As I wanted to use it as an HTCP, and could only get the Nvidia Ion GPU acceleration when using Linux, I didn’t really bother with it anymore. When I initially bought it there were issues with the infra-red remote when using Linux. As such, the GPU takes over all the work, and we’re not really bothered with the fact that the Intel Atom is slow. The Ion chip basically offloads whatever CPU processing would be required to decode the video content. Although the Atom CPU is considered slow, the Nvidia Ion chipset more then makes up for that when watching high definition, 1080p video content. For those of you who don’t know the AsRock ION, it’s a tiny desktop PC driven by an Intel Atom CPU, and featuring an Nvidia Ion graphical chip.
Before we take a closer look at this tiny nettop, as usual we tabulate its detailed specifications below.Today I installed my AsRock ION box (after it sitting in some desk for 6 months). The Ion 330-BD is equipped with the more powerful dual-core Atom 330 processor and as the "BD" tag in its name suggests, it comes equipped with a Blu-ray drive. Not one to be left behind, ASRock too has jumped in on the Ion bandwagon and what we have here today is their Nettop Ion 330-BD. The Acer AspireRevo was the first Ion product we reviewed and while the NVIDIA GPU did bring much needed improvement in HD decoding, its performance was hampered by the meekly powered single core Atom 230 processor. No matter though, soon Ion based products starting trickling in. With Intel expressing obvious disdain for the Ion, it was no surprise then that initial take up on the chipset was slow. Furthermore, Intel claimed that the Ion was an attack by NVIDIA on their chipsets and went on to state that the higher power consumption and costs were against the Atom's philosophy of providing a low cost computing solution. Unfortunately, Intel did not take too kindly to this initiative and were not supportive of the platform combination and maintained that Atom processors should only be used with their very own 945GSE and 945GC chipsets. With the GeForce 9400 mGPU and its integrated graphics engine on board, this greatly enhanced the Atom based platform's HD video crunching abilities, enabling users to play 1080p HD videos with a caramel-like smoothness. The Ion, in summary, is a platform that pairs Intel's Atom processors with NVIDIA's very own GeForce 9400 mGPU chipset (mGPU stands for "motherboard GPU" as coined by NVIDIA).
It obviously needed help, and NVIDIA came to the Atom's rescue with the Ion. Intel's Atom may be an efficient and capable performer when it comes to basic computing tasks like word processing and web browsing, but it stutters when it comes to Blu-ray and HD video playback - mostly due to Intel pairing it with a rather old integrated GPU based chipset.
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