Jetway NC92 Atom IPC Motherboard

Linux Performance:

To the Jetway NC92 motherboard we had attached 2GB of DDR2, a 300GB Seagate ST3300622AS SATA HDD, and IDE DVD drive. We were using the integrated Intel GMA graphics and Atom N230 CPU. Initially when setting up this motherboard we had issues with it booting, but it ended up being a problem with the power supply. When using this motherboard with different Linux distributions released in H2'08, we really only ran into one problem. The Fintek F71862FG ASIC isn't supported by LM_Sensors shipping in distributions such as LM_Sensors. A patch can be found though that adds the F71862FG support, but it will not be until the distributions update LM_Sensors that will we see this Super I/O controller be supported easily. Aside from that sensor monitoring issue, everything else had worked well.

We have already delivered benchmarks from this system in an article published a few days ago entitled Intel Atom On Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuSE, Mandriva. Check out that article for all of the benchmarks from this CPU / mini ITX motherboard combination. We had used the Phoronix Test Suite and found the performance to be particularly good on Ubuntu 8.10 x86. We will also have additional benchmarks of this motherboard in other future Intel Atom Linux articles.

Conclusion:

The Jetway NC92-230-LF retails for about $80 USD, which isn't that bad of a deal for a mini ITX motherboard that ships with an Intel Atom N230 1.6GHz processor. This system had performed well with Linux and we have no problems to note aside from the Fintek ASIC not being widely adopted within LM_Sensors at this time. For those interested in a bit more power than what the Atom N230 has to offer, Jetway also sells a NC92-330-LF, which uses the Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor. Overall, the Jetway NC92-230-LF is a nice package and we are quite pleased with the product. If you are after a lightweight "nettop" or desktop computer centered around Intel's Atom, we have no problems recommending this Jetway IPC board.

For pricing information on Intel Atom products and motherboards, visit TestFreaks.com.