ECS Shows Atom Mobo With PCI-e x16 Slot
During Computex, Elitegroup Computer Systems showcased an Atom motherboard featuring a x16 PCI Express slot.
We know all too well what we get when we pair an Intel Atom CPU with subpar integrated graphics – basically what we have on the majority of netbooks and nettops today – a modest system that’s able to perform light desktop duties but nothing multimedia-heavy.
Nvidia’s also shown us what’s possible when you add some GPU muscle, as we’ve seen with the Ion, which allows Atom-based systems to join into 3D gaming and 1080p video playback.
While we’re seeing Nvidia Ion-based motherboards at Computex, Elitegroup has on display something a little more interesting for those looking to add more than just a GeForce 9400M to their Atoms.
On Hexus are pictures of the ECS 945GCD-M, which as the name suggests, runs on the Intel G945CG + ICH7 with an integrated dual-core Atom N330. It’s all pretty plain until you spy the PCIe x16 slot ready for your GPU upgrading pleasure, giving it graphical possibilities beyond the Nvidia Ion.

Exactly. This is just stupid.
A sick graphics card? No, just a decent one is needed.
This is not designed to run games in high-res.
I'd love to have one such board, for HTPC. The ION is not doing so great in HD, and with this board you've got your options for a GPU accelerated HD playback.
And another thing, other sites say that this board uses a single-core Atom, go google it.
My 2.8GHz dual core Pentium D bottlenecks a ATI 4670 massively... what the hell would the Atom be like?
Good idea and all, but the Atom is still a piece of junky old tech. Selling people slower computers is not innovation even if it is more efficient.
I honestly don't see why nettops/netbooks even cost so much in the first place. At the same price, I'd rather buy an old but superior laptop. It's worse than a 5 year old laptop in my house.
Ha. ha. ha...
NEXT SBM PLZ!
With a raid card in the pcie slot, this board would be perfect for a low power NAS/torrent box that can double as a net top.
Perhaps it would be interesting to see how the Atom DC performs with an ATI Radeon 4650 or so.
There are a few drawbacks, and that is that the pcie16x controller uses more energy than the intel GMA 940something chipset.
Also the price of such a setting is not really seen as 'price efficient' anymore.
The Atom DC actually performs like a 2Ghz processor for multi threaded applications, in which case a Radeon 3400/3600 or 4350 series will be probably overkill.
But seeing the price of the Radeon 4600 series one can hardly complain about it, and their power efficiency is pretty good too.
The DualCore Atom may have been a failure, primarily due to the chipset that intel ships with it. But if it had a 40nm chipset, and even faster memory controller, it could very easily break through the title of 'only HDTV capable setup'.
It's THE processor that should have been introduced when XP was introduced!
Depends on what videocard you plug into it. A modern ATI card does all the decoding as well.
These days gaming really depends on the graphics card. Sure a processor is important too, but a single core Atom uses 553Mhz RAM speeds, and the DC atom 667Mhz ramspeed. That's pretty ok! Then add, that the DC Atom actually uses 4 threads in Windows. So it's performance in multi threadded applications will outpace most 2Ghz single core/thread Pentium D's.
Pitty its ECS - dont trust that one bit for any important use....
And isnt this going against all specs Intel gave out (limits on the atom's use) ? I thought it was 1 ram slot max + onboard video (no pcie video slot - 16x)???
Yes, its a poor performer than same chipset motherboards from other manufacturers, but so far they are very reliable, considering they are cheap.