This cute little 12cm square motherboard is absolutely jam-packed with features from PCI-Express to HDMI and High-Definition to 65W full AMD CPU support. Could this be the ultimate low power, ultra small form factor home theatre motherboard?
17cm square no? Thanks, fixed - Tim
Looks goood, i'm still shocked they get these things under 100w for a full featured proper cpu and all the gubbings.
want one! ITX plus PCI-E, might have found a better home for my 8800GTS then! I smell a shuttle upgrade for me, (Shuttle XPC SN41G2, with sempron slowness)
I wonder if you would have the time to humour a request... would the Scythe Zipang Harry reviewed yesterday fit with it overhanging the NB/SB heatsink? With a 140mm fan pushing air down onto the whole motherboard, that might be an interesting way of cooling the whole kit 'n' kaboodle. ;) Something like the Shuriken might do the same job - that's a 'low profile' HTPC heatsink...
With the correct driver and latest BIOS, everything ran perfectly well until we found the main heatsink overheated and locked up the system when we loaded it with video. J&W did warn of this, and while a small fan would be noisy and unappreciated, it would still be better than a system crashing - how many people will simply think the board is faulty and try to RMA it?
If it was overheating when running in spec (i.e. with a <=65W CPU, without overclock), then in my view it is faulty!
I love my Gigabyte 780G board. Looks like, overheating aside, the J&W is another worthy player.
With the correct driver and latest BIOS, everything ran perfectly well until we found the main heatsink overheated and locked up the system when we loaded it with video. J&W did warn of this, and while a small fan would be noisy and unappreciated, it would still be better than a system crashing - how many people will simply think the board is faulty and try to RMA it?
If it was overheating when running in spec (i.e. with a <=65W CPU, without overclock), then in my view it is faulty!
I love my Gigabyte 780G board. Looks like, overheating aside, the J&W is another worthy player.
No it's the northbridge/southbridge heatsink that overheats when it's stressed by video or graphics and doesn't have any additional airflow. Under nominal circumstances it doesn't need additional air. Because we tested with a heatpiped heatisnk outside of a case there was no additional airflow passing over the board or downward from a lower profile CPU cooler like you would use on one of these boards.
EDIT: Jeeez Harry, leave yourself logged in!! >_< This is Bindi btw
Nice review, I've been looking forward to reading it. Pitty you didn't give Hybrid Crossfire a try! In the text, you mention that the PCIe slot is x8 compatible electrically - but the J&W datasheet lists it as only x4. Which is correct?
What a cute little board! I just bit on a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, so I'm prolly good for now. But this is something I'd consider for a little mod project. Emphasis on little. ;)
Originally Posted by toru173 Nice review, I've been looking forward to reading it. Pitty you didn't give Hybrid Crossfire a try! In the text, you mention that the PCIe slot is x8 compatible electrically - but the J&W datasheet lists it as only x4. Which is correct?
The J&W Manual does no specify and also the J&W website says 95W max but a J&W rep specifically told me 65W and with only 3 phase power for the CPU I personally wouldn't go over that.
EDIT: The specification page on their website says 95W in well ventilated cases but they also said 4 phase could handle 125W CPUs then a lot of board makers decided against it earlier this year.
It also says x4, but it's definitely electrically wider. I will have to look into it more, I only briefly checked the slot worked rather than seeing what Catalyst Control Centre said.
Y'know, for mini-ITX cases with built-in power supplies, you could stick a Radeon 4670 in the PCI-E slot. It needs no external power and is equivalent in spec to a 3870. It tops out at 1680 x 1050 in graphics intensive games, but thats perfect for people who still use 22-inch or below monitors. For mini-ITX or micro-ATX cases that can accept full PSUs, hell there are plenty of single slot options to choose from out there (don't know if its a good idea to put dual-slotters in cases that small).
The board can take up to 95W, so you could stick any of the Phenom X3s, an X4 9550, or an X4 9650 in it. If you don't trust the onboard sound, digital-out to an external DAC and amplifier takes care of that and it gives the benefit of playing with bookshelf speakers or larger instead of the usual dinky PC speakers. For general users and more casual gamers who don't care about overclocking, I think this board has plenty of potential outside of just HTPCs.
Originally Posted by King of Heroes The board can take up to 95W, so you could stick any of the Phenom X3s, an X4 9550, or an X4 9650 in it.
I really would not advise it given that many Taiwanese manufacturers don't warranty support for high powered Phenoms on boards with few power phases - it will handle it, but in the long term it'll burn itself out quicker.
or, I would buy something like a 65W 5000+ 65nm Black Edition and overclock it - you'll get more out of gaming with a higher clocked dual core than a Phenom, plus, with only 800MHz SO-DIMMs out there the K8 architecture has a more efficient memory subsystem should benefit more. If you really want >2 cores get a tri-core or 9350e quad core.
However in most instances getting a mini-itx htpc up and going will be way more expensive given the cost of decent itx cases/psus and a laptop sized bluray drive with the only benefit being size that doesnt really matter once it is in your av rack....
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi [snip'd]
It also says x4, but it's definitely electrically wider. I will have to look into it more, I only briefly checked the slot worked rather than seeing what Catalyst Control Centre said.
Thanks, I'd appreciate that. The fact that the PCIe slot was only x4 according to the website is the only thing putting me off. If the bandwidth goes up to x8 it should be enough for my limited gaming aptitude.
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I think this might have just replaced that Jetway that I was considering...
Just out of interest - your power consumption figures. Are they for the a whole system, or just the board and CPU?
You could probably make a bracket lol.
17cm square no?Thanks, fixed - TimLooks goood, i'm still shocked they get these things under 100w for a full featured proper cpu and all the gubbings.
I wonder if you would have the time to humour a request... would the Scythe Zipang Harry reviewed yesterday fit with it overhanging the NB/SB heatsink? With a 140mm fan pushing air down onto the whole motherboard, that might be an interesting way of cooling the whole kit 'n' kaboodle. ;) Something like the Shuriken might do the same job - that's a 'low profile' HTPC heatsink...
Apologies but it's 17cm sq - there was a typo in the article description... :o
I love my Gigabyte 780G board. Looks like, overheating aside, the J&W is another worthy player.
I suppose you could still make a braket for it to fit on a 120mm fan mount...
(yes this is purely "for the hell of it" speculation!)
No it's the northbridge/southbridge heatsink that overheats when it's stressed by video or graphics and doesn't have any additional airflow. Under nominal circumstances it doesn't need additional air. Because we tested with a heatpiped heatisnk outside of a case there was no additional airflow passing over the board or downward from a lower profile CPU cooler like you would use on one of these boards.
EDIT: Jeeez Harry, leave yourself logged in!! >_< This is Bindi btw
Will there be much of a performance hit on my graphics card as it's only x8 ?
x8 PCI-E v2.0 is identical bandwidth to x16 PCI-E v1 if that means anything...
According to this article on Tom's, dropping from a x16 link to a x8 link shouldn't impact performance considerably.
Sorry for linking to the enemy, peeps :)
Um, hmm. If you look at the overview picture it certainly looks like x8: http://www.jwele.com/motherboard_detail.php?419
http://www.ferra.ru/images/141/141084.gif
because it's half the x16 slot.
The J&W Manual does no specify and also the J&W website says 95W max but a J&W rep specifically told me 65W and with only 3 phase power for the CPU I personally wouldn't go over that.
EDIT: The specification page on their website says 95W in well ventilated cases but they also said 4 phase could handle 125W CPUs then a lot of board makers decided against it earlier this year.
It also says x4, but it's definitely electrically wider. I will have to look into it more, I only briefly checked the slot worked rather than seeing what Catalyst Control Centre said.
The board can take up to 95W, so you could stick any of the Phenom X3s, an X4 9550, or an X4 9650 in it. If you don't trust the onboard sound, digital-out to an external DAC and amplifier takes care of that and it gives the benefit of playing with bookshelf speakers or larger instead of the usual dinky PC speakers. For general users and more casual gamers who don't care about overclocking, I think this board has plenty of potential outside of just HTPCs.
I really would not advise it given that many Taiwanese manufacturers don't warranty support for high powered Phenoms on boards with few power phases - it will handle it, but in the long term it'll burn itself out quicker.
or, I would buy something like a 65W 5000+ 65nm Black Edition and overclock it - you'll get more out of gaming with a higher clocked dual core than a Phenom, plus, with only 800MHz SO-DIMMs out there the K8 architecture has a more efficient memory subsystem should benefit more. If you really want >2 cores get a tri-core or 9350e quad core.
However in most instances getting a mini-itx htpc up and going will be way more expensive given the cost of decent itx cases/psus and a laptop sized bluray drive with the only benefit being size that doesnt really matter once it is in your av rack....
Still, it would make a great modding mobo :)
Thanks, I'd appreciate that. The fact that the PCIe slot was only x4 according to the website is the only thing putting me off. If the bandwidth goes up to x8 it should be enough for my limited gaming aptitude.