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Shuttle H3 6700P SFF computer revealed

PC News Zone — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:50:14 +0000

Shuttle has been around for years and years with some really cool small form factor computers that allow users to save space on their desktop and still use the normal monitor they already have. The latest computer in the SFF series from Shuttle is called the H3 6700P and this machine is aimed at professional users.

The H3 6700P uses the Intel H67 Express Chipset and second-generation Core i7 or i5 processors. The machine supports up to 16GB of RAM and offers HD audio as well. The little board inside the computer has 7.1 channel HD audio and gigabit Ethernet to round out the main features of the computer. The machine supports up to 500GB of storage in drive bay one and has an additional drive bay supporting another 500GB HDD if needed. The machine also has space for a single optical drive.

Graphics for the computer are AMD FirePro or optional NVIDIA GeForce graphics. The SFF rig has eSATA, USB 3.0, mic in, headphone in, and various buttons on the front panel. It has a single PCI x1 v2.0 slot inside along with a PCI-E slot for graphics cards and a mini PCI-E x1 slot for an optional WiFi card. Pricing for the computer is unknown.

More on Intel’s Thin Mini-ITX Standard

pcnz_admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:01:21 +0000

I stopped by Intel’s booth at Computex to grab a few shots of the small but potent Thin Mini-ITX ecosystem. If you read our coverage yesterday you’ll remember that Thin Mini-ITX is just a low profile Mini-ITX standard designed for affordable (or potentially DIY) all-in-one PCs.

Intel had a number of Sandy Bridge motherboards on display that conform to the Thin Mini-ITX standard. Most of the boards use Intel’s H61 chipset.

The cooling system is also standardized. Below is an example of the cooling solution Intel will be selling in Q4 of this year:

Intel also had a number of all-in-one cases available. While most weren’t all that elegant looking, this model from Loop looked very Apple-like:

There were a number of DC power adapters on display, ranging from 150W to 180W. The power connector is also a standard.

Going forward as the majority of desktops move to even lower TDPs, these DIY all-in-one systems may end up becoming more popular. One major issue I see right away is the lack of support for discrete graphics. Go far enough into the future and perhaps that won’t be so important, but today it’s not fun driving a high resolution panel off of SNB integrated graphics. I do hope that as Intel pushes for this standard it doesn’t forget that discrete GPUs are still quite necessary for many users in 2011. Maybe we’ll eventually get that upgradable 27-inch iMac that I was asking for recently.

Computex 2011: Zotac Z68 miniITX Motherboards

pcnz_admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:26:23 +0000

Zotac has two mini-ITX Z68 motherboards on display at Computex: the Zotac Z68-ITX WiFi A and B models (Z68ITX-A-E and Z68ITX-B-E). Both feature Intelâ€™s Z68 chipset with all of the goodness that brings along with it (mainly SSD caching). The A model has a PCIe x16 slot for discrete graphics and uses standard DDR3 DIMMs. The B model features a GeForce GT 430 on-board and thus uses SO-DIMMs to save on space.

Both boards feature four SATA ports, WiFi and accept standard ATX power (4-pin 12V and 8-pin 12V connectors on the B and A models, respectively).

The A model has two HDMI outputs and one miniDP out, while the B model has two DVI, HDMI and one DP output thanks to the on-board GT 430.