Asus DigiMatrix - The Pizza Box Form Factor
by Andrew Ku on February 11, 2004 1:41 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Construction - Under the Hood
Despite its small profile, Asus has decided to employ the DigiMatrix on a 533FSB Pentium 4 platform. This choice is more of one due to a lack of options. When it comes to MPEG encoding operations and tasks of the multimedia variety, Pentium 4 processors are more favorable over the Athlon XPs. An 800FSB Pentium 4 platform would no doubt increase the cost of the system because of the chipset, processor, and memory used. This is atop the increased thermal budget. So, it was perfectly natural to expect Asus to choose a 533FSB Pentium 4 platform base, no doubt based on a SiS chipset because of price reasons.|
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The CPU socket is in the upper right hand corner of the motherboard. The heatsink can be removed via four screws that secure it to the motherboard and one to the backside of the system.
There is a riser card that is somewhat in the way of installing/uninstalling the CPU and memory, which can be unhinged via two screws that hold it in place to the back frame. The riser card itself is home to the radio module that seems to be manufactured by Nigata Semitsu, who also manufactures the radio module on the MSI Mega PCs.
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The copper heatsink interfaces with the CPU with the help of some thermal adhesive, which seems to be of the epoxy variety.
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Due to the design of the DigiMatrix, Asus had to build its motherboard to utilize notebook components, e.g. mini-PCI, instead of the full size PCI form factor.
There are two mini-PCI slots on the DigiMatrix motherboard, one on the top and one on the bottom. A TV tuner manufactured by Lifeview populates the mini-PCI slot on the top of the motherboard. This is definitely one of the smallest TV tuners that we have seen, but the question still remains to be that of quality. Manufacturing the smallest TV tuner isn't quite an accomplishment, unless it actually produces comparable quality to TV tuners of the PCI form factor.
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The second mini-PCI slot is situated on the bottom side of the motherboard and is populated by Asus' 802.11b WiFi card. The card is powered by Ralink's RT2460P 802.11b chipset.
The WiFi antenna is fixed directly behind and below the volume dial, but it is inaccessible due to the front cover.
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trikster2 - Saturday, February 14, 2004 - link
If you are getting it from ewiz use this link and save a few bucks:
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=MB-DIGIMAX&c=...
rigelinoia - Friday, February 13, 2004 - link
I can only say:http://mini-itx.com/store/hush-atx.asp
Shalmanese - Friday, February 13, 2004 - link
"Keep in mind that a multimedia PC is like 10 times the cost of a DVD/MP3 player and TV tuner combination."Whats with the Valley girl speak?
3Suns - Thursday, February 12, 2004 - link
Yes, you have to turn it on to play DVDs. I believe only the CD/mp3 player is available in the alternate OS.Which is one reason I want to try getting all this working in linux... I can optimize the boot time!
bobbronco - Thursday, February 12, 2004 - link
I agree with araczynski in that the design of this box is somewhat lacking. The pizza box form factor is nothing new. Apple did it back in '91 with the MacLC. Granted, the current state of PC technology was then not at the same level it is today, but the overall idea for a small PC of these approximate dimensions has been done before. The Taiwanese may be able to build a cheap MB, but their industrial design is still and will continue to be very weak.bobbronco - Thursday, February 12, 2004 - link
WileCoyote - Thursday, February 12, 2004 - link
Good review, I like to read up on these types of machines. I think the major fault with this box is just how specialized it is. Sometimes this can be advantage - a system that does one thing very well. But it doesn't even seem like this one is up to par.araczynski - Thursday, February 12, 2004 - link
WHY IN THE WORLD DOES EVERYTHING THESE DAYS HAVE TO LOOK SO DAMN RETRO 70'S? DOESN'T ANYBODY HAVE ANY ORIGINAL IDEAS ANYMORE? just because the current "x-generation" is clueless and unoriginal doesn't mean all technology has to reflect that in appearance.this stuff looks like all the 8tracks at goodwill.
Wiseguy69 - Thursday, February 12, 2004 - link
... and the SPDIF is on the front! That may stop me from buying this. Who wants a big optical cable coming from the front of your DVD player?Wiseguy69 - Thursday, February 12, 2004 - link
I wish they would have gone into more detail about the actual operation of the multimedia features. I have a MSI Mega now and my g/f hates that you have to turn it on to play a DVD. Does DVD run from the alternate OS or do you have to start windows?