Gigabyte GC230D Atom Mini-ITX motherboard review

Gigabyte GC230D Atom Mini-ITX motherboard review

Julio Franco on 22 September 2008 - 10:03 · 16 comments & 6628 views

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Out of curiosity, I recently ran some power consumption tests on my own PC, which admittedly uses the latest hardware available in the market. The results were somewhat disturbing, sucking down about 300 watts at idle, and nearly 500 watts when under load. Combined with a 30” LCD and a number of additional devices attached to it, things start to add up, particularly the power bill.

But what is the best way of going about building a low-powered desktop computer that still has enough guts to get the job done? Enter the Gigabyte GC230D Atom motherboard, measuring just 17 x 17cm (6.7 inches), this tiny board incorporates an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor and all other basics for less than $100.

You may have heard of the Atom 230 CPU already, built using a 45nm design process, boasting a core area of just 25mm2 and a thermal design process of a mere 4 watts!

View: Gigabyte GC230D Atom Mini-ITX motherboard review @ TechSpot

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#1 carmatic on 22 Sep 2008 - 10:24

yeah, it looks like the case itself is going to be more expensive than the mobo+cpu ... might as well make one out of cardboard or something

(2 replies) #2 TruckWEB on 22 Sep 2008 - 10:52

Sucks that Intel can't pair the Atom with a better chipset... 945 is bigger/hotter than the Atom and offer lackluster Gfx.

Imagine the Atom with a low-power nVidia chipset! That would be nice!

#2.1 RAID 0 on 22 Sep 2008 - 18:53

Imagine the Atom with a low-power nVidia chipset! That would be nice!

Yuck.

#2.2 James Riske on 23 Sep 2008 - 01:49

(TruckWEB said @ #2)

Sucks that Intel can't pair the Atom with a better chipset... 945 is bigger/hotter than the Atom and offer lackluster Gfx.

Imagine the Atom with a low-power nVidia chipset! That would be nice!

I can't imagine owning anything with an nvidia chipset, graphics? yes, chipset? not a chance.

(2 replies) #3 mrmckeb on 22 Sep 2008 - 12:39

Could it run Windows Home Server well? If so, I'll buy one RIGHT now.

#3.1 Airlink on 22 Sep 2008 - 14:10

If it can run XP it can run WHS. WHS is not based on Vista; it's based on Win2k3, which is the server-side cousin of of XP.

#3.2 +Kushan on 22 Sep 2008 - 16:25

(Airlink said @ #3.1)

If it can run XP it can run WHS. WHS is not based on Vista; it's based on Win2k3, which is the server-side cousin of of XP.

The only thing in Vista that prevents less-modern computers properly running it is Aero. A server shouldn't be running Aero or anything graphically fancy, so even if it WAS based on Vista (or server 200

, it would still run fine.

#4 Airlink on 22 Sep 2008 - 14:14

What I'd like to see is corporations start to replace their old thin-client boxes with boxes based on these kind of motherboards integrating the Intel Atom Processor.

Did I mention that I freaking HATE thin-client boxes?

Well I do.

(1 reply) #5 exit on 22 Sep 2008 - 14:15

Could it boot from a USB Flash Drive

#5.1 NinjaMonkey on 22 Sep 2008 - 17:53

(exit said @ #5)

Could it boot from a USB Flash Drive

Probably.
Haven't yet seen a 2006+ motherboard that can't.
(Then again.. this is an ancient chipset..)

(1 reply) #6 =NickJ= on 22 Sep 2008 - 19:01

What a stupid setup to compare it against. Could they not have found even something remotely closer to it than a Quad-Core Phenom X4? I do like the way it shows just how poor the GMA950 graphics are but still.

#6.1 Chicane-UK on 23 Sep 2008 - 08:09

I was thinking the same. That, and running gaming benchmarks on it and then bemoaning them? What the hell were they expecting?!

(1 reply) #7 kaborka on 22 Sep 2008 - 22:04

What a waste it can't be used as a HTPC client. No HDMI/HDCP and can't handle 1080p.

#7.1 nmesisca on 23 Sep 2008 - 08:24

(kaborka said @ #7)

What a waste it can't be used as a HTPC client. No HDMI/HDCP and can't handle 1080p.

yeah .. right..
so... all those corporate machines, they reaaaaaly need HDMI dont they..
and all those in kiosks around, them too on HDMI please, what kind of a world has this become!!!
..
tell you a piece of news.. corporate sales account for far more than you think mate.
now go plug that HDMI..

#8 Timble on 23 Sep 2008 - 08:17

Is this really the only thing that happened in the world of technology yesterday?

#9 NXTwoThou on 23 Sep 2008 - 13:27

I got all excited to see an Atom review on the front page, then realized it was with the months old 230(http://www.tweakup.dk/article/1434/dk/ is a review from May), not the 330 that just came out(like the other reviews from Friday).

I also want someone to throw in a 8500GT PCI(as far as I can tell, the "best" PCI card you can find) and max out the memory when running benchmark comparisions against heavier hitting products. At least then we'd know what's possible with that sort of setup.

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Gigabyte GC230D Atom Mini-ITX motherboard review

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