Review on Intel Atom D510MO

Recently I switch over the desktop system to an Intel Atom D510 on NM10 Chipset.

The reason was simple, the use of this system is mainly Word, PowerPoint, Internet Browsing, file Server as well as printer server so why not switch over to a energy efficient platform and save electricity bills.

The Atom is touted as to having a TDP of 13 watts, it is dual core at 1.66GHZ with Hyperthread so 4 logical cores in all.
Intel/AMD Mobile Processor TDP typically 25-35 Watts and Desktop Processors 90-130 Watt depending on which monster you have.

I bought a Intel OEM version as it is the cheapest and considered the reference board version.

I will not do some crazy gaming benchmark because if you bought this system to play Call of Duty 4 there must be something wrong with you. I will just comment on what you can get out of this simple system.

So I shall comment on the pros and cons.
Pros:
1)The Chip is embedded in the board so you actually pay for a motherboard and a cpu for the price of a low end cpu quite a bargain don't you think?

2)Good responsiveness provided you don't do anything crazy.

3)Passive heatsink, there are no fans on the board so it is quiet and definitely your cpu fan will not spoil because there isn't any. LOL (I know cold jokes), Oh and it doesn't overheat at all.

One observation I made while stress testing the cpu is that it never seems to be fully taxed so it always maintains a good responsiveness, I think Intel specifically included this characteristic in order to minimise lagging issues over the weak cpu.

4)Supports Wireless there is a PCI-E express slot for Laptop Wireless Cards (**Antenna sold separately)

5)Decent Realtek High Definition Audio

6)It uses Intel EFI instead of BIOS (There is a way to OEM it if you know what I mean..)

7)Small i-ATX form factor it can fit into i-ATX, m-ATX and ATX and can take any compatible ATX power Supply.

8)SSD supported.

9)Booting the system is very fast, the Intel EFI Firmware got the system up and running very quickly.
I believe this is due to Intel Optimized EFI Firmware as compared to EFI by other companies like Insyde, AMI and Phoenix. Half the time when you press the power button, you see a display Windows is already loading as the POSTing finishes too fast to be displayed onscreen.

Now for the cons.
1)2 SATA ports isn't enough IMO they should include 4. If you have 4 hard drives and is currently contemplating switching to an Intel Atom platform you can buy Atom Boards from OEMs like ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte most will have more than 2 SATA Ports.

2)The SATA ports isn't Matrix Storage Capable or Rapid Storage Capable (for this Intel Reference Board only)

3)Normal Quality Capacitors, the Intel Reference board uses normal capacitors but offerings from other OEMs especially Gigabyte will include solid capacitors.

4)Maximium Flash Rendering up to 720p only on Youtube. At 1080p frame drops occur on Adobe Flash 10.1. I made sure I got the latest driver for Intel 3150 and it supposedly support HD Decoding but well you are still limited to 720p not the highest but good enough for me.
If you desperately need HD Capabilites go for an OEM ION Offering instead.

5)Support only Single Channel DDR2 RAM incase you start asking questions about DDR2 but it isn't suppose to be a performer so it shouldn't matter much

6)Legacy I/O Ports like Parallel and Serial Ports are removed although there are pin outs available on the Mainboard you can plug them into.
Anyway this is a good board for what it is supposed to be used for cost effective and energy saving.
Will do well for normal purposes except Flash Highest Definition and gaming.

Some more details you don't find on the packaging:
1) ICH-7 AHCI SATA Controller (SouthBridge Controller)
2) Intel GMA 3150
3) Realtek RTL8165/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
4) Realtek ALC882 High Definition Audio Intel 82801 GBM ICH-7M