Two New Ions: ASUS AT3N7A-I and ASRock Ion 330
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 28, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
The Price Showdown
ASUS was very clever with the pricing of the A3TB7A-I. These days a Zotac Ion with an Atom 330 will set you back $169.99 without a power supply or $189.99 with the external DC power adapter. ASUS decided to undercut Zotac by $10 and is coming in at $159.99:
| Price | |
| ASRock Ion 330 | $379.99 |
| ASUS AT3B7A-I | $159.99 |
| Zotac IONITX-A-U | $189.99 |
| Zotac IONITX-D-E | $169.99 |
The third option, the ASRock Ion, is more difficult to compare as you get a lot more in the bundle. To see what the most affordable way into an Ion would be (assuming you don’t already have any components) I priced out barebones systems using the ASRock, ASUS and Zotac routes:
| ASUS AT3B7A-I | ASRock Ion 330 | Zotac IONITX-A-U | |
| Base Price (Motherboard + Accessories) | $159.99 | $379.99 | $189.99 |
| 2x1GB DDR2-800 | $29.98 | Included | $29.98 |
| Mini ITX Case + PSU | $38.99 - $49.99 | Included | $38.99 - $49.99 |
| Seagate 320GB 5400.6 2.5" HDD | $69.99 | Included | $69.99 |
| Internal DVD Slim Drive | $34.99 | Included | $34.99 |
| Total | $333.94 - $344.94 | $379.99 | $363.94 - $374.94 |
Curious. The Zotac would win the price comparison if it weren’t for one thing: even the cheapest mini-ITX case at Newegg comes with a power supply. So the $189.99 Zotac board with power supply doesn’t save you any money, you just end up with an extra mini-ITX PSU after you’re done with your build. Naturally you could opt for the PSU-less $169.99 model, but then ASUS has already got you beat on price by $10. The one thing I didn’t include is the cost of a WiFi dongle, because you do get WiFi with Zotac but not with ASUS.
Depending on how much you spend on a mini-ITX case, the ASUS AT3N7A-I will get you into an Ion system for around $40 less than the ASRock Ion 330. That’s not an insignificant amount of money, and something you could use to beef up some of the components. Ahem, SSD.
Who wins the price comparison? The newcomer ASUS, unless you want WiFi in which case the $169.99 Zotac IONITX-D-E is a better deal. The cheapest USB 802.11n dongle will set you back around $20, making the ASUS solution $10 more expensive.
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rudy - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
ASUS is messed up in this respect the last a8n-e board I used had the same stupid issue a small fan that was loud and broke down easily on the south bridge. It must be a cost issue but it causes more problems then its worth. I replaced it with a passive heatsink rather then getting a free one from asus cause I knew the free replacement would not be much better.bh192012 - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
Put the bluray drive all the way at the top, make the case 1 to 2 cm deeper and or higher and put a row of low rpm 60mm fans in the front. You could get two to three times the airflow and it would be quieter. Also, why have the restrictive punchouts in the back for the rear fan, seems you could open that up much more. Punch more holes all along the sides or in the blank area in the back.yuchai - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
I agree with this. These smaller devices are meant to be placed on the desk and are pretty close for the user. I wouldn't mind having them at a bigger size if that's what it takes to bring the noise level down.Das Capitolin - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
The hard drive beside the ASRock ION 330 is not what comes with the unit. It ships with a 320GB notebook drive, and not a 3.5" desktop drive.Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
The hard drive was just included to show the small size of the machine, I'll clarify in a caption :)Take care,
Anand
yehuda - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
I don't think this was mentioned, but Asus has also introduced an Ion-based EeeBox, which is a complete system.http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=wH1q2VTqyLXa...">http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=wH1q2VTqyLXa...
Anand, you think you could request a sample?
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millerduck - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
That unit looks sweet. I stumbled on it over the last two days and am planning a Windows Home Server based on it.Looks to be fanless, 330 w/ION, eSATA for additional storage, gigabit Ethernet. A perfect WHS "appliance" for my house.
MD
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, August 28, 2009 - link
Just requested it :) Waiting to hear back from ASUS on their plans for this thing in North America.Take care,
Anand
yehuda - Saturday, August 29, 2009 - link
Thanks, please keep us posted.