Are any Celeron 1037U Motherboards actually available?

[cbn]

Up to 71 now for the BIOSTAR NM70I-847! I think 7 was the lowest stock quantity I saw before you noticed the jump... but this makes it look like the decreasing numbers before were "artificial". Might be a while before the 1037U Biostars show up. :\

I am surprised we are not seeing more sales right now at Newegg for "Embedded solutions". (Considering Celeron 1037U, Bay Trail, AMD Kabini are all waiting in the wings)

Just to give an example, I remember prior to the release of the Z87 boards there were lots and lots of Z77 boards being offered with free 8GB RAM kits.

Not sure what is going on? Maybe there is still too much uptake of 1037U in mobile for Intel to release the chip at affordable enough prices for desktop?

EDIT: Could it also be that maybe Biostar is still buying Celeron 847s?

 

[nagi603]

I'm pretty sure CPU-Z does live monitoring. As I sit here, looking at my Celeron 847 running a background virus scan and doing its other (light) assigned duties, CPU-Z is bouncing around between 800 and 1100 MHz, with core voltages between 0.74v and 1.08v.

Ah, you are right. It was ages since I last used CPU-Z.

It appears my 1037U is jumping between 798.1Mhz / 0.768V (x8) on idle and 1795.71Mhz/ 0.792V (x18), with a bit weird bus speed of 99.76Mhz. There are some intermediate power states as well, 9x, 11x, 13x, 15x and 17x I saw, but the CPU doesn't stay too much in those.

It's weird it only need so little more voltage to reach max multiplier....or from the other way around, that it reduces the voltage so little from max to idle. Either way, I wish I could manually set the power states as I can with K10Stat on my AMD machines.

 

[z28dreams]

Just wanted to add that I was researching some benchmarks, and it seems the 1037u (ivy bridge) outperforms both of the new haswell versions of the chip - the 2955u (1.4ghz) and 2980u (1.8ghz).

With only 2 watts TDP difference, maybe it makes sense to just stick with the 1037u? (Then again, idle wattage for haswell might be a lot better).

I looked up the Plex requirements for transcoding 1080p, and they said a c2d 2.4ghz. The E6600, a chip that meets those specs, is right about on par with the 1037u, and actually a bit faster than the 2955u. (can't find benchmarks on the 2980u yet).

I'm also curious how the new bay trail stuff will hold up. From the anandtech benchmarks it seems like the bay trail will have very good multithreaded performance (perhaps even better than the 1037u), but much worse single threaded performance (by maybe -50%).

I'm just trying to find the absolute cheapest solution for an HTPC with low power. Don't really want to go G3220/i3 if I don't have to.

For an HTPC, do you think single threaded or multithreaded performance matters more? I assume Plex with FFmpeg can utilize multiple cores/threads?

 

[nForce2]

EDIT: Could it also be that maybe Biostar is still buying Celeron 847s?

I have a suspicion that Biostar might have overestimated the market and produced way too many 847 boards... to the point where they couldn't sell them fast enough before the next generation came out. With a socketed motherboard, the shelf life is quite a bit longer. But when the CPU is soldered on, they become dated and harder to sell much more quickly. :\

 

[cbn]

Another review of the Biostar NM70I-1037U:

http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/article/1000518/BIOSTAR-NM70I-1037U-Motherboard-Review

Too bad they didn't list the power supply used.

Just looking back at that earlier review of Biostar NM70I-1037U (with 23 watt idle) a Enermax 750W Platimax was listed---> http://translate.googleusercontent....rana-9&usg=ALkJrhjIiormEGMEOgZmjhiaXFlLV8VatA

 

[cbn]

I have a suspicion that Biostar might have overestimated the market and produced way too many 847 boards... to the point where they couldn't sell them fast enough before the next generation came out. With a socketed motherboard, the shelf life is quite a bit longer. But when the CPU is soldered on, they become dated and harder to sell much more quickly. :\

Yep, that could be true. I also wonder if they might have initially been price too high also.

I remember earlier this year (maybe May or June) the Biostar Celeron 847 was consistently priced at $89.99 at Newegg. (NOTE: the board was being offered with a free 8GB memory at the same $89.99 price in late June which was just an awesome deal!--->http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35187076&postcount=29, but they still had inventory left afterward.)

In contrast, In late May the the GIGABYTE GA-C847N-D was being sold for $49.99 after $20 rebate, with free shipping--->http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35066354&postcount=6 . (As I recall these basically sold out around that time also, but I could be mistaken.)

So for whatever reason Gigabyte decided to (or was able to) clear out Celeron 847 inventory sooner. Gigabyte was also able to launch an Ivy Bridge Celeron board (the 1007U) sooner than anyone else. (Meanwhile, we are still waiting for the Gigabyte 1037U)

 

[cbn]

Looking back on the CPU forum history, the Gigabyte 1007U motherboard was mentioned as being on sale at Newegg June 25th 2013:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35185112&postcount=9

So it looks like Gigabyte's transition from Celeron 847 to 1007U at Newegg happened in June 2013.

 

[nForce2]

It's weird it only need so little more voltage to reach max multiplier....or from the other way around, that it reduces the voltage so little from max to idle. Either way, I wish I could manually set the power states as I can with K10Stat on my AMD machines.

With only 2 watts TDP difference, maybe it makes sense to just stick with the 1037u? (Then again, idle wattage for haswell might be a lot better).

I think both of these point to the same issue- that for some reason, the current crop of 1037U systems seem to be rather poor at power management.

The Biostar NM70I-1037U system that Madshrimps built idled at 19.17W, and the system tested by PCAXE idled at 23W and even used 20.3W in the sleep state! D: 86waterpumper's Foxconn D70S-P system came in at 28.8W idle.

Maybe these are all just from low-efficiency or oversized power supplies, or the other PC components (HDs, etc.). Or maybe there are BIOS or chipset issues. But in general, they seem to be a long ways off of the theoretical targets, and definitely not to the point where you would be debating switching CPUs to save 2 watts.

As a comparison point, Hardware.Info tested the Gigabyte BRIX GB-XM14-1037, and that system idled at just 10.1 watts. So the ultra-low power idle *IS* possible. I suspect Gigabyte really put some effort into power management on the BRIX, since the tiny BRIX needs all the thermal headroom it can get.

I'm also curious how the new bay trail stuff will hold up.

I am too. But given how long it has taken these 1037U systems to hit the market, it could be a while before the next generation hits the shelves.

 

[nForce2]

Another new 1037U system, the "Zoostorm Mini Desktop PC".

£155.52 (~$250 USD), and it looks like the case is provisioned for a thin optical drive. It also looks like a thin-style motherboard, so there should be room for internal HDDs/SSDs as well. It's sort of hard to tell much beyond that, because the specs on the website are not completely correct. (1x PCI-e x16 slot AND 2x PCI-e x1 slots??)

http://www.ebuyer.com/570083-zoostorm-mini-desktop-pc-7873-1207

 

[cbn]

The MSI Wind box DC111

http://www.msi.com/product/desktop/Wind-Box-DC111.html

1037U
500GB 2.5" HDD
4GB SO-DIMM (2nd slot not available)
802.11 b/g/n

Front I/O:
3-1 card reader (SD, MS, MMC)
usb 2.0 x 4
headphone out/mic-in

Rear I/O:
VGA
HDMI
Usb 3.0 x 2
Ethernet port
Line-out
S/PDIF

Price: Who knows? I do see some listings on Ebay for MSI Wind Box DC 110 (Celeron 847 version of DC111) without OS starting around $400 shipped.

P.S. I could not find any internal shots of the DC111, but here is one of the DC110:

FWIW, looking at the DC110 review at us.hardware.info ---> http://us.hardware.info/reviews/447...0-mini-pc-review-energy-consumption-and-noise (The celeron 847 DC110 had an idle power consumption of 21.5 watts)

 

[nForce2]

The MSI Wind box DC111

http://www.msi.com/product/desktop/Wind-Box-DC111.html

Good find! Seems to be well-featured for the size.

I found a few of them (the 1037U version) for sale on eBay Germany:
www.ebay.de/itm/261334312442

EUR 244,95 (~$329 USD)

 

[nagi603]

I think both of these point to the same issue- that for some reason, the current crop of 1037U systems seem to be rather poor at power management.
[...]
As a comparison point, Hardware.Info tested the Gigabyte BRIX GB-XM14-1037, and that system idled at just 10.1 watts. So the ultra-low power idle *IS* possible. I suspect Gigabyte really put some effort into power management on the BRIX, since the tiny BRIX needs all the thermal headroom it can get.

Hmm, I wish we could get the operating voltages from one of them. Just so we have some data about what it takes to have that kind of efficiency.

 

[cbn]

I'm also curious how the new bay trail stuff will hold up.

I am too. But given how long it has taken these 1037U systems to hit the market, it could be a while before the next generation hits the shelves.

Well, Bay Trail Mini-ITX is finally on the ECS website--->http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...yID=1&TypeID=46&MenuID=17&childid=M_7&LanID=0

So far just the J1800 specs are listed----> http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...goryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=17&LanID=0

Passive heatsink
One SO-DIMM slot
Two SATA 3 Gbps
Four usb 2.0 (plus usb 2.0 header)
One usb 3.0
Mini-PCI-E x1
PCI-E x1

(J1900 and J2900 links say "Coming soon!")

 

[cbn]

Newegg is finally carrying the ECS NM70-TI (V1.0A) (Celeron 847/807 thin mini itx board):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135368

($86.99 with free shipping).

I wonder how long till we see the Celeron 1037U version pop up?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

It appears my 1037U is jumping between 798.1Mhz / 0.768V (x8) on idle and 1795.71Mhz/ 0.792V (x18), with a bit weird bus speed of 99.76Mhz. There are some intermediate power states as well, 9x, 11x, 13x, 15x and 17x I saw, but the CPU doesn't stay too much in those.

The "wierd" base clock of 99.76MHz is normal behaviour if BCLK spread spectrum is enabled. Its often not possible to change this setting on non-enthusiast board.

 

[Raduque]

also, last day to buy that Toshiba 15.6" 1037U laptop + Skullcandy headphones combo for $230

I picked up one of these last week, sadly missed out on the Skullcandy headphones deal. I really like this laptop though, it's only short-coming is the low resolution screen. It has a 4200mAh removable battery, DVD writer, 104-key keyboard, the HDD is removable, and it even has two SODIMM slots (1 free)! It's a great bargain. It's even ultra light.

The performance of this little machine really has me eyeing these 1037u boards as possible HTPC replacements - with HDMI, PCI-E tuner/capture cards, two SATA HDDs, and those neat little power bricks, they would make great tiny, low-power MCE machines.

 

[Zap]

I picked up one of these last week

Me too, but a better deal (IMO) is going on right now at Staples. Basically the "same" notebook for $25 more, but with a Core i3 with HD 4000 graphics, and USB 3.0.

 

[z28dreams]

Not super low power like the 1037u, but this black friday fry's is doing the G3220 + a cheap H81 motherboard for $55.

http://www.frysblackfriday.com/2013-ad-scans/#1

Anyone know how efficient the G3220 is at idle?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Not super low power like the 1037u, but this black friday fry's is doing the G3220 + a cheap H81 motherboard for $55.

http://www.frysblackfriday.com/2013-ad-scans/#1

Anyone know how efficient the G3220 is at idle?

Can you have that shipped, or is it instore pickup only?

 

[z28dreams]

Can you have that shipped, or is it instore pickup only?

They aren't disclosing that until tomorrow morning. Apparently some items will be able to be shipped, but others will be pickup only. Cross your fingers for shipping on this one!

 

[Namisecond]

I hate to break it to you, but you're not going to find that combination in a 1037U system. If you could, there would be a LOT more activity in this thread.

4K video on a low-power 1037U is going to need a more powerful dedicated graphics card, which would shoot your budget AND rip right past your power target.

USB 3.0 is also problematic, as only one 1037U motherboard in the US is currently available with it. At $180, that motherboard (the Giada) wouldn't meet requirement #1, and even if it did, you would find far more powerful and cost effective options with a motherboard with a socketed CPU.


That being said, if you do find something that meets those requirements, please let us know. :thumbsup:

The lack of USB 3.0 is due to it not being supported natively by the NM70 chipset. The HM70 chipset does support it as shown by the Asus C8HM70-I.

Another weakness of the NM70 chipset is the PCIE slots only have half the lanes. The x16 slot will only have 8 lanes. It's not such an important issue if you are using it for a discrete graphics card, but if you are using an x4 or x2 networking or controller card, you should keep that in mind and plan accordingly.

Also, there is a cheaper version of the Giada N70E available on E-ITX.com for $140, using the celeron 1007u. I can post a quick review with pics when I get it if anyone wants.

http://www.e-itx.com/n70e-dr.html

 

[Namisecond]

I am surprised we are not seeing more sales right now at Newegg for "Embedded solutions". (Considering Celeron 1037U, Bay Trail, AMD Kabini are all waiting in the wings)

Just to give an example, I remember prior to the release of the Z87 boards there were lots and lots of Z77 boards being offered with free 8GB RAM kits.

Not sure what is going on? Maybe there is still too much uptake of 1037U in mobile for Intel to release the chip at affordable enough prices for desktop?

EDIT: Could it also be that maybe Biostar is still buying Celeron 847s?

I think a lot of manufacturers are tightening belts and cutting out fringe products from their lines due to the PC downturn. We may not see many bay trail and Kabini boards.

The ECS NM70-I2 is a good replacement for the Biostar board at a lower price (initially). I'd say to get the ECS board instead of waiting for the Biostar board.

 

[Namisecond]

I think both of these point to the same issue- that for some reason, the current crop of 1037U systems seem to be rather poor at power management.

The Biostar NM70I-1037U system that Madshrimps built idled at 19.17W, and the system tested by PCAXE idled at 23W and even used 20.3W in the sleep state! D: 86waterpumper's Foxconn D70S-P system came in at 28.8W idle.

Maybe these are all just from low-efficiency or oversized power supplies, or the other PC components (HDs, etc.). Or maybe there are BIOS or chipset issues. But in general, they seem to be a long ways off of the theoretical targets, and definitely not to the point where you would be debating switching CPUs to save 2 watts.

As a comparison point, Hardware.Info tested the Gigabyte BRIX GB-XM14-1037, and that system idled at just 10.1 watts. So the ultra-low power idle *IS* possible. I suspect Gigabyte really put some effort into power management on the BRIX, since the tiny BRIX needs all the thermal headroom it can get.




I am too. But given how long it has taken these 1037U systems to hit the market, it could be a while before the next generation hits the shelves.

They probably tested with large PSUs meant for full sized computers which aren't very efficient at low power draw.

My ECS NM70-I2 idles at a little over 15W (with desktop SSD and 2x2GB memory) I use a Norco ITX7 case with it's built-in 60W DC-DC power board.

My Acer Veriton N2620G with a celeron 887, msata SSD, 2x2GB laptop memory idles at about 11W (I don't know what the power supply specs are)

 

[86waterpumper]

Biostar or newegg one have taken leave of their good senses :hmm:

I have been following the 847 celeron biostar board on newegg's ebay page. It has been 59.00 for the last couple weeks. Now I look today, and it is at 89 bucks...really? Who the heck is going to pay that.
I looked and this change is reflected on newegg.com where they are selling there as well.

You would think with biostar showing the 1037u on their site that they would be trying to sell the things like hotcakes during black friday/cyber monday. The things ought to be 49.99 or 55.00 with a free usb stick at least or something haha. I would hate to be waiting around to buy this particular board for biostar to get their act together. I think eventually they are gonna get stuck with a pile of boards that are obsolete and nobody wants...:\ In fact that is probably already the case. The different in 11 watts and 15 watts at idle isn't that much...for the extra horsepower you get out of the 1037u

 

[SinceCCF]

gigabyte GA-C1037UN is available on ebay at $103.99