14 DAY TRIAL // The new motherboard from SUPoX may not be the smallest type ever created, but it should still be usable in the creation of pretty small HTPCs and nettops. Especially with its design specifically based on passive cooling.
Most CPUs and graphics cards need an active cooler to keep heat at manageable levels, otherwise the system will freeze, crash, restart or break down when the chip can't take anymore and burns down.
However, when the processor sacrifices enough of the potential performance in favor of a lower TDP (thermal design power), it can get away with a passive cooler if the heatsink is big enough, and made from a good enough material.
The new motherboard released by Chinese company SUPoX uses the Intel Celeron N2940 "Bay Trail" processor.
The SUPoX N2940-MX7 motherboard
The mainboard uses a copper heatsink to chill the aforementioned processor, which is an SoC (system-on-chip), rather than a CPU (central processing unit).
A quad-core unit, it has a clock of 2.24 GHz and a TDP of 7.5W, hence why the passive cooling has no problem with it.
This is the kind of processor that would be found in a netbook if such low-end laptops still sold nowadays. Alas, they were quite summarily pushed aside by tablets a few years ago and never recovered.
There is one PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot on the platform, so you could, conceivably, install a graphics card on this thing.
If you go for one that is too fancy, however, it will have an active cooler and kind of defeat the purpose of the fanless design. Also, the CPU just isn't up to gaming, and can't be changed either.
Moving on, there are two full-size DDR3 DIMM slots available, for up to 8 GB memory, while two SATA 3.0 Gbps ports provide storage compatibility.
Other specs include one USB 3.0 connector, six USB 2.0 ports, a DVI video output, a D-Sub port, Gigabit Ethernet, legacy PS/2 connectors, and six-channel HD audio with ground-layer isolation.
Availability and pricing
Sadly, the SUPoX N2940-MX7 has not been given a price. Not altogether surprising, since the platform is only up for order in China for now. Also, the LPT (parallel) and COM (serial) port headers only add to the overall propensity towards industrial systems, where prices are determined by order size, contract duration and haggling.
