Intel 1.6 ghz Atom - first impressions

[Kangum]

Recently I built a intel atom system.  This post is my first impressions. quick specs

intel atom 1.6 ghz, 2 ghz ddr 2 667 memory, 60 gigbyte laptop drive, laptop cd rom drive, 80 w fanless power supply


so far Nintendo, Super Nintendo , Sega master system, Sega Genesis and Game Boy Advance all run smooth with no hiccups. I have only tested a handful of n64 games. blast corpse and super mario 64 ran fine.

I have been testing Visual Pinball with very good results. Terminator 3, Fishtales, Adams Family, F1 racing, Monopoly and many more all work great.

Played back some xvid and noticed no slowdowns. watched lord of the rings fellowship of the ring from dvd with no issues.

mame ive tried the classics and they work great. honestly im not familar with mames vast library of games so im not sure of what the middle ground games would be to test to see how well mame really runs.

Ive only had the system a up and running for a few days but so far so good.

here is a shot of the inside of the mini itx case. you can see the free pci riser card that came with the case in the pic. also you can see the slim cd rom adapter that also came free with the case. the hard drive is mounted under the cd rom bracket so its not in view.



here is a front shot but it looks huge compared to the actual size of the case.


if anyone is thinking of pulling the trigger on this motherboard cpu combo for 77 bucks its really nice. When I got the board i didnt expect much but it has done nothing but surpise me since I got it. The next few days I will really be able to push it and see how it goes.

[Blanka]

Only crappy thing about Atom is Intels put up restrictions on the ports that are allowed.
WTF is the parallel and serial port still doing on modern systems: go clean your mouth Intel! I do not want to connect to the stinking Internet in 2.4 kbaud! And my 100lb IBM matrix printer is door jammer now.
Why do you only allow VGA ports? We do DVI and HDMI today Intel! I Mame on a 3480x2400 pixel IBM LCD screen today to have every phosphor tridot simulated by an almost perfect circle consisting of 20 LCD pixels!
And throw in some Firewire to load my 5000 gig of games fast.

[lanman31337]

If you want all of that then buy a full size or micro atx board with all those features.  The Atom platform is great for POS systems, Kiosks, things that don't need a whole lot of power to do fancy things.

[RoomTenONine]

Only crappy thing about Atom is Intels put up restrictions on the ports that are allowed.
WTF is the parallel and serial port still doing on modern systems: go clean your mouth Intel! I do not want to connect to the stinking Internet in 2.4 kbaud! And my 100lb IBM matrix printer is door jammer now.
Why do you only allow VGA ports? We do DVI and HDMI today Intel! I Mame on a 3480x2400 pixel IBM LCD screen today to have every phosphor tridot simulated by an almost perfect circle consisting of 20 LCD pixels!
And throw in some Firewire to load my 5000 gig of games fast.

I agree, but I believe part of why they've done this is to prevent it from being a super-cheap HTPC solution.  Without the D-sub and DVI outs it would be useless in any modern home theater setup.  They have pricier options slated for that task.

[testicle187]

Only crappy thing about Atom is Intels put up restrictions on the ports that are allowed.
WTF is the parallel and serial port still doing on modern systems: go clean your mouth Intel! I do not want to connect to the stinking Internet in 2.4 kbaud! And my 100lb IBM matrix printer is door jammer now.
Why do you only allow VGA ports? We do DVI and HDMI today Intel! I Mame on a 3480x2400 pixel IBM LCD screen today to have every phosphor tridot simulated by an almost perfect circle consisting of 20 LCD pixels!
And throw in some Firewire to load my 5000 gig of games fast.

USB 2.0 is faster than firewire...
Business computers use the serial ports all the time for hardware locks that come with industrial software.

[pointdablame]

Only crappy thing about Atom is Intels put up restrictions on the ports that are allowed.
WTF is the parallel and serial port still doing on modern systems: go clean your mouth Intel! I do not want to connect to the stinking Internet in 2.4 kbaud! And my 100lb IBM matrix printer is door jammer now.
Why do you only allow VGA ports? We do DVI and HDMI today Intel! I Mame on a 3480x2400 pixel IBM LCD screen today to have every phosphor tridot simulated by an almost perfect circle consisting of 20 LCD pixels!
And throw in some Firewire to load my 5000 gig of games fast.

Its a low cost platform.  If they added all that and it performed well enough there'd be no reason to buy a more expensive setup.  I thought everyone would realize why they did that.

[massive88]

mame ive tried the classics and they work great. honestly im not familar with mames vast library of games so im not sure of what the middle ground games would be to test to see how well mame really runs.

Id be interested to know how Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct 2 run on this rig.

[Kangum]

mame ive tried the classics and they work great. honestly im not familar with mames vast library of games so im not sure of what the middle ground games would be to test to see how well mame really runs.

Id be interested to know how Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct 2 run on this rig.

chd games are pretty demanding. even my 3 ghz system has trouble playing most if not all chd games. i loaded up Killer Instict 2 and there was alot of sound issues. lag, echo and hissing. im going to say no. you need split second timing for these type of games and being a chd game its just to much for the weee 1.6 atom.

[whammoed]

USB 2.0 is faster than firewire...
Business computers use the serial ports all the time for hardware locks that come with industrial software.

USB 2.0 throughput specs are faster, but firewire is faster in reality for hard drives due to it's protocal...or some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- like that 

[Blanka]

Business computers use the serial ports all the time for hardware locks that come with industrial software.

Well, then its time to ditch the softwaremaker. The program probably looks like it was made for windows 3.1. I know this crap from the architecture business. USB locks are way easier and adopted by any modern software business that still uses hardware locks.

And Firewire/DVI are not too much asked for a tiny system like Atom. It's not expensive either. The copper/gold on the Parallel plug is probably more expensive than these two very useful additions. And by leaving parallel out you can save 20% on the size of your case.

[Ummon]

A PCIe - or at least AGP - port would be nice, too.

[Kangum]

 Im surprised at what people expected its an intel made board. intel is not exactly known for thier features. they will not be the only ones manufacturing this board. other motherboard manufacturers are already in the pipeline with thier versions of the intel atom. I expect when you see all the usual suspects like gigabyte abit asus and more you will see various features that most want. Until then it was fun to see what the little guy could do.

Computex shows several boards like a foxcon with PCI Express no Parallel or com ports and passive cooling, J&W board with DVI out and many more. THere are more in the works. This intel board was just a first look.

[u_rebelscum]

Business computers use the serial ports all the time for hardware locks that come with industrial software.

Well, then its time to ditch the softwaremaker. The program probably looks like it was made for windows 3.1. I know this crap from the architecture business. USB locks are way easier and adopted by any modern software business that still uses hardware locks.

Restated:
"Business computers use the serial ports all the time for hardware locks that come with industrial hardware."

As in, industrial hardware that controls water treatment plant, police communications, construction, airplanes, etc.  It would cost billions to replace all the controllers that work just fine, to cover the costs of the new hardware, new software to run the new hardware, the new computers that can run the new software, the problems making the changes, and the training of the people to use the new hardware & software.

That means increased utility rates (and taxes & airplane tickets rates).


Industrial and utilities do not change as fast as consumers, mostly because they buy stuff that last longer than 2 years (closer to 10-50 years).  Don't push them to make unneeded changes, or you and me will have to pay the costs.

[Ummon]

Industrial and utilities do not change as fast as consumers, mostly because they buy stuff that last longer than 2 years (closer to 10-50 years).  Don't push them to make unneeded changes, or you and me will have to pay the costs.

I'm waiting for them to become ubiquitous and embedded in an organic fashion like a living body. Then there won't even be manual labor involved, as it'll just grow it on the spot...or at least it'll be grown and then floated down the 'blood stream' to take its place.