Jetway ND85-E350-LF
While Jetway’s mini-ITX sample isn’t designed specifically for power-conscious enthusiasts, this industrial PC part follows the same mini-ITX standard as competitors. The IPC segment actually requires VGA output, so we’ll reserve our criticism of that feature on this product.
Surprisingly, the NC85-E350-LF also includes an HTPC-friendly HDMI output, along with DVI. We’ve never seen IPC equipment use HDMI, though the thinner cable would certainly be helpful in tight spaces.
Commercial equipment is expected to survive under hot conditions, so Jetway’s use of a cooling fan is expected. This is the first of several boards in today’s review to use SO-DIMM notebook memory rather than desktop DIMMs, and the only part to provide traditional PCI rather than PCIe for the primary card slot.
While the NC85-E350-LF is designed to support up to two mini PCIe cards, only one of the slot connectors is provided on this sample. Some of its more-expensive competitors fill this slot with a wireless card, but Jetway leaves it open for the builder to choose his parts. A single screw secures half-length cards, and can also be moved to the full-length stud.
A single SATA cable is not adequate for most builds, though ITX cases that use notebook optical drives require a special adapter cable anyway. And considering this board's industrial aim, Jetway throws in a breakout cable for the internal serial port header that’s also present on most of today’s consumer-oriented products.
ND85-E350-LF Tuning
Jetway surprised us with a 2.1% default overclock, which is odd since IPC-oriented products typically place stability over performance. The clock actually fluctuates at idle and stabilizes at 1.4% over its spec when the platform is being benchmarked.
Note that GPU-Z reports a 533 MHz memory clock, which is appropriate for the DDR3-1066 memory AMD actually specifies for this platform. Again, industrial PC designs favor stability over performance.
Given the focus on long-term reliability, we were a little surprised to see manual memory voltage available that’s usually only needed for so-called performance modules. This setting can, however, be used to stabilize standard memory that’s fallen slightly out-of-spec, and a technician might be tempted to try adjusting memory voltage rather than change out a dodgy module.
Even more surprising is the DDR3-1333 memory setting. It didn’t work, and choosing it made the platform unbootable, even when combined with increased DIMM voltage.
