ION2 system thread
#31
ion_man Wrote:Shuttle has never been a low cost manufacturer, just look at the prices of their barebones. Also it's much cheaper to stick a plastic fan on a chip than to engineer and manufacture a passive cooling solution, so I would expect the Shuttle to cost more than the Zotac.
You get what you pay for.
My logic was that it incorporates an optical drive _as_well_ as the fancy case and passive cooling. Having said I expect it to be north of 250 quid, I might go further and say that since the UK pound is so weak at present (<off_topic>we know who to blame for that</off_topic>) it could well RRP at 300.

Anyone seen a release date anywhere?
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#32
spicemuseum Wrote:Don't think this is ION2, so not directly comparable.

Agreed on the 'fan' revelation/disappointment with the Zbox. :-(

Agreed that the Shuttle XS35 looks like it could be the next step. My bet is that it will sadly be the wrong side of 250 quid when it's released.

Well spotted - no mention of ION2 - probably just running the standard Intel onboard stuff.

No, prob not under 250 pounds - but worth a premium for the fanless/size factor.
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#33
magnetik Wrote:Well spotted - no mention of ION2 - probably just running the standard Intel onboard stuff.

No, prob not under 250 pounds - but worth a premium for the fanless/size factor.

Please take a look at this link:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/03/zotac...thank-for/

It does credit the ZBox as being ION 2.
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#34
wunderdrug Wrote:Please take a look at this link:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/03/zotac...thank-for/

It does credit the ZBox as being ION 2.

My comment was in regards to the Shuttle All-in-one iMac clone.
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#35
The Zotac ZBOX is starting to be available at retailers in some countries. Big Grin

What's weird is that Zotac is releasing 3 variants of the ZBOX, only one with the Pineview Atom + ION2, the other two are still Atom N330 + ION1, see the overview at Linuxtech.net that explains the differences.
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#36
I just bought the dual core Zotac MAG, anyone think the ION 2 will make that much of a difference?
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#37
CASHMON3Y Wrote:I just bought the dual core Zotac MAG, anyone think the ION 2 will make that much of a difference?

Not really, the ION2 adds hardware decoding of Divx/Xvid and the new Pineview Atom uses even less electricity than the old one, other than that performance is similar.

IMHO there is no reason for anyone to upgrade from the old ION to ION2, but if you need to buy a new box for XBMC anyway, then you might as well get the new ION2.
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#38
ion_man Wrote:Not really, the ION2 adds hardware decoding of Divx/Xvid and the new Pineview Atom uses even less electricity than the old one, other than that performance is similar.

IMHO there is no reason for anyone to upgrade from the old ION to ION2, but if you need to buy a new box for XBMC anyway, then you might as well get the new ION2.
Ok thats what I thought. My old Xbmc box was running a G210 so it had VDPAU class C, im still waiting for my ION to ship, but who even needs hardware acceleration for Xvid.
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#39
ion_man Wrote:Not really, the ION2 adds hardware decoding of Divx/Xvid

Interesting, still doesn't seem like you would really need that - the CPU would handle that easy? I assumed that the current VDPAU implementations worked for DivX already - but maybe not, only H.264 codecs?

This new ASUS passive ION board posted the other day has really got me interested now - looks like a killer piece of kit..
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#40
magnetik Wrote:Interesting, still doesn't seem like you would really need that - the CPU would handle that easy? I assumed that the current VDPAU implementations worked for DivX already - but maybe not, only H.264 codecs?

This new ASUS passive ION board posted the other day has really got me interested now - looks like a killer piece of kit..

The new Ion will help alot with upscaling SD content. It also comes with 512mb memory built in so its not sharing the system ram like the first gen ion does. I just wish someone would release ion2 already. Its nearing a month since 'they' said "should hit stores in a couple of weeks."
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#41
Riffmaker Wrote:The new Ion will help alot with upscaling SD content. It also comes with 512mb memory built in so its not sharing the system ram like the first gen ion does. I just wish someone would release ion2 already. Its nearing a month since 'they' said "should hit stores in a couple of weeks."

true, I'm getting tired of waiting and very tempted to ion1 considering my SD only 15% of my total movie collection.
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#42
Is the "next generation ION" basically a 210 in a different cover? I only ask as it seems the 210 is not so good at deinterlacing compared to the 220 (see: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2939/2 and http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/d...html#sect0). Whilst it might have better scaling than the 9xxx/ION series of processors, perhaps the distinct lack of interlace handling might be a bigger issue.

My choices for a silent HTPC seem to be coming to a ZOTAC ION ITX F plus passive Zotac 220 based card with a silent power supply and SSD drive. If only they did a board with an Atom and a couple more slots for a bit more expansion....
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#43
arad85 Wrote:Is the "next generation ION" basically a 210 in a different cover? I only ask as it seems the 210 is not so good at deinterlacing compared to the 220 (see: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2939/2 and http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/d...html#sect0). Whilst it might have better scaling than the 9xxx/ION series of processors, perhaps the distinct lack of interlace handling might be a bigger issue.

My choices for a silent HTPC seem to be coming to a ZOTAC ION ITX F plus passive Zotac 220 based card with a silent power supply and SSD drive. If only they did a board with an Atom and a couple more slots for a bit more expansion....

You are correct.

Unless Nvidia pulls a rabbit out of the hat, from what I've read, the
"ION2" will just be a G210 (discrete) / G218 (netbook) / G310 (nettop)
GPU -- i.e. although branded differently, the three GPUs above will be
identical. The only enhancement the G218 and G310 will have in the ION2
configuration is an overclocked 1xPCIe2 bus to the Pinetrail architecture.
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#44
Hmmm.. cheers. Discrete 220 it is then. I already have the (very large Silverstone LC10) HTPC case, Nightjar power supply and Blu-ray drive so just a couple of components needed Smile Shame the nexgen ION isn't a rebadged 220...
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#45
Looking at a "next generation ion" build this summer, specifically the Zotac Zbox. It only has one DDR2 memory slot, so my question is 2GB or 4GB? Anyone with a current generation ion system that might have some insight?
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