  In our test lab arrived very interesting motherboard signed by BIOSTAR. Actually it is not just another motherboard, but very interesting one. Its official name is 945GC-330 and it has integrated graphics card, LAN and sound card which isn’t that big deal, but integrated CPU is. This motherboard is based on Intel Atom CPU and it is made in Mini-ITX size (17x17cm or 6.7x6.7inches). This means that you can make a “desktop” configuration based on Atom CPU, but let’s start from the beginning.
Inside the small box we found one SATA and one IDE cable, rear I/O shield, CD with drivers and short manual. Manufacturer stated that Windows 2000, XP, XP64, Vista and Vista x64 are supported which means that Windows 7 will be supported also. First things that struck us were dimensions of this small factor motherboard and amount of aluminum on it. Whole motherboard and all components on it are passively cooled so it is one of the quietest motherboards around.
Layout isn’t perfect, but when you take size of this motherboard into equation you will came to a conclusion that layout is actually very good. One and only power connector on this motherboard is 24-pin ATX power connector that is used to power up all components on motherboard. To the right is positioned aluminum CPU cooler. At the center is placed Intel chipset with Intel GMA950 integrated graphics card also covered by large aluminum cooler. Below north bridge is located south bridge covered with smaller aluminum cooler. Actually all coolers are heat spreaders but fan(s) can be mounted if needed.
To the right are located two SATA II ports, with two additional USB connectors located to the left along with front panel audio connectors. Along right edge are placed one DIMM slot in which can be inserted one DDR2 memory module with maximum capacity of 2GB. Beside it is one IDE connector. Along lower edge one PCI slot is placed alongside to I/O panel pins. BIOSTAR 945GC-330 that we got had Atom 330 CPU on it which is, actually, fastest Atom CPU at this moment. Atom 330 is dual-core CPU that operates at 1600MHz, has 1MB of secondary cache memory and FSB at 533MHz. It also supports Hyper-Threading so additional 2 logical cores can be used also. All in all, very good specifications for a CPU that has TDP of miserable 8W.
For most of the jobs that can cross your mind this motherboard is absolutely enough. You can use it for multimedia, internet browsing, office jobs and all other less CPU or GPU power hungry operations. Of course, lower power consumption comes with territory so configuration with one HDD under full load showed power consumption of 50W. This is very good result since most other desktop configurations consume 100W in idle.
| BIOSTAR 945GC-330 - Specification |
| Dimensions[cm] |
17x17 |
| Memory Slots |
1 x DDR2 (2GB max) |
| CPU |
Intel Atom 330 |
| Chipset |
Intel 945GC
(IGMA 950 GPU) + ICH7 |
| Sound codec |
Realtek ALC662 |
| Storage |
2x SATA II + 1x IDE |
| LAN |
Realtek RTL8102EL
10/100 Mbps |
| Connectors |
1x PCI, 4+2 USB 2.0 |
| Price [EUR] |
~85 |
| BIOSTAR 945GC-330 - Test Results |
| CINEBENCH R10 |
1545 |
| Blender 2.45 |
3' 36,3'' |
| WinRAR 3.7 [KB/s] |
541 |
EVEREST
Read / Write / Copy [MB/s] |
2652 / 2.798 / 2.012 |
EVEREST
Latency [ns] |
99.3 |
| Nuclear MC 2 |
2539 |
| DivX [fps] |
134.77 |
F.E.A.R (640x480, LOW)
min / avg /max [fps] |
9 / 23 / 48 |
Just to make if perfectly clear: this isn’t gaming or rendering
platform, but perfect choice for day-to-day jobs. Also it can be
used for all kind of other purposes such as office configurations,
small web servers, torrent boxes etc. InsideHW Approved award is
absolutely deserved for this maximally integrated motherboard.
Product HomePage
 Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)
|
MotherBoards 
