Page 2 - Bundle, Chipset, BIOS
The retail box is enclosed by a flap cover at the top, making the packaging relatively simple and easy to open. The following contents are included out of the box:
- 1x Jetway NF81-T56N-LF mini-ITX motherboard
- 1x Driver CD
- 1x User manual
- 1x I/O shield
- 2x SATA data cable
- 1x COM data cable
One area that AMD has been arguably lacking in for the past few years has been their ability to compete in the netbook/nettop front. Their best shot at it was the AMD Athlon Neo MV40, which was said to be a decent processor. However, one of the biggest reported problems was its heat and the power draw. The processor ran at a rated 15W, which is quite a bit higher than most of Intel Atom line. However, this time around, AMD has done their homework -- they have released the Brazos series of processors to compete with the latest Intel Atoms. One of the main improvements its power draw; now rated at 18W. This may seem to be quite a bit in comparison with what they had before, but there has been improvements in the fact that the ATI Radeon HD 6310 is now embedded onto the T56N, making this an AMD Fusion processor. Although AMD does not provide too much information on the Hudson E1 chipset or the eOntario processor, with a little digging, we found some useful information. The eOntario processor is built on the 40nm process, and is mainly for desktop/embedded use. It is also a dual core CPU running at 1.6GHz with 1MB of L2 cache, and has a TDP of 18W as reported earlier.
As aforementioned, the T56N is an AMD Fusion processor, and as such, the processor and chipset are now closer together in operation. The eOntario CPU features a built-in graphics solution, and features an integrated memory controller as well. This has been featured in AMD processors for quite some time now. This CPU can support both desktop DDR3 RAM and DDR3 SODIMM modules in single channel configuration. Jetway chose to take the SODIMM path, as it would be more compact, and could allow more overall physical space for other components on the motherboard. The processor features an on-die AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics accelerator, which is compatible with DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1, and has 80 pixel pipelines running at 500MHz. Pixel Shader 5.0 is also supported on the hardware level. The AMD Radeon HD 6310 also features the company's UVD3 video decoder, where most standard formats can be decoded. This includes MPEG2, H.264, VC-1m, and MVC (An H.264 extension is used for 3D Blu-Ray movies). The available video outputs are HDMI, DVI, and VGA, which is the standard for most products in this category.
In terms of the chipset, the Hudson E1 chipset natively supports up to eight USB 2.0 ports, one PCI Express slot, dual Gigabit LAN, HD audio, and five SATA 6Gb/s ports. The Jetway NF81-T56N-LF has a total of six USB ports, one Mini PCIe slot, one 32-bit PCI slot, HD audio via its VIA VT1705 6-Channel HD audio codec, and five Serial ATA ports. The Jetway NF81-T56N-LF also supports Gigabit LAN using a Realtek RTL8111E chip connected to the system via its internal PCI Express interface. We will go more in depth about these components later on the following page.
Usually, at this point of our review, we would go over the BIOS in detail, and most of it would be on overclocking and tweaking features. Evidently, the Jetway NF81-T56N-LF does not support these kinds of features, as this is not the right product for such market -- but there are still a few things that may be interesting to look at. As seen in the BIOS images, the NF81-T56N-LF uses an American Megatrends BIOS, with selections split into tabs. The tabs from left to right are as follows: Main, Advanced, Chipset, Boot, Security, and Save & Exit.
The Advanced tab is where most of the common settings can be found. From top to bottom, we have the Onboard LAN BootROM, Wakeup By PCIe (WOL), ACPI Settings, CPU Configuration, SATA Configuration, Super IO Configuration, H/W Monitor, Shutdown Temperature Configuration, and Voltage Settings. Most of these are self explanatory; we will take a deeper look into two of listed features.
First up, we have the PC Health Status. This is the page that shows all the current statuses of the computer, ranging from CPU temperature, system temperature, CPU FAN speed, and assorted voltages. Also found at the top is the toggling of Smart Mode for each fan, which dynamically adjusts the corresponding fan's speed to suit current temperatures.
Lastly, we have the CPU Configuration page. This is where a number of settings that be enabled and disabled on the CPU. One of the more interesting features is SVM mode, which can be enabled to allow for virtualization. This is one of the core features for some enterprise usages that the Atom lacked.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Features, and Specifications
2. Bundle, Chipset, BIOS
3. A Closer Look, Board Layout, Test System
4. Benchmark: AIDA64 CPU
5. Benchmark: AIDA64 FPU
6. Benchmark: AIDA64 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 (RMAA 6.2.3) Analyzation
12. Power Consumption and Conclusion
