Albatron claims the Albatron KI690-AM2 as the most powerful Mini-ITX in the market

[zekrahminator]

Albatron Technology has recently unveiled the first Mini-ITX Mainboard based on AMD's powerful AM2 socket technology. This small wonder-board goes all out with all of the latest technologies matching AM2 power with versatility and flexibility, making it a top choice as the most powerful Mini-ITX board on the market.

Superior AM2 Socket Technology with Dual Channel DDR II

It's no secret that AMD CPUs enjoy a unique advantage of having on-chip integrated memory controllers, significantly boosting CPU-to-Memory access. AM2 socket technology is AMD's latest socket supporting DDR II, improving on its predecessor 754 socket design supporting the standard DDR technology. In short, AM2 has doubled memory bandwidth.

But it doesn't end there. In addition to DDR II, the KI690-AM2 raises the bar with Dual Channel memory technology, again doubling the memory bandwidth. Along with the two SO-DIMM slots capable of holding a whopping 2 GBs, you've just packed in a lot of memory power into a very small board.

The AM2 socket supports a full range of AMD CPUs including the AthlonTM 64 FX, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 and SempronTM.


Small Form Factor for Tight Fits

The KI690-AM2 is a Mini-ITX board no larger than your outstretched hand. More precisely, it is only 17x17cm and is perfect for small compartments such as for Car PCs, Industrial PCs, POS systems, DIY systems or for a small inconspicuous living room HTPCs (Home Theatre PC).


ATI Radeon Graphics, Gaming and Video

The KI690-AM2 employs the ATI RS690 and SB600 chipsets boasting the most powerful integrated graphics engine on the market according to industry pundits. This means that you can get great small-board gaming performance. The graphics engine is also perfect for the imminent release of Windows® Vista, the first operating system to take advantage of graphics subsystems.


Full Multimedia with HDMI, SPDIF and 8 Channel Audio

The KI690-AM2 also boasts full multimedia connectivity and audio facilities. You can surf and download like mad with Gigabit LAN and hook up directly to High Definition devices with the HDMI connector. This board also comes with the HDTV composite, DSub and DVI connectors.

You needn't worry about connectivity. You can attach all of your multimedia devices using up to two IEEE 1394 ports or using up to eight USB 2.0 ports. This board is fully equipped for rich, high quality audio featuring 7.1 HD Audio Effects (8 channels). In addition, the KI690-AM2 supports audio devices requiring SPDIF connectors.


Download Power

The KI690-AM2 is stocked with 4 SATA II connectors with RAID 0, 1 & 0+1 ensuring speedy 3 Gbit/s disk performance for downloading, uploading, gaming etc. It also has one IDE connector supporting ATA hard disks and CD drives.


KI690-AM2 Fully equipped for Windows Vista and HTPC

The KI690-AM2 is built around AM2 performance and is a perfect fit for HTPC and Windows Vista, featuring full featured audio and graphics facilities. This board is now at the top of the heap of Mini-ITX options and Albatron, is again, out to showcase its expertise in small form factor boards.

Source: Albatron

[ktr]

lol...if you can put a fx62 in it, then it is pretty powerful.

but being powerful means being power hungry...

they do make skt 479 with the support for mobile core 2 duo's...

[Completely Bonkers]

... and power hungry means HOT. Not ideal for mini-ITX.

I've got a Dothan mini-ITX box... but a core 2 duo would be nice

[XooM]

Sorry albatron, but the mini-itx that does C2D (mobiles) definitely wins

not that i dont applaud albatron's mini-itx endeavors, between this and the socket 754 one...

[Ketxxx]

A bold statement. Its not truely powerful though until you can slap a decent graphics card in it, then u got the ultimate mini PC.

[ktr]

There are pci-e mini-itx boards, but i can imagine where the card is gonna be longer that the board...lol.

[Ketxxx]

By decent I was talking like a 7900GS or 7600GT no way u can realistically fit a top end card in a mobo of that size given the size case itll be in, top end cards would just cause everything to overheat and melt

[Completely Bonkers]

That boards for a PCI slot. And that it. Best you can do with this is a PCI ATI 9250 or a PCI nVidia Quadro.

= desktop use only. No DirectX9 or OpenGL gaming at any practical speed.

[Kasparz]

Originally Posted by Completely Bonkers

That boards for a PCI slot. And that it. Best you can do with this is a PCI ATI 9250 or a PCI nVidia Quadro.

= desktop use only. No DirectX9 or OpenGL gaming at any practical speed.

There is ATI RS690. Its more than enough to play most games on 1024x768 without AA. And there is x1300 on PCI, but its still on par with ATI RS690, so no need to buy additional card. Its mini-ITX after all.

[WarEagleAU]

Wait.....this used Notebook memory?