The Intel Processor N100 is a 6-watt, quad-core processor that’s part of part of Intel’s Alder Lake-N line of chips, which are designed for low-cost, low power laptops, tablets, and small form-factor desktop computers.
PC makers have introduced a bunch of Alder Lake-N mini PCs since Intel unveiled the processors earlier this year. Now ASRock has unveiled two motherboards with Intel N100 chips for folks that want to build their own PCs featuring the processors.
The ASRock N100M is an Micro ATX sized board that measures 226 x 178mm (8.9″ x 7″) and features a 24-pin connector for a power supply, while the ASRock N100DC-ITX is a Mini ITX board that measures 170 x 170mm (6.7″ x 6.7″) with an integrated DC input jack for a 19V power adapter.
Both systems feature an Intel N100 4-core, 4-thread processor with support for speeds up to 3.4 GHz and Intel UHD integrated graphics with 24 execution units and support for speeds up to 750 MHz.
And both have a single DDR4 DIMM slot for up to 32GB of DDR4-3200 non-ECC memory, an M.2 2280 socket for PCIe Gen 3×2 storage, and two SATA 3 connectors for a hard drive or SSD.
| ASRock N100DC-ITX | ASROCK N100M | |
| Processor | Intel Processor N100 4-cores / 4-threads Up to 3.4 GHz Intel UHD graphics (24 eu, up to 750 MHz) 6 watts | |
| Memory | 1 x DDR4 DIMM slot Supports DDR4 non-ECC un-buffered memory Supports up to 32GB | |
| Storage | 1 x M.2 2280 socket (PCIe Gen3x2) 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors | |
| Slots | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 1 x M.2 2230 (for WiFi & BT) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1 1 x M.2 2230 (for WiFi & BT) |
| Ports | 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 4 x USB 2.0 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 1 x HDMI 1 x VGA 1 x PS/2 1 x COM 1 x 3.5mm speaker out 1 x 3.5mm mic in 1 x 3.5mm line in 1 x DC power input (19V) | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 4 x USB 2.0 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 1 x HDMI 1 x VGA 1 x DisplayPort 1 x PS/2 1 x 3.5mm speaker out 1 x 3.5mm mic in 1 x 3.5mm line in |
| Dimensions | 170 x 170mm 6.7″ x 6.7″ | 226 x 178mm 8.9″ x 7″ |
The boards ship with heat sinks for passive cooling, allowing you to build fanless computing solutions. But there are also connectors that will allow you to add a fan if you’d prefer to trade silent operation for enhanced cooling.
There are also headers that can be used for additional USB connections, speakers, and other functions.
i would like to see an itx version with 4x i226-V 2.5gbe ports.
Good for basic computing, but you really need the n300-305 to even be able to play back modern games at 720p, medium settings. This N100 barely can run dx12 games at 480p.
Nice option for a low-power small machine with decent performance. Also looking forward to seeing the N100 in some budget laptops with good battery life. It would be a nice upgrade to the Celeron N4000 machine I’ve been using for the last 3 years.