Last week, I wrote about low cost ASRock Braswell motherboards with pricing starting at just under $60. But there were mainly two complaints about these boards: performance was about the same as similarly priced Bay Trail processors, and the requirements for a large – and relatively expensive – ATX power supply. There’s not much that can be done to improve performance, but ASRock also has launched N3150DC-ITX motherboard powered by a 19V DC adapter.
ASRock N3150DC-ITX motherboard specifications:
- SoC – Intel Celeron N3150 quad core processor @ up to 2.08 GHz with Intel HD Graphics Gen8 @ up to 640 MHz – 6W TDP
- System Memory – 2x 240-pin DDR3/DDR3L 1600/1066 for up to 16GB RAM
- Storage – 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
- Audio Codec – Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec, 7.1 CH HD Audio
- Expansion – 1x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slot, 1x half size Mini PCI Express slot
- Rear panel ports
- 1x PS/2 Mouse Port; 1x PS/2 Keyboard Port
- Video Output
- 1x DVi-D port
- 1x HDMI port
- 1x DisplayPort 1.1a
- USB – 2 x USB 2.0 Ports; 4 x USB 3.0 Ports
- Audio – HD Audio Jacks: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone.
- Connectivity – 1x Gigabit Ethernet (Realtek 8111GR)
- Internal Connectors
- USB – 2 x USB 2.0 headers (Supports 4x USB 2.0 ports) ; 1x USB 3.0 header
- 1x COM Port header
- 1x Print port header
- 1x TPM header
- 1x Chassis Intrusion header
- 1x CPU Fan connector (3-pin)
- 1x Chassis Fan connector (3-pin)
- 2x SATA power connectors
- 1x Front Panel Audio connector
- 1x SPDIF out connector
- Power Supply – DC Barrel for 19V DC in. 90W power supply recommended if 4 hard drives are connected.
- Dimensions – Mini-ITX form factor
The mini-ITX board also have some extra features such as 4 SATA ports instead of 2 SATA port for the ATX versions, more video output ports, 6 jacks for audio, although it loses the external COM and LPT port.
I could not find pricing information yet, but it’s likely to have a similar price to the quad core ATX version (about $70), or a few dollars more. Phoronix has also started to publish some Linux benchmark results for the dual core processor (N3050) using an Intel NUC. You may also want to check out the user’s manual for further details.
Via Fanlesstech
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Free bundle: 65W DC-in 19V 3.42A Power Adapter
why did this kind of CPU not support vt-d? If yes, it will be a good choice for low power consumption micro-server.
Probably because it can be a good choice for low power consumption micro-server without vt-d (or not, but that depends on other things than vt-d).
how you power up the hdd’s? O.O
will there be linux support with legacy bios or is this uefi only?
@Demetris
with the 2 x SATA Power connectors (SATA_PWR1 & 2) on mini-itx board.
The USA’s box should contains 2 x SATA Power Cables, 2 x SATA Data Cables and 65W Brick Power Adapter.
The 19V power connector is nice but it makes less sense without adding a rechargeable battery connector to power the computer when the mains is absent , It would be great .
BTW, Is the CPU included ? or sold seperately like old style motherboard ?
@Abdullbasit
It is on board beneath the heat sink.
@Fan
This “kind of CPU” is not a server CPU. While Broadwell-based Celerons (as opposed to Haswell-based Celerons) do support VT-d, they still lack support for ECC memory modules, I believe.
I’m kinda glad they’ve got rid of most of the legacy prots (LTP/Serial) but in this day any age there’s no need for all those analog sound jacks. It’d be much better if they got rid of them and just stuck an s/pdif port of one sort or another on there instead.
Ps/2 seems really outdated too. I know the argument for it is embedded industrial applications, but really this kind of board would be great for a HTPC if only if was a little lower profile.
Hi @The Cageybee
Just unsolder the stuff you dont need.
@jibril thanks for that answer
@dx2 LOL You do realise that this is probably a six layer board. It’s not like wielding your soldering iron on your Arduino. Start unsoldering things of this kind of board and you’re asking for trouble.
@Abdullbasit A quick check at the Intel ARK db would have told you that the N3150 is a BGA chip and therefore is soldered in place.
Also, I doubt a battery would last very long with this mobo, hence why there’s no battery connection. You could probably hook up a 12V car battery with a buck/boost if you felt like it. Point is, a board like this is going to need considerably more current than your average ARM board.
@The Cageybee
At least the PS/2 , Audio Connectors shouldnt make trouble, imo.
@The Cageybee
7.1 analog audio is great, buy a cheap 8ch class-d amplifier and you can decode anything you want without an avr
Price in the Netherlands: 132 euro … 🙁
And this tweet https://twitter.com/PCDIYFreeT/status/624401837706194944 says￥19,410, so 142 Euro. So +70 Euro for the DC power solution? 🙁
It’s now also on Amazon US for $134 @ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013CT9HLI/
In Europe for about 120 Euros including VAT
http://maxict.nl/product/5439031/asrock-mb-asrock-n3150dc-itx-intel-n3150-cpu-m-itx-dvi-dp-hdmi-ddr3-retail
http://www.hardwareversand.de/SO-DIMM+DDR3/247428/ASRock+N3150DC-ITX.article
The price for the ATX version has gone up a bit to $87 http://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Mini-DDR3-Motherboard-N3150-ITX/dp/B00YF9T1SY
But that’s still $47 difference between AC and ATX power, a few more SATA ports, and other extra.
@Demetris
From the manual: When you use the DC-in power adapter, please use the onboard SATA power connector to get the power for HDDs. There are two such connectors on the Mobo.