
This is my 4th AsRock ITX board build. It is my 1st fan-less completely solid state build that works well for general and HTPC use even compared to my Intel Ivy Bridge i7, i5 and AMD A10 ITX (all 65 Watt TDP processors) builds. The main practical daily usage difference I see is step-wise slowing on high processor demand admin tasks like Win8.1 OS virus scans, backups and OS updates. with the J1900 being the slowest. Boot times are fast with all processor and board combos. Built in graphics all quite similar. Same for 7.1 audio. I replaced a Sony 6.1 AV receiver with the Q1900DC-ITX HTPC build and noted little difference in audio quality. For the case I used a Fan-less, Compact Morex 557 Universal Mini-ITX Case. Tiny, lots of natural ventilation and barely warm to the touch when the Q1900DC-ITX build is running. All this for approx 35-40% of the i7 ITX build. Wow.




Installed 4gb of ram and booted into AlpineLinux off of a USB 3.0 key. I am going fan-less for this build so as to not move air/dust. Linux detects everything on the board, including the Ethernet card and posts up video. Haven't dug too much yet into the performance, as this is a hobby project. Runs from a Pico-PSU The dimensions of the boards specific heights are: Heat sink is 28mm tall from the top of the MB, the MB, including the bottom solder pins is 3-4mm. Total is about 32mm tall. With pico-PSU installed, it is closer to a height of 40mm. Those would have helped me choose a better chassis. I advise mounting it on a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" plywood in retrospect. Not kidding. It would look pretty as a naked board in a server cabinet. Compared to a 150 buck router, this thing destroys it for processing loads, and if I verify that, I will post the results here.


