The world's best HTPC mainboard? Quite possibly

Mainboards

Published: Thursday 5th June, 2008 | Author: Tarinder Sandhu
Products: J&W's Mini-ITX AMD 780G
Companies: J&W Technology (All J&W Technology content)

printer friendly layout discuss this review in the forums

discuss in the forums email this review to a friend

email to a friend

Sample Up-and-coming motherboard manufacturer J&W had an interesting motherboard on show.

Pushed as the ultimate base for a home theater PC, J&W - which happens to be number two with respect to sales in China - had a Mini-ITX AMD 780G board in a svelte chassis.

HEXUS is of the opinion that the 780G chipset provides excellent multimedia support as well as IGP-based DX10 gaming from the HD 3200 core.

Now, shoehorning that all in to a six-layer Mini-ITX board, the J&W MINIX 780G-128M adds in a 128MiB onboard framebuffer (SidePort) for extra performance, delivering around 1,700 marks in 3DMark06.

The chipset/motherboard combination also provides hardware-assisted high-def. decode, Phenom X3 and X4 support, HDMI, DVI, VGA, Gigabit LAN, eSATA and 7.1 audio.

The small-sized board was paired up with an energy-efficient 45W X2 processor and connected to J&W's iPartner Control Center.

We'd look at recommending the setup without reservation if it wasn't for the high price-tag on the motherboard, some $180 retail.

An interesting motherboard with significant power, though.

Click for more COMPUTEX 2008 coverage

HEXUS.community :: your right2reply

Re: Headlines - The world's best HTPC mainboard? Quite possibly

Posted by staffsMike - Thu 5th Jun 2008, 2:05am

Very interesting. Not a bad price either by the looks of it.

With the new silverstone mini-ITX cases and this on the horizon, things are looking up for ITX HTPC's :)Quote

Re: Headlines - The world's best HTPC mainboard? Quite possibly

Posted by Methanoid - Thu 5th Jun 2008, 7:11am

I saw the Headline and thought this might be an Atom chip with Poulsbo chipset!!! That chipset has HD accelerated video and low power consumption and plays 1080P. Much as I rate the 780G its gonna have a short time at the time. GF8200 anyone? About on a par with 780G and available in UK in mini-ITX form for £88.13 inc VATQuote

Re: Headlines - The world's best HTPC mainboard? Quite possibly

Posted by Platinum - Wed 16th Jul 2008, 10:49am

Any idea what case its in, when it comes out I want to get one with that case and a shuttle PSU (Looks like it will take one?)Quote

Re: Headlines - The world's best HTPC mainboard? Quite possibly

Posted by Methanoid - Wed 16th Jul 2008, 7:03pm

ISTR the people who reviewed the GF8200 miniITX mobo said they were getting this one in tooQuote

Marcus Evans conferences
Make sure you attend a conference held by one of the world's leading business information companies!