ASRock Core 100HT NetTop

An overclocked Core i3 330M processor clocked to 2.6GHz performs just shy of the Intel Core i3 530 system.

Lastly, the ASRock Core 100HT system was able to deliver 12x more signs per second as the ASRock ION 330 nettop, but the Core i3 530 system continued to reign supreme.

While an Intel Atom powered NetTop is sufficient for most people if the intended use is for a Home Theater PC -- in which case a NVIDIA ION-based Atom system is ideal for the PureVideo HD video playback decoding that's exposed on Linux via NVIDIA's wonderful VDPAU implementation -- or light web browsing and desktop work, for those in need of a more powerful but less energy efficient system there are the nettops strapping in mobile or even desktop-grade processors. ASRock's Core 100HT is a very nice system that could be considered either a nettop or a normal desktop computer with its Intel Core i3 330M, 4GB of system memory, and a 500GB HDD with support for also installing a second 2.5-inch disk drive. The Core 100HT does not boast NVIDIA (or even ATI) graphics, but rather takes advantage of the integrated Intel graphics found with the Arrandale CPU. This though is sufficient for most desktop purposes and if using a recent Linux stack you can leverage it for H.264 VA-API video decoding in popular multimedia applications. The ASRock Core 100HT works great with Linux, is priced at about $600 USD (NewEgg), and is overall another great ASRock PC with a very small form factor. The $600 price tag is more expensive than most Atom-based nettops, but again, as our Linux test results show you are getting a much more powerful system than the lower-priced offerings.