The Ion Lives - ASUS AT3N7A-1 NVIDIA Ion Motherboard
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The ASUS AT3N7A-1
The ASUS AT3N7A-1
The ASUS AT3N7A-1, as you can see, is a mini-ITX board. This means it is really small, and will take up very little space if paired with a similarly-sized casing. A fan and heatsink sits over the Atom 330 processor, which is soldered onboard, as well as the Ion chipset. And despite its size, the AT3N7A-1 still sports three SATA ports, a PCI slot, and two DIMM slots capable of accommodating up to 4GB of DDR2-800 memory.
As a HTPC, video output is crucial and the ASUS AT3N7A-1 has only VGA and HDMI outputs, which is a bit of a downer considering the Zotac DIY Ion kit one-ups it by having the aforementioned two and an additional DVI port. Unlike many IGP boards, the GPU on the Ion platform is very much similar to a discrete solution and thus is able to handle dual digital outputs and an analog output simultaneously if needed. In that light, the ASUS board is not bringing out the chipset's best capabilities. Not one to give up on a fight, the AT3N7A-1 hits back by way of its eight USB 2.0 ports (two more than the Zotac) and in-built Bluetooth connectivity.
Here are some photos of the board.
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