Jetway NC94FL-510-LF Review (Page 12 of 12)

Page 12 - Power Consumption and Conclusion

The above measurements were taken externally at the outlet, so the above data reflects total power consumption of the entire system, including power supply efficiency loss. Using 23W idling and 30W under full load, our Intel Atom D510 based system on Jetway's NC94FL-510-LF mini-ITX motherboard configured with two sticks of RAM and an 160GB 2.5" SATA hard drive is actually a little more power efficient that the NC96FL-510-LF with the same components. This is likely due to a more efficient DC to DC converter provided by the Apex MW-107 chassis.

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Does the Jetway NC94FL-510-LF mini-ITX motherboard live up to its purpose of providing low cost, low power consumption, and low space requirement computing for the masses? Like its close brother, the NC96FL-510-LF, it certainly does! Priced at approximately $110 at press time equipped with an Intel Atom D510 dual core processor, the Jetway NC94FL-510-LF certainly delivers everything as needed for most low cost machine configurations. The Intel Atom D510 CPU is certainly no performance wonder in both processing power and graphics -- nor do we expect it to be -- but consuming 30W under load for the entire system, you can certainly keep your computer running 24/7 without worrying about your power bill. Additionally, because it doesn't have an integrated DC to DC converter as featured in Jetway's NC96FL-510-LF motherboard, the NC94 takes a standard 20-pin ATX power connector for maximum compatibility in terms of power requirement. Commendable board layout for easy cable management, in conjunction with refinement features such as smart fan control is things that we have grown to appreciate this Jetway motherboard throughout our time using and testing it. It is also great to know all four chipset PCI Express lanes are routed to a single PCIe slot for maximum compatibility and upgradability. However, personally I would think a PCIe x1 slot is more appropriate in application, since as far as graphics cards are concerned, the Atom D510 is certainly going to be a bottleneck -- leaving the rest of the PCI Express lanes for Gigabit LAN and more SATA ports would be extremely beneficial to the end user. In future iterations of this board, I would appreciate it if Jetway used 100% solid state capacitors rather than a mix with electrolytic capacitors for improved reliability in the long run, and a possible relocation of the floppy connector to a more optimal location. Something other than the current green printed circuit board and a better looking (And possibly better performing) heatsink will give the NC94FL-510-LF a little more class too! All in all, if you are looking to build a compact low power consumption desktop system for basic web surfing and word processing needs, the Jetway NC94FL-510-LF is a very competitive product worth considering for your next low power, low cost, and low footprint mini-ITX build!

Special thanks to Aurora over at Jetway for making this review possible.

Starting from April 30, 2007, Number Ratings have been dropped for all CPU, motherboards, RAM, and graphics cards. This is to ensure the most appropriate ratings reflected without the limits of using numbers. Everything else will continue using the Number Rating System.
More information in our Review Focus.

The Jetway NC94FL-510-LF is a well designed motherboard equipped with Intel's Atom D510 processor that takes standard ATX power connectors for maximum compatibility. A PCIe x16 (x4 electrical) slot unleashes good potential for modern upgrades.

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Page Index
1. Introduction, Features, and Specifications
2. Bundle, Chipset, BIOS
3. A Closer Look, Board Layout, Test System
4. Benchmark: EVEREST CPU
5. Benchmark: EVEREST FPU
6. Benchmark: EVEREST Memory
7. Benchmark: PCMark Vantage
8. Benchmark: 3DMark06 Professional
9. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0
10. Benchmark: SuperPI 1M, Cinebench R11.5
11. Onboard Sound Frequency Analysis
12. Power Consumption and Conclusion