Posted on Monday, May 05 2008 @ 17:57 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Channel sources
claim the Intel Atom processor will surge demand for mini-ITX cases in June:
In order to make a clear separation between nettop products and traditional entry-level PCs, Intel only allows Atom processors to be used with mini-ITX motherboards, limiting the platform with a lack of PCI Express and only a single DIMM slot for up to 2GB DDR2 memory.
Since demand for mini-ITX motherboards is likely to increase with Intel's push of nettop products, the sources expect mini-ITX motherboard pricing toe a significant drop, as will those for corresponding chassis.
Currently, Asustek Computer and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) are already confirmed to launch nettop products in June, while the sources expect PC vendors including Shuttle, Acer and Dell to enter the market with products too.
