For my needs, however, it’s not a deal breaker. An eSATA port around back would also be a welcome addition for some users. Hiding these behind a door would have been perfect. I would have liked to have seen a USB port on the front, as well as audio in/out jacks, since these are items that could conceivably be accessed a number of times, either for removable media or a headset when Skyping or gaming in the living room. Unlike a Shuttle type case, it slides discretely into a a low profile entertainment centre. In size, it’s a little bit bigger than a Mac Mini, and certainly smaller than the Shuttle XPC, which is one of the most popular SFF PC designs out there. Out of the box, the ION 330 is a decent looking little computer, available in either glossy black or white. – 1 x HDMI (with HDMI to DVI adapter), 1 x D-Sub VGA, 6 x USB 2.0, 1 x S/PDIF (Optical) *Blu-ray/HD-DVD disc is supported by Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive. – 2GB DDR2 800 MHz memory, support dual channel, maximum memory capacity 4GB * So, before getting into the nuts n bolts of the review, here are the specs… Specifications If I decide to commit to BD in the future, the ION 330 easily accomodates adding one later, and for less than the $200 premium.

None of the models come with an operating system, so you’ll have to install one yourself.Īlthough my goal was to set up an HTPC, I went with the ION 330, and skipped the BD player. The most powerful being the ION 330-BD which includes ION graphics and a Blu Ray player for approximately $600, the ION 330, which is identical except that it has a DVD drive (with write capabiltiy) instead of the Blu Ray, which retails for about $400, and the low end S330 which replaces the ION graphics with the standard Intel 945GC + ICH7 chipset. Guess what it’s running?ĪSRock makes three models of their small form factor device. ASRock (an ASUS spin-off) has introduced the ION 330. This is where a third ‘A list’ Taiwanese manufacturer comes in. In the case of the latter, graphics powerhouse Nvidia developed the ION platform, which would pair the ‘good enough’ computing power of the Atom with it’s own more powerful graphics subsystem. To boost the former, Intel introduced the dual core Atom 330 running at 1.6GHz. The biggest drawbacks of the Atom processor are it’s overall speed for anything really complex, and it’s graphics chip, which uses an outdated Intel incapable of any real power. The Atom is appearing in other form factors, from very capable home servers and now tiny desktop computers.

Intel’s low-powered & low cost Atom processor has been all the rage in the computer industry for quite some time now, and nobody has embraced it more than just about every Taiwanese hardware manufacturer whose name starts with an ‘A’.ĪSUS thrust the netbook form factor into the minds of the masses, but it was Acer who (so far) has won the small form factor war, as the number one netbook maker (the Aspire One grabbing 50% of the market).

Asrock ion 330 review