HTPC Board

I think that I have finalised on the main computer board that I’ll be using for my HTPC. The standard PC boards are a little too power hungry for a HTPC while the VIA boards are a little under-powered. Furthermore, the VIA EPIA platform is not easily available in Malaysia. I know because I have tried getting them before, directly from the local VIA distributor. They are certainly not cheap.

Yesterday, I checked my price list and found that Intel are now directly selling their new Atom based mini-ITX boards through the channel. So, I can buy it directly. Furthermore, they are selling it for a very cheap price. This seems like the best bet to me, for the moment. The D945GCLF board comes in a mini-ITX form factor (17cmx17cm) and has a 1.6GHz Atom processor and GMA950 graphics based chipset on it.

Although it’s not an ideal board, it is certainly usable for regular applications, including a HTPC front-end. The graphics are more than sufficient for 2D (i.e video) acceleration. The main processor, has an average power dissipation of about 2W. So, if you look at the picture, you may be wondering why there’s a big heat sink and fan on it. The big heat sink and fan is not on the processor, but on the northbridge chipset! Sneaky bastards!

Regardless, the Atom processor comes with hyper-threading technology and scores a 153 on a Cinebench benchmark, which makes it about the same performance as a Core 2 Duo running at 500MHz. I was able to playback standard-definition (720×400) H264 on my old laptop with a AthlonXP 500MHz. So, the Atom platform should be more than sufficient.

In fact, I am quite enamoured by this board. I have always been a fan of small form factor PCs running on low powered devices. I used to source some of my boards from Taiwan, in the past. I’m actually thinking of buying a bunch of these boards and using them for various other purposes, including building a Eee Monitor like desktop for myself.