Archive for June, 2010
The Tranquil PC iXL is a small nettop not much larger than the ASRock ION nettop but there’s not Atom processor here. Instead, this guy has a 2.93GHz Intel Core i3-530 CPU. Consequently, it uses about 30W of power while idle vs. about half of that for an Atom based nettop. But, that’s still much less than the hundreds of watts of power and subsequent heat that other desktops put out.
The Tranquil PC iXL also has DVI, HDMI eSATA, and USB ports, as well as an optical drive bay for a DVD or Blu-Ray drive. There are 2 DDR3 memory slots and a hard drive bay.
Prices start at £389, or about $576 US but that doesn’t include RAM, a hard drive, operating system, or Blu-Ray drive (It does, however, include a DVD drive).
via Engadget
Cloned in China reports that a Chinese company has built a nettop called the Pandora mini Mac and if the name didn’t tip you off, the design should. Yup, it looks like the previous generation Mac Mini.
Under the cover, you get a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 dual core CPU, NVIDIA ION graphics (first generation), 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, a DVD-RW drive, HDMI, and VGA output.
Pretty interesting, but unfortunately we don’t expect to see it outside of China.
via Cloned in China
Lenovo Ideacentre Q150 - $349.95
Lenovo introduced the Ideacentre Q150 back in March and we’ve been anticipating the availability of the dual core (Atom D510) and Ion 2 machine since then. Now, two versions appear to be shipping from Buy.com through Amazon. That makes sense, since last month’s official press release mentioned a June release.
There’s a cheaper 160gb, sing core (Atom D410) going for $217 and the full blown dual core Atom D510 version going for $349.95. Both are the very latest processors from Intel, combine with the recently announced Ion 2 graphics chipset. We’re curious to see if the Lenovo Multimedia Remote and Keyboard (that we just reviewed) will be included with both models as well, or if it’s just pictured for show?
Check out the full specs after the break, or just check it out directly at Amazon.
Lenovo Multimedia Remote and Keyboard
Lenovo sent me the N5901 multimedia remote and keyboard for review the other week and I’ve been putting it through its paces the last few days. I had seen the launch photos just a few weeks ago, and it looked interesting then, but I had no idea that it was so tiny! It easily fits in one had, and the keys aren’t much bigger than on your smartphone. Of course, that has it’s up and downs but overall, I was grateful to get my old full size keyboard off of the coffee table. The remote is available now at Amazon for just about $60 shipped.
Check out my first impressions and review after the break, as well as tons of pictures.
ASRock announced a new HTPC nettop today (shown at CeBIT 2010 earlier this year) called the Core 100HT series. It’s based on Intel’s Calpella platform for processing and graphics. There’s a remote (built-in IR), USB 3.0, low noise (just under 25 dB) and lots of audio technologies featured. According to Asrock, HD playback should only take up about CPU 1 – 3% of the CPU.
Check the product page here, and also the hands-on video and full specs after the break.
