Book size ATOM/ION (2) PCs, experiences?

Friend,

I am looking at these small, "book-size" computers.
I live in the US, and newegg has several brands and models to choose from.
Primary advantage here is obviously price, they are shockingly cheap.
Like this Jetway ATOM D510 dual-core with ION 2

Newegg.com - Jetway Mini-TOP HBJC600C99-52W-BW Intel Atom D525 CPU NM10 Next-Generation NVIDIA ION with dedicated 512MB DDR3 Barebone System

here are the specs for it:
JETWAY COMPUTER

do you recognize any of these parts as being suitable to work in OSX86.
Especially the wifi controller (Atheros wireless-N)?

I am looking for a cheap computer for research and web browsing, and the ION2 is the "supercharged" Nvidia 9400M GPU (PCI-e). Yes, the processor
is not great but I don't need Core2 type performance for what I do, and I love the size.

If you have had any experiences with *ANY* of these types of systems, please post it! I would love to hear about it.

Thank you very much,
Johann Behr

I have decided to purchase the Jetway system
(Intel D525 1.8GHz dual-core, Nvidia 9400M GPU).
I think it should work for the most past, with the help of the excellent
guides I can find here. I know that the Atom CPU can work in OSX
(at least the N270 1.6GHz single core was confirmed to work).
The Nvidia 9400M GPU has been used by Apple in earlier models of their Macbook and Mac Minis I believe, so I expect that to work.
The two things I am not sure will work are the Atheros Wireless-N and the soundchip, C-Media CM108AH.

Here are the specs.

CPU Intel® Atom Dual-Core 525 CPU (45nm, 1.80GHz, 1MB L2, 13W)
Chipset Intel NM10 (Formerly Tiger Point) + NVIDIA Next Generation ION 2
Memory 2 * SO-DIMM Slots
Support DDR2-800/667 Single Channel DIMM slots (up to 4 GB)
VGA NVIDIA ION2 Graphics Processor
LAN 1 * Realtek RTL8111DL PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet
1 * Atheros 802.11 b/g/n Mini PCI-E WiFi Card
Audio C-Media CM108AH Audio with SPDIF out (Support AC3 & DTS)
Nvidia L-PCM digital audio (HDMI 1.3) can support 7.1 output with external decoder
Storage 1 * Serial ATA2 3Gb/s connector (For 2.5" SATA HDD only)
1 * eSATA Port
USB Embedded 5 * USB 2.0/1.1

I plan to run this with one 2GB stick (perhaps upgrade to 4GB later),
640GB WD hard drive with 64MB cache,
Macally keyboard, Kensington bluetooth mouse,
Asus BT21 bluetooth dongle,
and an ASUS 20" monitor with DVI interface (on sale at Newegg).

All included it will be around $580

+1 I have the same pc.

Can anyone confirm if this would run OS X?

So, some success, but not usable as a HTPC yet - havent gotten a driver for Ion2/GT218 yet. Haven't tackled sound support yet.

Note: Ion2 is NOT 9400M, but "GT218".

Installation via iBoot+Multibeast "Legacy"
- iboot 5.0.132
- Chameleon 2.0RC5 r504 (iboot-GE did not work, 2.0RC5 r651)
- Snow Leopard 10.6.3 retail (10.6.0 did not work)
- Upgraded with Combo 10.6.5
- requires the 10.6.5 "atom" kernel
- Need to remove the "NVEnabler 64" from /Extras ... otherwise will hang on boot.
- Use -v for verbose booting ... around "waiting for DSMOS.kext" takes a long time (in some combination of options)
- requires lnx2mac Realtek ethernet drivers - works.

NVenabler that would work with this card would be awesome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DavidTheGeek

So, some success, but not usable as a HTPC yet - havent gotten a driver for Ion2/GT218 yet. Haven't tackled sound support yet.

Note: Ion2 is NOT 9400M, but "GT218".

Installation via iBoot+Multibeast "Legacy"
- iboot 5.0.132
- Chameleon 2.0RC5 r504 (iboot-GE did not work, 2.0RC5 r651)
- Snow Leopard 10.6.3 retail (10.6.0 did not work)
- Upgraded with Combo 10.6.5
- requires the 10.6.5 "atom" kernel
- Need to remove the "NVEnabler 64" from /Extras ... otherwise will hang on boot.
- Use -v for verbose booting ... around "waiting for DSMOS.kext" takes a long time (in some combination of options)
- requires lnx2mac Realtek ethernet drivers - works.

NVenabler that would work with this card would be awesome.

---

How do you did it?

I have the same computer, though I got it at 340$ without a harddrive or ram. Anyways, I've tried:
- iAtkos S3 : No success (hang on boot)
- Retail SL 10.6 : No success
- Modified SL 10.6 (for my Lenovo S10) : No success
- iDeneb 10.5.4 : Boots to installer (but didn't want to install Leopard)

So, I thought I was running out of options. Can you please tell more on what you did? A guide would be amazing. Maybe we can start to experiment and find some answers on missing parts, as this *thing* is the next best thing for a HTPC after the original next-gen mac mini :) (Especially loving the remote)

Thanks

With the same system iAtkos 7 installed very easily (although I had to disable
hyperthreading in the bios)
No customizations used, the graphics are slow and dragging a window tends to
corrupt. An external Mac usb ethernet dongle works fine, audio is great, no
Atheros wireless but overall I'm pleased as it'll be sitting headless behind my tv streaming live to my ipad via eyetv.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jchisholm

With the same system iAtkos 7 installed very easily [..] the graphics are slow and dragging a window tends to
corrupt [..]

---

Good job.

Did you try to work out graphics? I mean, there's like _nothing_ on GT218 support I could find :(

No luck with accelerated graphics, tried a few nvidia kexts but had to remove them all to get back to svga.
Hopefully it'll do the job of streaming eyetv hd to my ipad/pod which shouldn't rely on graphics capability. Just waiting for my eyetv box to arrive.
Overall, very surprised at how well this runs! Amazing little computer.