Published: Friday 5th June, 2009 | Author: Parm Mann
Companies: Sparkle (All Sparkle content)
printer friendly layout 
discuss in the forums 
email to a friendWe were expecting little other than uniquely-designed graphics cards at Sparkle's booth this year, but we've been surprised by an interesting and uniquely-designed HTPC.
It's called the CUTI n30, and although described by Sparkle as a tiny PC or nettop, we're calling it a HTPC as it appears to have many of the right ingredients.
The first ingredient - the PC itself - is tiny in size and is based on NVIDIA's ION platform - that's a combination of an Intel Atom processor (a dual-core Atom N330 in this case) and a GeForce 9400M IGP. Sparkle's pairing that combo with up to 4GB of DDR2 memory and up to 500GB of 2.5in storage. There's also a multi-card reader, two USB ports and audio ports adorning the unit's front face.
We had to disassemble Sparkle's display to get a look around the book, but once we got there we found HDMI and DVI outputs, along with 7.1 HD audio via SPDIF, Gigabit Ethernet and an additional four USB ports.
So far so good, but it gets better. In addition to the PC, Sparkle's hoping to launch other stackable components to create the complete setup. Right now, it's looking like a three-piece solution:
The top-most box contains a TV tuner that connects to the PC via a single USB cable. At the bottom, there's another box that provides hot-swappable access to a 3.5in disk. It's again connected via USB and provides a useful means of expanding storage - an essential component of any HTPC.
The CUTI N30's a little different, and we like what we've seen so far - including an in-house designed software suite aimed at HTPC use - but there's no word on pricing or availability yet.
Copyright © 1998 - 2009, HEXUS.net. All rights reserved. Terms, conditions and privacy information.
HEXUS® is a registered trademark of HEXUS Limited.
Which OS launch are you more excited by?
IE7 Search
Firefox 2 Search
HEXUS.community :: your right2reply
I don't see the point in the top box at all. Although, if it were to have two tuners and and a CI slot that would be different though.
I'd vote for a bluray drive, too... no mention of optical storage in the article, so I assume it's just *not there*...Quote
There's the opportunity to be unique - all of the technology exists for the above... and they've gone and shown off a lego set with a tiny circuit board inside.
That said, the PC itself looks decent.Quote
Reply