14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS has formally launched a small form factor motherboard that perhaps pays more tributes to the gods of vanity than is strictly necessary. Just look at the cooler and the SATA ports and you'll know what we mean.
The new motherboard is called J1800I-C and gets its name from the central processing unit that drives it and whatever system it is installed in.
Well, it isn't an actual central processing unit (CPU). Instead, it is a system-on-chip (SoC). The processor is a Bay Trail model after all, even if not a Bay Trail-D or, more importantly, Bay Trail-M.
So what chip is actually used here, you might ask? The Celeron J1800 SoC, which is the source of the whole product's name really.
There's nothing poetic about either name of course, but that's to be expected from products that aren't meant to be sold to consumers.
Sure, the mini-ITX motherboard might be usable in an HTPC (home-theater personal computer) or nettop, but it's more likely it will end up in kiosks, point-of-sale applications, digital signage, etc.
So, really, there's no need for a fancy name inspired from humanity's old mythos, or anything of the sort. It wouldn't fit the modest spec sheet anyway, although the golden, fanless cooler does have a certain allure. Not that it's actual gold. It's really aluminum.
That doesn't mean the platform is in any way crippled though. Indeed, it covers all the bases, featuring two DDR3-SO-DIMM memory slots, a PCI Express x1 slot, a mini PCI Express slot (with mSATA pins, admittedly), and two conventional SATA II headers.
The SATA II interface can transmit information at 3 Gbps, which is kind of a shame because SATA III isn't that hard to implement these days (SATA 6.0 Gbps). Then again, this is a low-end platform.
Moving on, the ASUS J1800I-C mini-ITX motherboard gets headers for LPT, a mixed-mode PS/2 port, an RS-232 COM at the rear panel, a bunch of USB 2.0/1.1 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and one USB 3.0 SuperSpeed connector.
Finally, for video output, there is HDMI and D-Sub. Add to that 6-channel HD audio and there is nothing lacking from the ASUS J1800I-C. The mainboard is not embellished, granted, but it doesn't lack anything essential either.
As for the Celeron J1800 SoC itself, it is a dual-core 64-bit x86 chip clocked at 2.40 GHz and with Turbo Boost clock of 2.58 GHz.
The ASUS J1800I-C gets power from a 24-pin ATX connector and a 4-pin CPU connector. AMI UEFI BIOS drives everything. Sadly, the price is still in the air.
