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The optical drive and hard drive are attached to the top part of the chassis and it ‘folds out' to reveal the motherboard and other components.
This ASRock HM55-MXM motherboard is created for high end multimedia demands. The layout of the PCB offers a spare Sata 3.0GB/s port with a mini PCI Express port which is populated with an Atheros AR9287 wireless network adapter. The hard drive is a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 SATA which is supplied unformatted.
The Gigabit Ethernet adapter is a Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI E model. Next to this is an NEC uPD720200 USB 3.0 controller to offer fast connectivity for backups and streaming. This board only supports 1.5 volt DDR3 SoDIMM memory and can take a total of 8GB of ram. Asrock install two Kingston branded SSZ3128M8-EDJ1D dual-channel 2GB DDR3-1333 (667MHz) SoDIMM modules.
The Intel Core i3 370M is equipped with 3MB of Intel Smart Cache memory via a 32nm process which includes Intel's 64 bit instruction set. The i3 370M is a 35 Watt TDP processor. The ASRock system utilises a low profile heatpipe design which cools both CPU and GPU.
The nVidia Geforce GT 425M has 96 unified shaders and 1GB of GDDR3 connected to a 128bit bus. This discrete solution delivers 25.6 GB/s of bandwidth and offers 16 ROPS and 96 unified shaders. It is no powerhouse but it should be more than capable of gaming with the eye candy lowered.
Damn, thats a mega detailed review Zardon. that system looks great. very mac mini like though? no ?
Lordy, I used to think ASROCK were a mickey mouse motherboard maker, but their recent range of products is fucking good.
690 seems good, but by the time you get a monitor, OS and keyboard/mouse etc. its well over a grand.
Hey, its like a Mac Mini, but a powerful one worth buying. awesome job ASRock. never thought id say ‘mac mini’ and ‘worth buying’ in the same sentence.
Shame they didnt include a 128GB SSD, even if it cost 100 quid more. those drives really kill systems like this.
How did you get inside, the button at the back? thats cool, but does it all just lift out? are is it bolted in.
Brilliant, love it. someone said earlier it looks like a mac mini and damn its almost a copyright infringement ! This is a good job, gets a bit hot though doesnt it ?
We can get no ASrock components here, which sucks 🙁 they need better distribution.
by far the best review of this product on the net. awesome product too.
I think the black version looks nicer than the silver. thats too apple aluminum for me im afraid.
Review is a little indepth for me, but I picked out the bits I wanted, and im well impressed.
ASRock are making a name for themselves recently. Still got a long way to go before id buy one of their motherboards, but they seem to have this media market sector wrapped up.
If you can, please test the GeForce 425M with HQV HD v 2.0.
Thanks
Sata+power cables are provided for a second HDD, to be mounted under 1st HDD it seems.
Could you confirm it’s possible and temperature stay safe (2nd HDD will probably be very close to GPU heatpipe after assembly).
No review have clarified/tested this point so far… and for a HTPC, 2.5″ HDD capacity remains a problem, especially for one dedicated to HD contents…
So, if a 2nd HDD is impossible that’s a deal breaker for me…