Earlier today Intel announced the D945GCLF2, its dual-core Atom ITX motherboard, Lars wrote about it here in case you've missed it.
We have to admit, we love the Atom, both in nettops and netbooks. The only thing we don't like about it is the obsolescent chipset, but it's still a sound concept. Anyway, long story short, the new dual core motherboards are listed at €65, while the single core boards sell for €48.
At first glance this mobo-CPU combo sounds like a bargain, until you check the prices of regular boards and CPUs. If you go with AMD, and in this price segment you probably will, you can get a µATX 690G motherboard for a pathetic €28. Were talking about a fully integrated board with relatively a good IGP and you can even get native HDMI if you cough up a couple of euro more. Add €13 for a Sempron 64 LE-1100 at 1.90GHz and voila, you've got yourself a pretty decent machine for just €41. If you're not that cheap, you'll probably insist on a dual core CPU. Not a problem, you can go for a Athlon X2 BE-2300 at 1.90GHz for €30. In any case, you'll spend less then if you go for an Atom board and you'll get a lot more in terms of performance.
The Intel camp is not nearly as cheap as AMD when it comes to low-end stuff, but you can still get a good deal. An IGP motherboard will cost you roughly the same as AMD's 690G, but you'll get pathetic GMA950 graphics on it. The trouble with Intel is that its CPUs are a lot pricier than AMD's, a Celeron 420 at 1.60GHz costs €23, and a dual-core Celeron E1200 at 1.60GHz costs €34. So €51 and €62 for the single and dual-core respectively. Still cheap, but AMD is a bit cheaper and you get better graphics. You might argue that Intel's E1200 is very overclockable, but you won't be doing any fiddling on a dirt cheap integrated motherboard anyway, so this doesn't really matter.
As if things weren't looking bad enough for ITX, there's also a nasty surprise waiting for you once you try to get a chassis. First of all there's not many to choose from, but things get really nasty when you check the prices. You'll spend more than €70 to get a half decent one. What's worse, the cheap ones aren't winning any beauty prices. Most of them look as if they were designed by a crack team of color blind moles on acid.
ITX does have a future, a bright one, but we were hoping for better prices and more choice. The price difference compared to regular mATX solutions is marginal. However the pain starts when choosing an ITX case, as a decent one will cost you more than the CPU, motherboard, memory and a small hard drive combined.