Zotac is already one of the few manufacturer’s producing Mini ITX solutions based on the NVIDIA ION chipset, which allows for true seamless HD video due to the improved integrated graphics.

Now they have released premiere offering which has managed to squeeze a PCI Express slot onto the 6.7″ x 6.7″ Motherboard. The board combines the already capable NVIDIA 9400M graphics with the dual core Intel Atom 330 1.6GHz processor, and supports a total of 4GB of DDR2 memory. It includes 3 SATA II ports along with a single eSATA connector, and has all the media centre outputs one would need including VGA, DVI or HDMI, as well as traditional analog and optical 5.1 audio. Both Gigabit LAN and wireless 802.11n are included.

“ZOTAC always listens to user requests for features. End users loved our ION ITX series motherboards, but some requested PCI Express expansion. We listened and thus the ZOTAC ION ITX F series was born,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. “Our engineers managed to integrate PCI Express x16 expansion without sacrificing any of the award-winning features either.”

The ZOTAC ION ITX-F series receives power from a high-performance NVIDIA ION graphics processor and energy-efficient dual-core Intel Atom 330 processor for a power packed combination that’s ready to take on high-definition video playback and everyday computing tasks” reports Zotac.

These Mini-ITX solutions are great for media centres, basic home servers and other tasks and the inclusion of a PCIe slot is a welcome addition, but may be seen as slightly useless, given that the system’s should have no need for discrete graphics. However, there clearly are other devices that can utlilize this port.