NVidia nForce 4 C51PV/MCP51 chipset wielding, AMD Socket 754 with 800+ MHz Hyper Transport running beast of a board - and this particular beast on display at CeBIT was running an AMD Athlon-M 3000+. Admittedly the heatsink dwarfs the board somewhat - but as a demonstration that fast things can come in small 17 x 17cm packages the KI51PV is a resounding success.

More pictures and specifications

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Inside the Intel Mac Mini
March 02, 2006

Apple have released the first Intel powered version of their Mac Mini, and once again the race was on to hunt one down, rip it open and reveal the innards.

This time Jason Snell over at MacWorld got there first, and took some rather interesting pictures. The Mac Mini still measures 6.5" x 6.5" x 2", though this time the CPU is an Intel Core Solo or Duo. Slightly more cooling is required than the previous G4 version - there's a heatsink on the CPU and (presumably) Northbridge, and a blower fan inside the case.

A cybernaut known as Reezle took more pictures, showing the Mac Mini both with, and without it's CPU. We're big fans of small computers here at Mini-ITX, and look forward to seeing more of these crammed into unusual places...

Macworld's Gallery and Reezle's Gallery

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