ASRock D1800B-ITX Motherboard

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

The ASRock D1800B-ITX is a Mini-ITX motherboard that comes with a Celeron J1800 “Bay Trail-D” dual-core CPU soldered. It has one USB 3.0 and two SATA-300 ports, but its highlights are actually its low TDP and low cost, besides, of course, its small footprint.

The Celeron J1800 is an SoC (System on a Chip), meaning it has the CPU, GPU, memory controller, and chipset in the same chip. Even with all these components, the chip dissipates only 10 W. Despite its name, the Celeron J1800 is an Atom CPU targeted to desktop computers. It runs at 2.41 GHz (2.56 GHz boost clock) and has 1 MiB of L2 cache.

The Bay Trail-D family has also four-core processors, under the Celeron (Celeron J1850 and J1900) and Pentium (Pentium J2850 and Pentium J2900) brands, all of them with 10 W TDP, so you can find similar motherboards based on those quad-core processors too.

You can see the ASRock D1800B-ITX motherboard in Figure 1. It uses the Mini-ITX form factor, measuring 6.7” x 6.7” (170 x 170 mm).

Figure 1: ASRock D1800B-ITX motherboard

[nextpage title=”Slots”]

The ASRock D1800B-ITX comes with one PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot. This slot is not opened at the end, so you cannot install a PCI Express x16 video card in this motherboard.

We missed an M.2 (or even an mSATA) slot that would allow us to install an SSD module on the motherboard and also a Mini PCI Express slot for installing a Wi-Fi card based on this form factor.

Figure 2: slot

[nextpage title=”Memory Support”]

The Celeron J1800 CPU can access DDR3L (low voltage) memory up to 1,333 MHz, in dual-channel mode. According to ASRock, the D1800B-ITX supports memories up to 1,333 MHz.

The motherboard has two SODIMM (laptop) memory sockets, being compatible with low voltage (1.35 V) and standard (1.5 V) memory modules.

You can install up to 16 GiB on this motherboard if you use two 8 GiB modules.

Obviously, you have to install two memory modules in order to enable dual channel access, which is recommended if you want to achieve the best performance possible.

Figure 3: memory sockets; install two modules for the best performance

[nextpage title=”On Board Peripherals”]

The Celeron J1800 CPU supports two SATA-300 ports, and the ASRock D1800B-ITX motherboard brings only those two ports, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: SATA ports

The Celeron J1800 CPU supports six USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port. The ASRock D1800B-ITX offers five USB 2.0 ports, three at the rear panel and two available through a header located on the motherboard, and one USB 3.0 port at the rear panel.

The motherboard does not support FireWire or Thunderbolt ports.

The motherboard supports 5.1 audio format, generated by the processor with the aid of a Realtek ALC662 codec, which offers a signal/noise ratio (SNR) of 98 dB for the analog outputs and 90 dB SNR for the analog inputs, with 24 bit resolution and up to 96 kHz sampling rate. These specifications are reasonable for the market this motherboard was designed.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port controlled by a Realtek RTL8111GR chip.

One thing that drawn our attention was the presence of legacy serial and parallel ports at the rear panel. This means this motherboard is also target to application computers such as POS, cash register, ticket emitter, access control, and other applications where legacy industrial or commercial specialized hardware is needed. The motherboard comes with a second serial port (COM2), which needs an adapter (not included) to be used.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel with two PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse, serial port, parallel port, VGA output, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI output, one USB 3.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet port, and the shared analog audio jacks.

Figure 5: motherboard rear panel

In Figure 6, you can see the accessories that come with the ASRock D1800B-ITX.

Figure 6: accessories

[nextpage title=”CPU and Voltage Regulator”]

In Figure 7, you can see the Celeron J1800 CPU without its passive cooler, and the voltage regulator of the ASRock D1800B-ITX, which uses only two phases. Since the TDP of the chip is only 10 W and there are no overclocking options, the voltage regulator circuit is not really critical on this motherboard.

Figure 7: voltage regulator circuit

The ASRock D1800B-ITX uses only solid capacitors, and all coils on this motherboard are ferrite ones.

If you want to learn more about the voltage regulator circuit, please read our tutorial on the subject.

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main specifications for the ASRock D1800B-ITX include:

• Socket: FCBGA1170 (Celeron J1800 2.41 GHz CPU soldered to the motherboard)
• Chipset: embedded in the CPU
• Super I/O: Nuvoton NCT6776D
• Parallel ATA: none
• Serial ATA: two SATA-300 ports controlled by the CPU
• External SATA: none
• USB 2.0: five USB 2.0 ports, three at the rear panel and two available through a header on the motherboard
• USB 3.0: one USB 3.0 port, on the motherboard rear panel
• FireWire (IEEE 1394): none
• Thunderbolt: none
• On-board video: Intel HD, embedded in the CPU; one VGA and one HDMI connectors
• On-board audio: produced by the chipset together with a Realtek ALC662 codec (5.1 channels, 24-bit resolution, 96 kHz sampling rate, 98 dB SNR for the outputs, and 90 dB SNR for the inputs)
• On-board LAN: one Gigabit Ethernet port controlled by an Realtek RTL8111GR chip
• Buzzer: no
• Infrared interface: no
• Power supply required: ATX
• Slots: one PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot
• Memory: two DDR3-SODIMM sockets (up to DDR3-1333, 16 GiB maximum)
• Fan connectors: one three-pin connector for the CPU cooler, and one three-pin connector for an auxiliary fan
• Extra features: legacy serial and parallel ports at rear panel
• Number of CDs/DVDs provided: one
• Programs included: motherboard utilities and drivers
• More Information: https://www.asrock.com/
• Average Price in the U.S.*: USD 60.00

* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this First Look article.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

The ASRock D1800B-ITX is aimed at users who want to build a very inexpensive and compact desktop computer, for home and office applications. This board also provides a great value to commercial and industrial users who need a simple computer to control legacy equipment that use serial or parallel ports.

The motherboard has only the already few features of the Celeron J1800 chip: two SATA-300 ports and one USB 3.0 port. It is a lot less than most mainstream motherboards, but its typical applications will not need more than one hard disk drive anyway. The TDP of only 10 W is another highlight, since it allows you to save money on the power supply, cooling, and your energy bill.

The only features we actually missed were one M.2 (or even mSATA) slot and a Mini PCI Express slot to install a Wi-Fi card.