Thanks to the folks over at TweakTown, we’ve got a video that does a pretty good job of showing what this HTPC has in store for those who can wait a little while. It’s got an aluminum casing that’s probably way too glossy for its own good (not in a bad way at all), and inside there’s an Intel Core mobile processor, and a NVIDIA GeForce GPU for 3D Vision graphics.

On the outside of the HTPC –not that there’s not enough stuff on the inside to keep us enthralled–, you’ll be happy to find that there’s 4 USB 3.0 ports, dual-link DVI, 7.1 audio, a Blu-ray drive, and an HDMI 1.4 port. ASRock is aiming to have this HTPC out on the street by some time in July, but if you really want to experience the 3D goodness it proffers, you’ll have to pick up NIVIDIA’s 3D Vision kit, which has its own software along with the glasses. No pricing yet, either, unfortunately, but that will probably be taken care of here very soon.

[via TweakTown]

The second board available now is the 890GX Extreme3. This is an AMD Phenom II X6 compatible board with 6Gb/s SATA ports, USB 3.0, and lots more. The board supports all Crossfire modes including Hybrid Crossfire and quad CrossfireX. The first of the boards coming soon is the 870 Extreme3.

This board supports AMD X6 processors and uses the AMD 870 + SB850 chipsets. It will offer USB 3.0 ports, 6Gb/s SATA ports, and will support Quad Crossfire and CrossfireX. The other coming soon board is the 770 Extreme3. This board uses the AMD 770 + SB710 chipsets and pack in SATA 6Gb/s along with multiple USB 3.0 ports.

Both machines also have 320GB of storage, and 2GB of DDR3 memory.  Amazon list them as barebones, but we’re not exactly clear what’s left up to the user to install; it could be the OS, as no software is indicated in either product page.

Going from the ASRock product page, you also get a second, empty 2.5-inch hard-drive bay that you can use to set up a RAID 0 or 1 array, together with a Media Center Edition compatible remote control.  Ports include HDMI, VGA, six USB 2.0, S/PDIF and a combo eSATA/USB port.  The ASRock ION 330-HT is priced at $458.99 while the ASRock ION 330HT-BD is priced at $588.99; no estimated shipping date is given for either system.

[Thanks Peter!]

The newly updated version of the machine we tested gets a few new features. The rig runs an Intel Atom 330 dual-core CPU at 1.6GHz and has 2GB of 8000MHz DDR2 RAM. The NVIDIA Ion graphics carry over and the machine has 500GB of storage and a second hard drive bay to make 1TB of storage available.

The machine ships with a MCE remote control and features built-in WiFi. The Blu-ray capability carries over and the nettop has eSATA and support for DTS 7.1 audio. You can also get the nettop minus the Blu-ray player and the lowest of the three versions of the updated machine lacks WiFi of the two other models.

First impressions are good, with the ION 330-BD a compact 195 x 70 x 186 mm box finished in high-gloss black paint. The front panel is relatively bare, save a narrow vent, slimline Blu-ray drive and power button, with all the ports around the back. There’s no shortage of them, either; ASRock have squeezed in a full six USB 2.0, together with both VGA and HDMI (supporting HDCP), S/PDIF optical audio output, three connectors for HD 5.1 audio, and gigabit ethernet. The slab-sided casing may not have the curves of some rival nettops, but it does mean the ION 330-BD can be positioned upright without needing an add-on stand.

Inside, unlike the Acer Aspire Revo – one of the first NVIDIA Ion toting nettops to arrive on the market, but which was criticised heavily for its lackluster non-graphics performance – ASRock have fitted Intel’s Atom 330 dual-core processor rather than their single-core 230. Both chips run at 1.6GHz, but with the benefit of not only two cores but hyperthreading, the 330 can present four effective threads for service; not only that, but ASRock supply their EZ Overclocking BIOS app, which allows you to stably ramp the CPU up to over 2GHz. Of course, the real meat in this particular nettop is the NVIDIA Ion chip, which deserves a little explanation.

Nettops and netbooks have generally paired Intel’s Atom processors with the company’s own 945G chipset, which while capable enough for internet browsing, basic media playback and standard Office applications falls well short of high-definition content. ASRock instead match the Atom 330 up with the Ion, which not only takes on the the graphics side – the same graphics, in fact, as the GeForce 9400M that you’ll find in many notebooks, including models from Apple’s MacBook Pro range – but northbridge and southbridge duties too. The company then throws in 2GB of DDR2 dual-channel memory (up to 4GB is supported) and a 320GB 2.5-inch 5,400rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard-drive.

To keep costs down, ASRock supply the ION 330-BD without an OS, expecting buyers to either install their own or resellers to offer OEM copies at checkout. Our review model was loaded with the Windows 7 RC, together with PowerDVD 9 with Blu-ray support and Media Player Classic. It’s important to note that both of these playback apps have full support for NVIDIA’s GPU hardware acceleration; otherwise, playback will rely solely on the Atom processor rather than take advantage of the Ion.

We started off running benchmarks in GeekBench, as is our normal course of action in a computer review. The ASRock scored 1222 points overall, respectable for a nettop; remember, though, that GeekBench only measures processor and memory performance, not GPU, so the Ion had no say in things. Still, it does better than Lenovo’s similarly 330-based IdeaCentre C300 which has twice the RAM (though it’s slower, at 533MHz, than the ASRock’s 800MHz chips) but only scores 1080.

To test out the NVIDIA side of the game, we threw some high-definition content at the ION 330-BD. Fitting a Blu-ray drive invites 1080p playback, and the ASRock certainly doesn’t disappoint. We hooked up a Full HD display via HDMI (an HDMI-to-DVI adapter is also supplied in the box) and enjoyed flawless, smooth video that left the CPU with plenty of headroom. The same was true when we tried a high-def video file played from the hard-drive, the ION 330-BD instantly cementing its position as a compact HTPC. Even during playback noise and heat from the system are both low, and ASRock’s quick-start app – which basically acts a sort of low-power standby mode, and boots back up to a working desktop in under ten seconds – made the nettop faster to play Blu-ray discs than some standalone decks we’ve seen.

As for audio, there are plenty of options from using the ASRock’s onboard decoding through the separate S/PDIF output and then HDMI audio pass-through. Unfortunately, while Dolby Digital 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound are supported, there’s no capacity for Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio pass-through, instead compressing them. It’s not something we noticed, however, and in use the nettop provided excellent sound quality.

Media playback is one thing, but Ion has also been causing waves for its gaming credentials too. The ION 330-BD’s showing here isn’t quite as impressive as its 1080p outing, since games generally rely on a combination of graphics and processor performance, but you’re certainly able to do more gaming than you would on a standard all-Intel nettop. ASRock and NVIDIA claim to have tested sixteen modern games – including Call of Duty 4, Lego: Batman, Sims 3 and Left 4 Dead – with no problems pushing over 27fps at 1,024 x 768 resolution. We found the nettop certainly put in a decent showing at the titles we tried it with, though we’d still point you in the direction of a decent gaming PC or console if that’s going to be your primary use.

In terms of what we’d change, issues are happily few and far between. The compact chassis has meant ASRock used a 2.5-inch hard-drive, which does limit capacity upgrades; that wouldn’t be so frustrating if the ION 330-BD didn’t do such a decent job as an HTPC. Still, we can live with a (current) maximum of 500GB onboard, and relying on a NAS – connected up with gigabit ethernet – for external storage. It might also be nice to see a couple of the nettop’s six USB 2.0 ports up front, rather than all clustered on the back panel, for plugging in external drives and other peripherals when the ION 330-BD is tucked underneath your TV. In a similar vein, it seems a little shortsighted not to add a multiformat card reader for viewing images and footage from digital cameras and camcorders.

Still, when the MRSP is $499 for the Blu-ray toting model, it’s hard to argue too loudly about relatively minor issues such as these. A non-Blu-ray version is available for around $100 to $150 less, but unless you’re totally digital in your entertainment consumption we’d splash out on the more expensive model. It’s still well within the price bracket for a modern compact desktop, many of which will give you a slightly better processor at the expense of less capable graphics.

NVIDIA’s Ion chipset turns the humble Atom nettop into a versatile, surprisingly capable PC that overcomes the limitations of today’s small form factor systems. The ASRock ION 330-BD isn’t for power users, certainly, but if you’re looking for a quiet, discrete, reasonably priced and above all well performing home media center or all-around everyday PC then it’s definitely worth considering.

Atom-aficionados will know that the 330 is more usually found in nettops, and that Intel never really intended it to be used in portables.  Here, the 1.6GHz CPU is paired with 2GB of DDR2 RAM (up to 4GB is supported), a 320GB hard-drive (up to 500GB supported) and of course the 1080p-capable NVIDIA Ion.  Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n and gigabit ethernet, plus Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and there are VGA, HDMI, audio in/out, ethernet, modem and three USB 2.0 ports.

The trackpad recognizes multitouch gestures including pinch-zooming and chiral-rotating.  Throw in a 10-in-1 memory card reader, 1.3-megapixel camera, stereo speakers and a microphone, and you’ve pretty much summed up the Multibook G22.  No word on where it’ll launch, nor for how much, but it’s certainly unusual enough for us to keep an eye out for.

[via Engadget]

Among the more interesting devices are Pegatron’s IPP7A-CP, which we saw as the Ultra Slim last month, which is a super-compact nettop, and the ET2002 Eee Top upgrade which should finally give the touchscreen all-in-one the graphics grunt it deserves.  The full list of new products is available in the press release below. 

Ion is capable of not only 1080p video but 7.1 surround sound audio, DirectX 10 graphics and video acceleration and transcoding with NVIDIA’s own CUDA technology.  More on the physical hardware when we get it.

Press Release:

NVIDIA Energizes Computex With New ION-Based PC Products

Highly Anticipated Platform Takes Off With 21 New Products for Small PCs

NVIDIA ION graphics will soon be available in the compact, all-in-one ASUS eeeTop ET2002.

The AsRock ION 330 is a small, energy efficient desktop PC with a dual-core Atom CPU and NVIDIA ION graphics.

The Pegatron IPP7A-CP is one of the most compact ION PC designs yet introduced.

Funtwist is bringing an ION-based desktop to the market.
COMPUTEX, TAIPEI, TAIWAN—JUNE 2, 2009—NVIDIA, the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, announced broad adoption of its award-winning NVIDIA® ION™ graphics processor at the Computex tradeshow today. The new products – introduced at an NVIDIA press conference in Taipei and on display at the show – include small desktop PCs, thin and light notebooks, all-in-one PCs, and low power motherboard solutions which all deliver a full PC experience in a small, low-power system.

The new products include:
Acer Desktop AspireRevo
AsRock Desktop ION 330
ASUS Motherboard C2N7A-I
ASUS All-in-one eeeTop ET2002
Colorful Desktop iHTPC
ECS Desktop 7AT-3L
ECS All-in-one Morph-I
Flextronics All-in-one Cobra-2
Flextronics Desktop Dove-2
Funtwist Desktop FION 330
ICD All-in-one Kitchen PC
Lenovo Notebook IdeaPad S12
MSI Desktop Windbox D200
MSI All-in-one Windtop AE2201
Pegatron Desktop IPP7A-CP
Pegatron All-in-one IPP7A-DF2
Pegatron Motherboard IPX7A-ION
TCL All-in-one Ruiyi 1010
Telcast Notebook TL-1000N
Weibu Notebook N10A
Zotac Motherboard ION-ITX

See the new ION products on display at Computex at the NVIDIA partner booths in the Nankang Exhibition Hall.

The new NVIDIA ION-based PCs and platform solutions are great for high definition video, mainstream gaming, and GPU-accelerated video and photo editing applications that take advantage of NVIDIA CUDA™ technology.

ION also supports DirectX Compute as part of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system. DirectX Compute running on NVIDIA’s CUDA compute hardware architecture delivers a major boost for small form factor PCs because it accelerates applications like video editing that run poorly or not at all on today’s low-powered PCs. Other GPU-accelerated applications like vReveal and Badaboom let users quickly edit video and convert it for use on a portable media player like an iPod.

“NVIDIA is really shaking up the small form factor space with ION graphics,” said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group. “Netbooks and nettops are the hottest selling items in the PC space right now, but most are severely limited. ION removes the major chunk of that performance limitation allowing PC vendors the perfect blend of design, performance, and value that drives sales in hard times.”

“Consumer interest in the Acer AspireRevo featuring NVIDIA’s ION graphics has been overwhelming,” said Gianpero Morbello, senior vice president of corporate marketing for Acer. “The Acer AspireRevo clearly demonstrates the power of ION to deliver a full and unique multimedia experience for an amazingly low price. We see strong consumer demand in this space.”

NVIDIA ION graphics processors deliver big performance from small PCs with up to 10X faster graphics than similar systems1. ION graphics support:

Windows 7 and Windows Vista Home Premium
Low-power CPUs including Intel Atom, Intel Celeron, and Via Nano processors
Outstanding 1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 audio
Popular games including The Sims 3, Lego Batman, World of WarCraft, and Battlefield Heroes
DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
Accelerated video enhancement and transcoding using NVIDIA® CUDA™ and DirectX Compute technology

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce graphics products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro® graphics products, and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla™ computing solutions products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit www.nvidia.com.

1 Based on 3D Mark ‘06 results on Atom 230 CPU with NVIDIA ION GPU, versus Atom 230 CPU with Intel 945 graphics.

Meanwhile, Motorola’s Calgary was tipped to be the company’s first Android device – and Verizon Wireless’ first, to boot – which made up for the manufacturer canning two other upcoming handsets.  Samsung’s Omnia HD i8910 was reviewed, and managed to whet our appetite for the rumored Omnia Pro complete with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.  If that wasn’t enough, leaks from the Palm camp tipped the upcoming Eos, a candybar-format replacement to the aging Centro.  Remember, you can keep up with all the latest Android and Palm news at Android Community and My Pre, respectively.

Apple have made their usual rumor round this week, with word that the company have been negotiating with Verizon for an exclusive cellphone.  Hot speculation tips it as an LTE iPhone, though there’s also talk of an “iPhone Lite” and a UMPC-rivaling Apple Media Pad.  Just to keep us on the very edges of our seats, a fan mockup of the latter managed to make us forget the name and manufacturer of every Windows UMPC on the market from the past two years.

Acer’s Aspire One nettop hit review benches, and proved a mixed bag.  The NVIDIA Ion 1080p-capable GPU is every bit as impressive as we were warned to expect, but it’s let down by the single-core Intel Atom CPU they’ve paired it up with.  Not everyone is disappointed with Atom, however: this stunning Filofax MID concept is based on the low-power Intel chip, while ASRock and Pegatron have both based NVIDIA Ion nettops on the processor.

Meanwhile Acer’s Aspire One 751 11.6-inch netbook launched officially, finally including a full spec list, and Microsoft released Windows 7 RC to MSDN subscribers; the general public can expect the OS RC on May 5th, while Acer tip the full release as happening on October 23rd.  While you’re waiting for that, you can read our review of the AAXA P1 pico-projector; can you see it fitting into your life?  Our A/V expert Daniel Lim wasn’t sure.

Pegatron Cape 7 nettop photo & details after the cut

As for the Pegatron Cape 7, full specifications are unknown – including which processor the company has used – but it’s a more compact nettop than the ION 330 and closer in appearance to Acer’s machine.  Connectivity includes HDMI, ethernet and at least four USB 2.0 ports, though we’d doubt there’s room for an optical drive of any sort.

There’s no word on pricing or availability, but NVIDIA have previously claimed to have several Ion customers looking to release products using the GPU this year.  Considering early criticism of the Aspire Revo is that its Atom CPU lets down the nettop’s overall performance, the dual-core ASRock ION 330 could well prove to be the better machine.

Yeah, it’s nothing breathtaking, the feature utilizes and twists the same old technology into more user-friendly way. Remind me of my trustworthy Vmware fusion in suspect mode, shut and boot under 3 seconds. But the Instant Boot will also only work on Windows systems running XP or Vista with a single-user account and no password protection.

As seen from the rather cheesy video demo, the UI is rather simple : Fast mode uses S3 and boots up in four seconds while the less aggressive regular mode uses S4 and takes about 20 seconds to boot.

Still in early its development but the company has released bios to enable Instant Boot on company’s budget wing AsRocks’ boards that are built upon AMD’s 780G and 790GX chipsets, and Intel’s P45 and P43 chipsets.