SFF Roundup - Cebit 2004 by Article Admin
For my report on the state of play for Small Form Factor (SFF) PC systems at CeBit, I decided to tell you about the new or really exciting products, rather than to cover absolutely everything that was on show there. This is because a lot of SFF products on show, had already been seen and reported on, in my ‘SFF At Computex: SFF’s of the Past, Present, And Future’ article back in September last year. In that report I noted that due to the obvious explosion of products seen there, the SFF market had become mainstream...
At this show, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. Certainly, I already knew about some of the products I would see for the first time. Was there anything that I was ‘blown away’ by? Did I see anything that came as a total surprise? Read on and all will be revealed.....
ACorp
ACorp had a few surprises up their sleeve - a new series of barebones, most of which offer multimedia playback via the BIOS. This BIOS playback is based on the Elegent ‘ETBIOS’ - which was the World’s first multimedia playback BIOS extension.
The range comprises of:
Activa - Which comes in Intel 865G + ICH 5 and SiS661FX + 963 chipset flavors.
Access - These offer the same chipset choices as the Activa, but feature different styling.
Both these ranges come in a variety of models, each with extra features. For instance some models offer DVD, CD & MP3 playback from the BIOS, but also have TV tuner & PVR functionality built in..
ACorp’s new machines are sturdily built, with good styling and design features. The ETBIOS based playback is one of the best looking around.
AOpen
AOpen hit that market last year with their rather nice XCcube - which proved to be a range of well designed and rather quiet barebones. Following on from that we have some new variants, some which are restyles and some which offer additional features, or both. Their new systems offer a 220W PSU, which sits in the mid ground - most systems have at least 200W and some have 250w.
The surprise on their stand was their ‘Silensea’ perspex case. This features all the usual XCcube design features, in a really well designed clear perspex case.
Nice features were the see through PSU, well designed front button assembly and supremely tidy internal wiring.
Most clear perspex cases tend to look rather untidy, but due to Aopen’s attention to detail, this case really shows how it can be done properly!
Following on from some other their less esoteric SFF designs was the rather un-inspiringly named ‘A4 book’ - this system wouldn’t look out of place under the TV and has an in vogue mirror finish on the front and stealthed front drive bays..
With the Intel 865 chipset, (with support for upto a 3.6GHz Prescott CPU), Gig networking, SATA, card reader and mini-pci round off this attractive package. Again, Aopens attention to tidiness and build quality was apparent.
ECS & FIC
ECS - Elitegroup
ECS have had some success with their EZ-Buddie range and this show brought forth the follow up barebone, the EZ-Buddie 2. Just like it's predecessor, it has a gimmicky front panel that allows you to dynamically overclock the CPU (via an FSB increase) using a rotary knob on the front.
To be honest I never really spent much time looking at this system, as the CPU and volume knobs fell off when I used them. (I found this to be the case on any of the units I examined). The rest of the knobs had a badly engineered feel to them. The whole front panel flexed and with the pressure of one finger, the whole front panel could easily be depressed. Cheap and tacky and in now way impressive.......
FIC - First International Computer
Until now, FIC have had a small range of uninspiring SFF systems. But their stand revealed a couple of real gems!
First up was the 'Condor'. This barebone has the dimensions of the typical cube, but stood on end - so it's taller than it is wide. It based on the Intel 865 chipset, with one AGP and two PCI slots and of course, onboard everything. I found the styling to be attractive, with some mirrored finishes and all drive bays and I/O stealthed. Oh yes, it's also amazingly easy to open up.
Once opened up, you have easy access to the well designed innards. The CPU is conventionally cooled but clever ducting draws air in from the base of the case and expells the heat out of the top of the case - nothing fancy, but simple and logical. Looking closer also revealed an 250W PSU.
This machine is half way between the usual flex-ATX sized SFF cubes and u-ATX stuff which is generally regarded as not really SFF.
As you can no doubt tell, I really liked this machine.
Although appealing more to the office or corporate environment, the FIC 'Fish Hawk' offers the best performance via it's Intel 865GV chipset, with a very compact size. It also offers some rather nifty features such as DVI video output, a PCMCIA slot and silent running external DC PSU.
Crikey! What's this? Another Pentium4 based mini-iTX motherboard! The P4I-845GV board offers the features you'd expect, but nothing more than the competition. Dependng on price, this could be a very nice board. (Although interestingly, it only seems to have one PATA port and no floppy port).
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