Conclusions, HEXUS Certification & awards, HEXUS.right2reply
The EQS RS690IKM-AB6S occupies a very small market niche. It can't match the features or expansion potential of microATX boards, nor the extremely low-power usage of VIA's EPIA range - something that means that it can't be used in many ITX cases.
Even if using a low-power BE-2350 processor, the cooler still has to be able to dissipate 45W of heat and will almost certainly stand too tall.
Yet, if you can find a cooler that does fit, airflow in an ITX case could then turn out to be an issue. What's more, many ITX cases come with 80W, or even 60W, PSUs. With our test system pulling 74W under full load, this brought it very close to the PSU's limits.
The lack of a PEG slot is probably the biggest disappointment. Including this would have allowed systems built into taller chassis to be used for some casual gaming with a discrete graphics card or the installation of a new-generation a PCIe sound or TV card for a media centre.
The HDMI output, including HDCP support, does make it a potential candidate for media centre systems but the majority of HTPC cases appear to be designed around the microATX standard.
While ITX boards will still fit into a microATX (or indeed full ATX) chassis, thanks to common standoff-positioning, a more fully-featured microATX board can be bought for less than the projected street price of the EQS RS690IKM-AB6S.
So you've seen these drawbacks and are still interested? The EQS RS690IKM-AB6S will go on sale for £67 and does make for the basis of a small and quiet HTPC box, assuming you can find a plethora of ITX-sized cases on the market.
HEXUS Awards
The EQS RS690IKM-AB6S is an interesting, niche product that ships with a decent enough asking price.
EQS RS690IKM-AB6S
HEXUS Right2Reply
Ray Chung, marketing manager for EQS UK, was kind enough to submit a HEXUS Right2Reply
EQS appreciates that system memory can only be run in single-channel mode. A newer iteration of this motherboard will feature dual-channel SODIMM memory. A lack of board real-estate dictates that EQS can only mount two SATA connectors. Again, a subsequent revision will displace the floppy drive in favour of a greater number of high-speed ports, which potentially includes FireWire support.
The recently-released AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 offers enough power to facilitate 1080p decoding, and EQS now has a newer BIOS with AMD Live support, too.
HEXUS Where2Buy
The EQS EQS RS690IKM-AB6S can be purchased from Yoyotech from the third week of November, 2007.HEXUS related reading
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