ASRock ION 3D - A Next Generation ION HTPC
by Cameron Butterfield on January 14, 2011 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- ION
- ASRock
- Media Streamer
- HTPC
Overclocking
In addition to providing full control of the clocks in this system, ASRock has included some basic overclocking profiles in the BIOS. The stock speed of the Atom processor is 1.8GHz, and CPU overclock profiles range from 1.9GHz to 2.1GHz. The NVIDIA GPU also has overclocking options from 550MHz to 650MHz. Simply bumping the clocks up using the overclocking profiles on the test system resulted in a bootable but unstable system; I increased the CPU voltage to ensure stability and was able to run Prime95 for several hours after making this minor adjustment. This ends up being a 16% overclock—nothing outstanding, but when using an Atom processor, you take whatever you can get.
Power Consumption and Fans
ASRock rates the system at 27W. I found this statement to be accurate, as the system registered only 24W on a Kill-a-Watt meter at idle speeds in my testing. The ION 3D ships with a fan configuration very similar to the 100HT. The fans were sent out stock at the lowest setting resulting in a very quiet machine. Even when the processor and GPU usage ramped up, the fans never increased in speed and remained essentially inaudible during all testing.
General Usage Observations
During the course of this review, I observed some behavior using this Atom based system that was somewhat unexpected with regard to performance. While the ION 3D did play back almost all media files perfectly, there were some issues when attempting to skip between different parts of the video being played. Pauses and re-syncing audio and video feeds sometimes took longer than would be considered desirable in a media streaming device. In addition, the platform experienced considerable choppiness/unresponsiveness when simply copying files across a gigabit network; this showed up using the DPC latency program.
The majority of these slight performance issues can be chalked up to the Atom platform, which simply isn't going to be as responsive as mainstream desktop processor platforms. Prospective purchasers of this system should keep in mind the desktop performance capabilities of an Atom based system, and given the potential to improve both CPU and graphics performance AMD's Brazos platforms are probably worth waiting for.
Additional Features
ASRock tries to pack as many features as possible into its systems, and the ION 3D is no exception. Some of the features that ASRock lists are basic items that any computer would have (i.e. listing the speed of the memory), but the company has also used some unique features on this device such as the ASRock App Charger, which allows your iPhone and iPod devices to charge at a quicker rate than they would using a normal USB connection. This is a nice touch and can be somewhat useful for users who happen to own i-devices. The only catch is that the ION 3D needs to be in hibernate, standby, or off modes for this to work.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
30 Comments
View All Comments
laytoncy - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
I think I'm going to wait until they start using Sandy Bridge in these. I'd love to see the Core 100HT-BD with the Sandy Bridge. I'm not holding my breath but I've been reading all these reviews and have a friend with the ION version and he loves his. I'm just not sure how much longer I can wait or if I'm going to build my own htpc. I figure I've waited this long I'll see if they can push some out this quarter.silverblue - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
The Brazos platform will be faster, certainly, however its GPU doesn't have the ability to decode BluRay 3D. You don't seem to have looked at this platform's ability to decode 3D, though (unless I've missed something).On the other hand, TomsHardware have reviewed the ASRock E350M1 and noted that Ion's CUDA cores throw out questionable quality when encoding, so it's all swings and roundabouts really.
erwos - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
I don't want to be "that guy", but it bugs the hell out of me to see HTPC reviews where they don't even see how many cablecard or ATSC streams this thing can record/display at a time. The modern HTPC is of debatable utility if all you're doing is streaming video; there are any number of embedded devices that will do that cheaper and better.stlbearboy - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
Exactly how many tuners do you expect to get in that case? My recording is done on an ATX motherboard with 13 total tuners. The reviewed system is a playback system, not a recording system.vol7ron - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
At least one for that case.Why in the world would you have 13 tuners? What kind of bootlegging business are you running?
Let me guess, you also have Starz, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and sports packages too.
erwos - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
You can connect tuners via USB (ATI) or over the network (HDHR). Shoving them straight into your computer is actually slightly odd to me.stlbearboy - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
3 Directv4 OTA
4 Cable
3 Clear QAM
This allows viewing to all every TV in the house via extenders. The most active at one time has been 9. I looked at the HDHR and have 3 HD-PVRs for Directv. Only Sports package is Sunday Ticket but with kids and diverse tastes I like the flexibility. You could use a NAS for storage and HDHR for tuners, although I could not imagine trying to comskip on an ION! But my point still remains, you buy that system for playback not recording. As to the question of how many streams you can record, that is a function of your HDD as ATSC does not take any encoding.
CSMR - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
24W is high power. Regular (non-atom) desktop computers can have similar idle power.Atom makes it unsuitable for anything except media use.
But now there are dedicated devices that are generally more convenient, and lower power. (Popcorn hour, Dune, etc.).
A full OS is not suitable for pure media use.
therealnickdanger - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
I'm still not sure how ANY device can be recommended for a home theater that doesn't support the full range of bitstreaming options. Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA have been in application for nearly five years. It is simply inexcusable to offer anything less than PERFECT support for these. Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD should be ashamed. Please don't take this question in a hostile way, but what kind of "home theater" are you trying to build?Next time a device claims to be a "home theater" device and doesn't support bitstreaming, send it back to the manufacturer. It's high time these folks learned that ANY modern HT device must support the following:
1. Full lossless and legacy bitstreaming compliance
2. 23.976 compliance
3. Simultaneous multi-video and multi-audio streams
Sheesh, it's bloody 2011.
Guspaz - Friday, January 14, 2011 - link
So, in other words, this thing is pretty much the same as the old ION 330, except with a bluray drive and some front USB ports? I mean, the difference in both the CPU and GPU is very minor, Atom hasn't seen any major developments since it first launched a few years ago.