Tuesday 10 March 2015

NES-top Computer: Part 2

Hey guys SighFye here.

I was going to wait until the NES actually came in the mail before I blogged again, but I have done a lot of research on motherboards that I want to share.

If you haven't read about my plans with the NES yet then read about it by clicking here.

When I first started looking at motherboards I knew two things. 1) It needs to be small, 2) it doesn't need to be powerful. Its only running old emulators so there's no need to over do it. I knew a few things I did want. First I wanted it packaged with a CPU and I didn't want integrated graphics that required a CPU with integrated graphic abilities. So here's the motherboards I looked at and the pros and cons I found.

ZOTAC IONITX-P-E Intel Celeron SU2300 (1.2 GHz dual-core) NVIDIA ION Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo


This motherboard stood out to me because of the NVidia ION which I read was a decent upgrade from integrated graphics. I also liked that it came complete with WIFI and could take a max of 8GB of RAM. Not that I would ever need anything like that. The CPU is only a 1.2GHz processor which made me not 100% happy with this board.

 

ASRock Q1900-ITX Intel Celeron J1900 Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo

 
This motherboard comes complete with the Intel Celeron J1900 CPU 1.99Ghz CPU.  So this has a lot better CPU capabilities than the ZOTAC IONITX-P-E. The graphics are only Intel HD so the graphic power is not as good. This worried me a little as I wasn't too sure if this was enough to run emulators and FULL HD 1080p blu-ray. After further research I found this graphic would be more than sufficient but by then I had moved away from this motherboard.

ASUS AT5IONT-I Intel Atom D525 (1.8GHz, dual-core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo


This motherboard I loved from the moment I saw it. I mean LOOK AT IT!! That cooling system is awesome. The ASUS AT5IONT-I CPU is the Intel Atom D525 1.8Ghz. Its a small decrease on the
Intel Celeron SU2300 in the Q1900 but the graphics in this motherboard is the Next Generation NVidia ION. NVidia boasts that this graphics gives 10 times the performance of integrated graphics and has the ability to play modern games like World of Warcraft and Spore. The downside to this motherboard is it can only have a max of 4GB of RAM. But in all fairness, why would I need more.

 THIS IS THE MOTHERBOARD I HAVE SELECTED.... was what I said until...

 A friend of mine introduced me to a controller operated menu system called Hyperspin. Basically it give one place for all of your emulators to run and the roms too. You select the emulator and then select the game. It doesn't come with emulators or roms but thats not really a problem.

Without a doubt THIS is what I want to use. I looked at the requirements for this and it is recommended to use 2GHz and 2GB of RAM. So now my ASUS AT5IONT-I is not good enough. I also found that it overheats so I was starting to lean away from it anyway with the lack of airflow in the NES. I did learn something new when looking at all of this. Emulators up to the Nintendo 64 & PS1 are CPU intensive not GPU. So now all I need the GPU to do is be able to play FULL HD 1080p Blu-Ray. A little more research brought me to this little baby.

ASRock Q2900-ITX Intel Pentium J2900 2.41 GHz Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo

This motherboard is host to the Intel Pentium J2900 Quad Core 2.41GHz processor. This motherboard only has intel HD graphics which is the same as the first one but it does have HDMI which supports FULL HD 1080p blu-ray playback. So thats the Blu-Ray playback sorted. With a max of 16GB of RAM I have more than enough RAM support and 2.42GHz is more than enough CPU power. With added extras like 7.1 HD audio, 2x Sata2 and 2x Sata3 and full spike protection from surges, lightning and ESD, I feel I have now found my motherboard. It also only take 37watts of power so I should get away with a picoPSU. The only downside I could see was the lack of wifi support but I can always get a USB wifi adapter and all is good and fix.

So that's it guys, if you have any input that would better my choice then please comment below.

Until next time... Geek it up!

SighFye

Read the next part in the NES-top development. Click Here
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5 comments:

  1. OzRavenheart10 March 2015 at 17:22

    You can get breakout cables for the internal usb headers, so if you need to include a wifi dongle, you could use one of those to make it hidden inside the case.

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    Replies
    1. SighFye10 March 2015 at 18:33

      I like that. I would prefer it hidden. Although in the back is still hidden. I will add a bluetooth adapter too for the controllers.

      Delete
  2. John W Jarrett10 March 2015 at 22:37

    Ever thought about getting some old controllers for this system and mod them to be USB hubs/Wifi adapter and just have them sitting near by when the unit is running and using wireless keyboards, mice and controllers if you need them?

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    Replies
    1. SighFye11 March 2015 at 05:14

      Oh I like, kind of just sit them there on top of the NES.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous11 August 2015 at 13:04

    You made the right call on avoiding the AT5IONT-I if you wanted to use HyperSpin. It's a decent board (purchased a few years ago), but the CPU could use more juice, and the unit does get really warm in an NES case. HyperSpin loads, but you need to disable several of the effects to make it responsive enough.

    One little note on it - it does support 8GB after a BIOS update.

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