Are any Celeron 1037U Motherboards actually available?

[nForce2]

Here is picture of my case:

Yeah, those partitioned cases are really not an ideal design for fanless or low-fan-count use. :\

One of the older "classic" towers with the hard drives low and in front by the air inlet, with the PSU at the top of the back, with a 120mm PSU fan pulling air up, would be substantially better - probably your best chance at getting away with a single fan, short of doing one of the really radical fanless cases that have mesh sides, etc.

 

[Carson Dyle]

What's the use case for these motherboards? Primarily in HTPCs and very low end desktops? The more I look at the NM70 chipset, the weaker it looks. No support for SMART?

I had been hoping to find a reasonably priced, very low power mobo/cpu combination for a small file server with a boot drive and 6 data drives. Doesn't look like we're there quite yet.

 

[cbn]

ECS NM70-I v1.0 Intel Celeron 1037U for $60.99 Free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135342

1 x SO-DIMM
1 x 6 Gbps SATA port
3 x 3 Gbps SATA port
1 x PCI EXpress X16 2.0(running x8)

 

[dave_the_nerd]

What's the use case for these motherboards? Primarily in HTPCs and very low end desktops? The more I look at the NM70 chipset, the weaker it looks. No support for SMART?

I had been hoping to find a reasonably priced, very low power mobo/cpu combination for a small file server with a boot drive and 6 data drives. Doesn't look like we're there quite yet.

I think that's Intel's idea of the market. Other manufacturers are building boards for the embedded space (POS's, sign controllers, and such.) And there are mini-ITX server boards based on Atom, with ECC and everything. It's just a different chipset. (The NM70 was intended for mobile, but it's cheap and it works, so... yeah.)

AMDs A50M chipset and the near-equivalent E450 boards might be a bit slower in the CPU department, but they usually have more SATA ports and I _think_ they support SMART. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

If it's any help, my Foxconn D70S-P, being a NM70 board, doesn't do SMART tests, but it DOES do SMART data reads/dumps. So it would be pretty simple to have a cron job dump the data, grep it, and alert you if there was a sudden change in the number of Raw_Read_Error_Rate attributes or something.

Also, given the price of a small/quiet enclosure that holds 6 drives, and the cost of the 6 drives... well, I hate spending other peoples' money for them, but a 1150 ITX board and a lower-wattage Pentium/Celeron dualie is hardly shooting the moon, financially. (Can probably do that for ~$150 if you shop hard.) On one hand, it's double the price of the 1037U boards, on the other hand, it's a measly $75 more than the price of the 1037U boards.

 

[nForce2]

What's the use case for these motherboards? Primarily in HTPCs and very low end desktops?

They're at a very interesting point in the price/performance/power curve.

As dave_the_nerd said, most of these are targeting embedded markets. But if you look beyond that, you know all of those news articles that keep coming out, talking about how the global PC sales are way down because everyone's old computers are "good enough" for what they need? These 1037U systems, for a lot of people, would be at or above that level of computing power.

I had been hoping to find a reasonably priced, very low power mobo/cpu combination for a small file server with a boot drive and 6 data drives. Doesn't look like we're there quite yet.

How about the $60 Foxconn D70S-P with a $22 SATA card in the
Mini PCI-Express slot? ($88 total)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816124059

Or the $61 ECS NM70-I or NM70-I2 with an $18 SATA card in the PCI-Express slot?($79 total)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816124017

Either of these options would get you six SATA ports... and you could easily have more by choosing a different SATA card. :thumbsup:

 

[Torn Mind]

I think that's Intel's idea of the market. Other manufacturers are building boards for the embedded space (POS's, sign controllers, and such.) And there are mini-ITX server boards based on Atom, with ECC and everything. It's just a different chipset. (The NM70 was intended for mobile, but it's cheap and it works, so... yeah.)

AMDs A50M chipset and the near-equivalent E450 boards might be a bit slower in the CPU department, but they usually have more SATA ports and I _think_ they support SMART. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

If it's any help, my Foxconn D70S-P, being a NM70 board, doesn't do SMART tests, but it DOES do SMART data reads/dumps. So it would be pretty simple to have a cron job dump the data, grep it, and alert you if there was a sudden change in the number of Raw_Read_Error_Rate attributes or something.

Also, given the price of a small/quiet enclosure that holds 6 drives, and the cost of the 6 drives... well, I hate spending other peoples' money for them, but a 1150 ITX board and a lower-wattage Pentium/Celeron dualie is hardly shooting the moon, financially. (Can probably do that for ~$150 if you shop hard.) On one hand, it's double the price of the 1037U boards, on the other hand, it's a measly $75 more than the price of the 1037U boards.

A 1150 ITX mobo + newly released Celeron will cost about $110 right now, and about $105 after the Celerons "settle" to their $45 value. But Haswell offers some benefits over the Ivy Bridge desktop Celerons, which are more price competitive due to the H61 chipset, but the H61 chipset is really "behind the times", so to speak with only USB 2.0 and SATA 3.0 Gbps.

That said, I would take a desktop Celeron over one of these most of the time due to the better performance, but I suspect these guys are basically competition against the Raspberry Pi and filling in the embedded/industrial market.

 

[cbn]

What's the use case for these motherboards? Primarily in HTPCs and very low end desktops? The more I look at the NM70 chipset, the weaker it looks. No support for SMART?

Where did you find the information that NM70 doesn't support SMART (ie, Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology)?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Where did you find the information that NM70 doesn't support SMART (ie, Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology)?

Good question. I read that in several places:

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/27316-nm70-ulv-chipset-detailed

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/intel_847_nm70_review,2.html

However, I probably made the same mistake as this guy:

http://forums.freenas.org/threads/intel-nm70-smart-and-nas.13323/

It may only be that it lacks Intel's "Smart Response Technology" (SRT), which is Intel's SSD caching for hard drives.

 

[cbn]

Foxconn D70S-P (1037U) on sale for $59.99 plus $6.98 shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186236

1 x SO-DIMM slot
PCI-E x1
Mini PCI-E
three 3 Gbps SATA and one 6 Gbps SATA

ECS NM70-I v1.0 Intel Celeron 1037U for $60.99 Free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135342

1 x SO-DIMM
1 x 6 Gbps SATA port
3 x 3 Gbps SATA port
1 x PCI EXpress X16 2.0(running x8)

Two more 1037U on sale (Both have two DIMM slots in addition to a PCI-E x16 slot, one 6 Gbps SATA and three 3 Gbps SATA):

1.) ECS NM70-I2(1.0) Intel Celeron 1037U for $60.99 Free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135350

2.) BIOSTAR NM70I-1037U for $67.99 free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138393

 

[Carson Dyle]

What's the logic behind ECS offering two boards as similar as those? Isn't the only practical difference the single SO-DIMM vs the dual DIMM slots? I assume (again, if the NM70 is capable) that the latter gives dual channel DDR while the SO-DIMM would be single channel.

 

[cbn]

Looking on ECS website, it looks like they have another NM70 board in Micro-ATX:

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...goryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=17&LanID=0

It looks very similar to ECS NM70-I2(1.0) Mini-ITX with the addition of two PCI-E x1 slots.

 

[cbn]

What's the logic behind ECS offering two boards as similar as those? Isn't the only practical difference the single SO-DIMM vs the dual DIMM slots? I assume (again, if the NM70 is capable) that the latter gives dual channel DDR while the SO-DIMM would be single channel.

Well, the CPU heatsink is different as well. But yes, comparing the specifications of the two boards (NM70-I and NM70-I2) side by side:

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...goryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=17&LanID=0 (NM70-I)

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...goryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=17&LanID=0 (NM70-I2)

They appear to be almost identical in every other way.

A few exceptions that I noticed:

The NM70-I2 does list something called a LDC header under "connectors and headers". I don't see this listed under the NM70-I specifications.

The details under System BIOS are different for both boards.

There is also a difference listed for "3-pin CPU-FAN connector with smart fan" which the NM70-I has, but the NM70-I2 does not. (The NM70-I2 specification doesn't list any CPU fan header.)

In rear panel I/O, the NM70-I lists RJ-45 port, but the NM70-I2 does not. (This is obviously a mistake because they both have RJ-45)

 

[rekd0514]

These look pretty fairly priced though they are from China as well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-comput...1203545705?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item27dc86ca69

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PC-X37...1203548886?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item27dc86d6d6

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PC-X37...1289272323?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item2a35aec403

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PC-X37...GB-SSD-WIFI-/181289274107?hash=item2a35aecafb

 

[Carson Dyle]

How do you determine the power requirements of one these boards? I have another need for a small 24x7 server with just a single 2.5" hard drive and was wondering if it could be powered by one of Mini-Box's PicoPSU and just what size I might need.

Specs would likely be

ECS NM70-I2(1.0)
2 x 2GB DDR3 1333
1TB 2.5" HDD
M350 Universal miniITX case

With the possibility of employing an additional small SSD for a system drive.

 

[rekd0514]

How do you determine the power requirements of one these boards? I have another need for a small 24x7 server with just a single 2.5" hard drive and was wondering if it could be powered by one of Mini-Box's PicoPSU and just what size I might need.

Specs would likely be

ECS NM70-I2(1.0)
2 x 2GB DDR3 1333
1TB 2.5" HDD
M350 Universal miniITX case

With the possibility of employing an additional small SSD for a system drive.

I think you would be good with any of the Pico PSU and the 1037U. I would save the money and buy one of these boards that already has the 19v input though.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

How do you determine the power requirements of one these boards? I have another need for a small 24x7 server with just a single 2.5" hard drive and was wondering if it could be powered by one of Mini-Box's PicoPSU and just what size I might need.

Specs would likely be

ECS NM70-I2(1.0)
2 x 2GB DDR3 1333
1TB 2.5" HDD
M350 Universal miniITX case

With the possibility of employing an additional small SSD for a system drive.

I have an ECS NM70I system (Celeron 847 version) with 4GB RAM and a 2.5" HDD, running on a 80w PicoPSU. ($25 for the PSU, $15 for the off-brand power brick.)

I wired the monitor into the PicoPSU as well. (It's from a tablet - only pulls like 5w.)

Measuring from the wall with a Killawatt, I've never seen it draw >40w, even under load, so there's plenty headroom for USB peripherals, etc. SSDs and laptop HDDs typically pull <5w when in operation, so you could easily do a 2-3 drive system without a problem on 80w.

 

[cbn]

I had been hoping to find a reasonably priced, very low power mobo/cpu combination for a small file server with a boot drive and 6 data drives. Doesn't look like we're there quite yet.

There used to be a AMD Bobcat Mini-ITX with 6 SATA ports available ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131843

It was about $80 at the time, but Newegg now says out of stocK.

 

[Kneedragger]

There used to be a AMD Bobcat Mini-ITX with 6 SATA ports available ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131843

It was about $80 at the time, but Newegg now says out of stocK.

Yeah I was gonna buy that last year for a server and all of a sudden it was hard to find. I don't know what happened with those boards...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah I was gonna buy that last year for a server and all of a sudden it was hard to find. I don't know what happened with those boards...

My guess would be that people bought them for servers. :whiste:

Most of these boards have a PCI-E slot. Even a 1x would be enough to drop in a SATA card. Onboard graphics are fine for a NAS/server scenario.

 

[nForce2]

I wired the monitor into the PicoPSU as well. (It's from a tablet - only pulls like 5w.)

Any more info on this? :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Any more info on this? :thumbsup::thumbsup:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35218451

12v is 12v DC. *shrug*

I got an LCD controller kit on ebay that let me stick an iPad display in there. It connects to the motherboard via VGA.

The pictures on the blog are old - I've face mounted an HDMI and Ethernet on the back since then. Still haven't resolved the plastic discoloration issue.

 

[rekd0514]

These look pretty fairly priced though they are from China as well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-comput...1203545705?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item27dc86ca69

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PC-X37...1203548886?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item27dc86d6d6

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PC-X37...1289272323?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item2a35aec403

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PC-X37...GB-SSD-WIFI-/181289274107?hash=item2a35aecafb

In case anyone cared, the guys finally responed to me and said he can do $185 without the SSD, RAM, and Wireless card. That seems like a pretty good deal.

I have also seen some of these new chromebox units that are releasing that look promising as well.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7735/...well-in-a-nuclike-form-factor-starting-at-179

 

[Kneedragger]

Has anyone got any of these mobo's yet? Curious as to what kind of power draw numbers you have seen.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The Biostar 1037U ITX board is $67.99 at Newegg now. Anyone own that board? Did they fix the incompatibility with Ubuntu-based distros and power-management?

 

[whiller]

Has anyone got any of these mobo's yet? Curious as to what kind of power draw numbers you have seen.

Well i have to say i am bit disappointed, then again i expected miracles.

I am currently using this:
GIGABYTE GA-C1037UN-EU - Intel NM70 (needed 2GLANs + pci slot for another ethernet card)
HDDs: 1TB WD Black + 3TB WD Green (the green was given to me as a gift, wish it was red, then again, it was free)
RAM : 2GB Kingston 1600 (was the cheapest)
PSU: Corsair cx430 (had it around from before)
One PCI realtek 1gbit card
+ 120*120 fan

The wattmeter reads 33W at idle avg., 40W at load avg. (using stress --cpu 2 --timeout 600s).

Using the C2D which i had laying around with about the same setup was taking ~45W with one more ethernet PCI card. I might try to use only one drive, or replace the 1TB WD Black with a small SSD in the future. Investing in some pico PSU might not be worth it in my opinion (depends on the usage / price of electricity of course) I will wait for some other results. All power saving options in bios are set to enabled, using ubuntu (in cli, no gui).

Temperatures using only the passive and no real air flow (no case, the pc is inside a chest of drawers (removed the back side of the one drawer its in) the temperature hovered around ~48C at idle and 60~ at burn. With 120*120 fan added, with lowest RPM possible its around ~32C and ~42C respectively.