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Sudhian Staff
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« on: June 02, 2004, 09:33:13 AM » |
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Iwill ZMAX-AP P4 SFF Review
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Sudhian Staff
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Posts: 43
Join Date: Aug, 2002
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« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2004, 09:33:13 AM » |
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Iwill is no stranger when it comes to the small form factor game. A while ago they released their XP4 and ZPC SFFs. The XP4’s made perfect little office machines due to their compact form and simplistic nature. The thing with the XP4s and ZPCs were they utilized Intel’s 845GV chipset; which lacked support for external AGP graphics cards. This steered users who were looking for a tower replacement away from Iwill solutions. This proved to be a problem for Iwill, as they were once known for producing products that was praised by the overclocking world. It’s been a while since the last ZPC and XP4s were launched, but Iwill is back in the game with a brand new small form factor system with all the bells and whistles. The new SFF is dubbed ZMAX and features a totally new design. According to Iwill, all their SFFs will be consistently named with a Z prefix. Read the rest of the review. |
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fall-apart
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« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2004, 11:00:13 AM » |
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I had the Jaws music running through my head when I first saw the tail fin, but the extra features are welcome. It seems we've now reached the point where a flashy front panel doesn't cutit with users anymore, so the manufacturers are starting to put in useful extras.
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BlueMax
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« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2004, 11:09:10 AM » |
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Edit: This was a post where I whined a bit.
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BlueMax
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« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2004, 11:17:04 AM » |
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BTW..... this is Iwill's second machine with AGP. There was an XP4-G if you remember....  Overall, the ZMAX isn’t too shabby, while the motherboard has its shortcomings; Iwill’s first AGP SFF solution has been a relatively good attempt. |
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Tuan Huynh
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« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2004, 12:32:50 PM » |
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Hmmm, I always figured that it was one PCI only, never noticed the XP4-G.
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darksynth
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« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2004, 01:36:27 PM » |
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that wifi fin looks an aweful lot like my xm radio reciever.  |
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Joel
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Join Date: Mar, 2002
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« Reply #7 on: June 02, 2004, 02:01:43 PM » |
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We reviewed it.  Nice little box. Its still my traveling SFF. And Blue, what're you so upset about? |
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TheEagleCD
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« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2004, 02:43:44 PM » |
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The case looks pretty good in my eyes even though I can imagine that the bright LEDs on the front become annoying after some time. Why don't companies include a simple on-off switch? The best part of this system is certainly the Mini-PCI slot and as fall-apart put it (I'm just gonna quite as I couldn't say it better) we've now reached the point where a flashy front panel doesn't cutit with users anymore, so the manufacturers are starting to put in useful extras. I'm certainly keeping an eye on Iwill... BTW, BlueMax, why are you so upset?  Regards, TheEagleCD |
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BlueMax
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« Reply #9 on: June 02, 2004, 03:19:10 PM » |
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Edit: This was a post where I whined some more.
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Jasper
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« Reply #10 on: June 02, 2004, 06:11:37 PM » |
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Blue - we've had an ongoing relationship with Iwill for 4+ years now. We appreciate any help you may have given us, but Iwill is always very eager for us to review their products, especially their SFFs.
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Joel
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« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2004, 06:40:44 PM » |
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Blue,
We saw an early ZMAX prototype demonstrated at Comdex and discussed reviewing it at SFFTech then. I've discussed it with my IWILL contacts several times since. I've worked closely with IWILL in particular for a period of time, and handled the reviews of their last two SFFs, plus several server boards. If you'd like to talk about this further feel free to PM, but at no time was the unit "yanked out of your hands" as far as I am aware--and I was one of the people who set up the review.
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PhoShizzle
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« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2004, 07:00:41 PM » |
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can we have a better description of how the cooling works? Is the radiator for the heatpipes integratedi into the back of the power supply?
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Tuan Huynh
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« Reply #13 on: June 02, 2004, 07:04:29 PM » |
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The cooling is just a generic heatpipe solution.... heat pipes absorb heat from the plate that makes contact with the processor, heat rises through the pipes and is dissipated by the fins. The PSU fans exhaust the air out of the case.
It's pretty standard.
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BlueMax
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« Reply #14 on: June 02, 2004, 08:07:29 PM » |
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Edit: This is where I just crawled under my desk to sob uncontrollably. No SFF for me. No cash, no toys. I'd say it sucks to be me, but I have a wonderful wife and child. Makes the sucky job and poor finances almost bearable. |
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Joel
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« Reply #15 on: June 02, 2004, 10:05:30 PM » |
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Blue, I'm sorry to hear there was an evident miscommunication on this issue. Sudhian / SFFTech is always interested in potential new writers, if you're genuinely interested in this PM or email me at Joel.Hruska@nospam-sudhian.com and we can talk about it further. (remove the 'nospam- if you actually email) |
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Adam
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Join Date: Jun, 2002
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« Reply #16 on: June 03, 2004, 02:13:40 AM » |
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I find the inclusion of the eSATA port quite curious... While at first this seemed rather dubious, it rather makes sense in a small form factor box where you may not have room for your desired amount of expansion. Good to see manufacturers like IWill taking some risks here.
Adam
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beeblebrox87
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« Reply #17 on: June 03, 2004, 02:50:46 AM » |
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Anybody know how big these things are? Looks like an awesome system (I really like the dual opteron version) but I can't tell from the pics whether it's small enough to really count as SFF. Dimensions would really help put it in perspective, but nothing posted so far seems to list them. |
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Joel
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« Reply #18 on: June 03, 2004, 03:12:07 AM » |
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Frankly I want more motherboard manufacturers to include eSATA ports, hopefully with a sturdier cable that's more resistant to coming loose. When you consider that eSATA can transfer at the same rate as internal SATA, and at the same low CPU usage, I'll take that over USB 2.0 ANY day.
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Tuan Huynh
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« Reply #19 on: June 03, 2004, 10:21:13 AM » |
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Its the size of a Shuttle with an extra half inch in height and width.
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foolish501
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« Reply #20 on: June 03, 2004, 04:30:53 PM » |
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this isn't the only sff out there to have the agp slot on the inside, biostar put the agp slot on the inside with their ideq systems, was the reason i upgraded from a shuttle to biostar, so i could try out a geforce fx 5900
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Tuan Huynh
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« Reply #21 on: June 03, 2004, 05:50:15 PM » |
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Never seen a Biostar up close. I really don't like it. :-/ I like Shuttle's placement better, PCI card doesnt block air to the graphics.
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PhoShizzle
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« Reply #22 on: June 03, 2004, 07:37:42 PM » |
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Well the slot config makes it possible to use super quiet vga cooling solutions like the one by arctic cooling
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Joel
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« Reply #23 on: June 04, 2004, 03:12:50 PM » |
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It'd also be theoretically possible (on some cards) to use the larger passive collers that don't use fans at all, but require 2x slots. There's plusses and minuses to either type of configuration; personally I'd prefer the standard, but that's just me.
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BlueMax
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« Reply #24 on: June 04, 2004, 09:16:10 PM » |
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Quote
Originally posted by: Joel
Blue,
I'm sorry to hear there was an evident miscommunication on this issue. Sudhian / SFFTech is always interested in potential new writers, if you're genuinely interested in this PM or email me at Joel.Hruska@nospam-sudhian.com and we can talk about it further.
I forgot to mention.... you have mail. |
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