One solution to this issue in the past was to sell processors from prior generations at a lower price. Unfortunately, processors that cost less than the price they take to make are not a winning solution. Companies like VIA and AMD have sold low-cost CPUs and systems with low-power CPUs for years successfully. Early last year Intel launched their Atom processors that used low-power, low-cost processors for things like Netbooks (small notebook computers used for the internet), small Home Theater PCs (HTPCs), and more. Intel used the Atom initially with their 945GM chipset but the graphics capabilities of that chipset had issues playing back Blu-ray movies or doing much more than surfing the Net. NVIDIA decided to support the new CPU with a new chipset using their much more powerful GF9300 graphics chipset. Thus was born the NVIDIA ION. Zotac is a manufacturer of motherboards and video cards based upon NVIDIA chipsets and today I’m reviewing the first ION motherboard, the IONITX-A-U from ZOTAC.



Link: Motherboards.org