Asrock Ion 330 will Change Domination

Chipset has an important role in the performance of a computer. The reason is the chipset that regulates the data traffic between the processors to memory, hard disk, and other components. His role will be even greater if the functions of these computer graphics are onboard, because it means the graphics chip in the chipset.

As the maker of the Atom, Intel has a favorable position in terms of chipsets. Almost all the netbook and nettop on the market today use Intel 945GSE chipset, this chipset but comparatively "old" and has a relative performance is not special.

Well, the role that Intel 945GSE try rocked by nVidia chipset through ion. nVidia claims, Ion will provide a much better performance than Intel 945GSE great, mainly from the graphics that become the mainstay nVidia.

Asrock Ion 330 is one of the few products that pair the Intel Atom chipset nVidia Ion. This product itself comes in the form nettop small size. The price is also cheap (U.S. $ 350), although the records you still have to buy a monitor, mouse, and keyboard separately.

Use of Ion chipset makes this nettop has an HDMI port, one thing that did not meet in the nettop Anad which uses the Intel chipset 945GSE. In addition to HDMI, on the rear panel you will also find an Ethernet, 6 USB ports, VGA Out, and audio ports. At the front, just a DVD Writer, with no USB port or multiple audio as we meet in the PC today. This is quite unfortunate because we have to make a little trouble to install the flash on the back side. Which also should be noted, 2 of 6 USB ports will be used by the mouse and keyboard because there is no port PS / 2 in this nettop.

When first turned on, we were quite astonished to find how the quietness of this Asrock 330 Ion. If there is no indicator light is flashing, we do not know if it's burning nettop. Solved a little silence while we try to play DVDs, but with levels that do not interfere.
Behind the weakness, nettop is proved to have a pretty good performance. Sure, use the Intel Atom processor makes this nettop not suitable when used for heavy applications like video or change the format of rendering images (see test results). But for simple applications such as Office or the Internet, this device does not see a problem. Chipsets and graphics capabilities of any such appointment Ion nVidia: much better than Intel 945GSE. But the chipset is still a jerky when playing videos Full HD (1080i), thus reducing the meaning of the existence of an HDMI port.

One thing that is important to note, Asrock 330 ion can still be overclockable. Through the BIOS menu and OC Tuner software, you can increase the FSB of the Atom 330 processor used this nettop. When we try, can touch the processor speed 2.1 GHz rate, or 30% of the standard speed of 1.6 GHz.

At full-load conditions, power is absorbed ion Asrock 330 only about 40 watts. So to conclude in simple language, this nettop has a slim shape, decent performance, and efficient electricity. A rather unfortunate is the lack of facilities and Wi-Fi memory card slot. Still, we think Asrock Ion 330 could be the ideal solution for home, office, or cafe that needed a compact machine.