Monday, November 03, 2008

Zotac Offers Mini-ITX Solution With Wi-Fi and Nvidia Graphics

2:10 PM - October 30, 2008 by Aaron Heibert 

Source: Tom's Hardware – Category : Motherboards5 comments

Been looking for a good Mini-ITX solution for a project? Home Theatre PC? Zotac has packed Nvidia power onto one of its new Mini-ITX boards, along with semi-built in Wi-Fi.

ZoomThe Zotac nForce 630i-ITX WiFi is part of the company's expansion on their Mini-ITX lineup. Featuring GeForce 7100 graphics processing, 630i media and communications chipset, 802.11b/g WiFi and support for all Core 2 Due and Core 2 Quad processors with a front side bus of 1333MHz - support for 667MHz / 800MHz DDR2.

Upon inspection of the backplane in the photos below, we can see the standard DSUB VGA connector and DVI connectors side by side – Zotac mentions the board is dual-display ready. A whopping SIX USB 2.0 ports on the backplane (there are two more available via another onboard header). Onboard 10/100 Ethernet. 802.11b/g WiFi antenna connector, and the HD audio ports for Line-In, Line-Out, and Mic. This board still has PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse which some people might find very useful while others can simply do without.

Zoom Zoom

Looking at the board and its layout, aside from the obvious LGA775 socket and power connectors, we can see two DDR2 slots, two SATA connectors, single PCI-Express 1X slot, single ATA connector, and front panel LED / Switch connectors next to the onboard fan power header.

For a Mini-ITX solution, this board packs enough features to make it very attractive for those eyeballing their next Home Theatre PC (HTPC) build. It has all the features, including graphics capability, that would make it a worthy choice.

More information can be found over at the Zotac page for the 630i-ITX WiFi board.