So I was going about my business ordering equipment for using about our new Decatur shop, and came across a motherboard using the new, tiny Intel Atom chip, and decided to give it a try.  Now the board it’s integrated to isn’t a board that you would do any present-day gaming on, but it’s very capable of doing any normal tasks, such as browsing the internet, word processing, viewing photos, listening to music, playing back DVDs, even a little bit of photo editing and some lesser-power-hungry games (no, Crysis will NOT run on this, obviously). Sadly, it doesn’t have a good enough chipset for HD video playback, the one thing I think they shouldn’t have skimped on - but maybe a revised version will come out soon that is capable.  What more, this motherboard/CPU combination, in addition to the case with power supply I found, was perfect for what I needed it for - for running diagnostics on hard drives/RAM/any other shop uses we have for it, at an overall fraction the cost of getting a normal motherboard, buying a separate processor, buying a case, buying a power supply…

     The board I got has a 1.6ghz Atom built-in, and in Vista, it was getting a mid 3 experience score for the CPU; 2gb RAM gets it a respectable 5’s range on RAM, and of course the hard drive is a normal SATA drive; the only thing lacking was the “Gaming” and “Aero” performance; both were around a 2.  In other words, while the rest of the setup is fine, its graphics capabilities are lacking, and only having a PCI slot (not Express) limits the options for upgrades.  I have to admit, though, this thing is pretty quick going through Vista - windows were quick to open/close, there wasn’t any real lag… I’m sure games like Age of Empires 2 or 3 would work fine, as should Starcraft… so I ‘d be all set.  Needless to say, this thing does quite well, considering the processor runs at a MUCH lower wattage than Core 2 Duos/anything else out there today - 2.5W max on the Atom, compared to 65W on Core 2’s.  The only other comparable competitor is the Via C7/Nano, but so far any board I’ve found with the Via kinda…well…sucks. (1GB max RAM, boards are too far overpriced for what they have, etc.)

     So, for anyone who needs a good, lightweight system for doing everyday computing, or something to get your child, this thing’s the way to go - we’ll gladly build one for you.

http://www.intel.com/technology/atom/index.htm