MSI announces fanless Atom-based SFF motherboard

[Matthew DeCarlo]

MSI has unveiled a new Atom-based small form factor motherboard that touts a fanless design. The I3-945GSE-D requires absolutely no fans to operate comfortably, making it an ideal solution for use in custom enclosures and embedded applications. Since the board only measures 3.5 inches and doesn't have any blowers, you can't expect it to carry anything particularly powerful. It comes with Intel's dated 1.6GHz Atom N270 single-core processor, which launched in early 2008, along with the 945GSE chipset.

The board also supports up to 2GB of DDR2 400 or 533MHz via one SO-DIMM module and has one VGA output courtesy of the Intel IGP, one SATA II port, one gigabit Ethernet jack, audio and mic jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, and one COM connector. An additional two USB 2.0 ports and four COM ports appear to be supported via on-board headers. Meanwhile, it relies on one compact flash slot and one mini-PCIe slot for expansion. MSI didn't mention a price or ship date for the I3-945GSE-D in its press release.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/41387-msi-announces-fanless-atom-based-sff-motherboard.html

 

[Osiris391]

awWWwWWW so tiny

 

[Kibaruk]

This could certainly host a home server, no fan makes me wonder how much temp can it acchieve all day on.

 

[TeamworkGuy2]

Wow, small, but no fan, even for an atom that seems risky. But hey, it could have some very useful applications, like outspace where there is no air to blow... wait, it's like -450*F in outer space, that would be great for overclocking. NVM, I'm off on some tangent.

 

[Leeky]

This could certainly host a home server, no fan makes me wonder how much temp can it acchieve all day on.

Surely the performance would be completely in-adequate once you go above 1 user on the servers network though?

Especially if your throwing data back and forth and doing backups, and running apps on the server at the same time.

I could be wrong, but its the last thing I'd consider for a server, home use or not.

 

[Technochicken]

You could make an awesome mini-cluster with 3 or five of these suckers.

 

[Lokalaskurar]

technochicken said:
You could make an awesome mini-cluster with 3 or five of these suckers.

Yeah, that would've been awesome!

Really now, this motherboard is a bit to small for a laptop/notebook/µ-notebook, and way to large for a PDA-based computer (just dreaming a little). The motherboard is sure to fit in somewhere, but is there any point in it for us home consumers?

 

[yRaz]

TeamworkGuy2 said:
Wow, small, but no fan, even for an atom that seems risky. But hey, it could have some very useful applications, like outspace where there is no air to blow... wait, it's like -450*F in outer space, that would be great for overclocking. NVM, I'm off on some tangent.

No, space is a vacuum and there is no air to blow across the heat sink. The only way to cool something in space is for it to radiate away. There is nothing to absorb heat in space, so even though it is very cold, it would be very bad for overclocking.