Looks like Zotac is really going to jump on the ION bandwagon after all. EXpreview brings us news that Zotac is hard at work on their new Mini-ITX Ion based mainboard.

The new board looks like it will have everything needed for the small ION Based Nettops that could be cluttering the shelves soon. Wireless, the nVidia 9400M G, Three SATA ports, Two RAM slots and HDMI/DVI/VGA ports.

The interesting thing is no expansion slots, not even a single PCI-e 1x port. Makes for a very closed system. Many have asked if this is really a feasible platform as you can get a full C2D E6350 on a Mini-ITX board with a lower (and half-height) GPU with more power and for less than these initial ION systems will cost.

Either way the introduction of ION into the Netbook/Top waters will be interesting to watch.

Read more here.

Zotac IONITX-A-U and IONITX-B-E will be available first in Japan at Yen29980 (US$303) and Yen19980 (US$202) respectively.