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- Aopen miniPC SFF
- Asus EN7900GT Videocard
- 1000 Watt Powersupply
- IcyDock 3-SATA Rack
- Shuttle XPC SN27P2 SFF
- Biostart AM2-6100 mobo
- PCstats Weekly Tips
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AOpen's 'MacMini' Ultra miniPC Reviewed
Hello,
Apple may produce
trendy computers, but most of us on this side of the fence
aren't willing to leave behind all that the x86 PC offers. If you
know where to look, you'll find incredibly cool, tiny little Intel-based
PCs like the AOpen miniPC
MP915B that offer the same compact features as that of
the alluring Apple MacMini. With a solid metal chassis, slot-loading
DVD
writer and single glowing button, the sheen of this ultra mini
computer belies the cutting edge technology inside. If you do nothing
else today, take a stroll through PCSTATS review of the
Aopen miniPC.
At the other end of the
spectrum is the massive 1000W PC Power and
Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW powersupply. It's big, its heavy, and it pumps
out 70A of
power for some really serious enthusiast computer action.
Need more hard drive
space in your computer? The IcyDock
MB453SPF-B squeezes 3 SATA drives into 2 CDROM bays, and makes
them hot swappable too. Also in this issue: the
Shuttle xPC SN27P2 small formfactor PC,
Asus En7900GT Top videocard, and
Biostar TForce AM2 motherboard.
Thanks for reading,
Max Page
Editor-in-Chief, PCstats.com
There is no doubt that Small Form
Factor computers have revolutionized the way technology fits into the
home, and our lives. AOpen's mini PC's are some of the most
innovative machines we've seen in a long time, and what really sets this
small silvery box apart is that its essentially built with laptop
components. The sleek looking AOpen mini PC
MP915-B (Super Multi) system is 165x50x165 mm in size and weighs just
over 1.5kg when fully loaded... and it kinna reminds you of a MacMini
doesn't it? The AOpen mini PC MP915-B (Super Multi) system is based on
the Intel 915GM chipset and supports Socket 479 Pentium M processors. There
is a single DDR-2 slot which accepts up to 1GB of DDR2-533 memory.
On devices packed into the dictionary sized PC includes Gigabit
networking, 5.1 sound, Firewire, an Intel GMA900
videocard and even a dual layer slot
loading DVD writer!Continue Here>>
At first glance, the Asus
EN7900GT TOP/2DHT/256M/A looks like a normal GeForce 7900GT... Closer
inspection shows that it is a highly tuned videocard that is faster than
the average stock
7900GT. The 256MB Asus EN7900GT
TOP/2DHT/256M/A videocard is compatible only with PCI Express x16
slots so that means AGP users needs to get their fix elsewhere. The game
comes with a large software bundle and DVI to analog converters. The Asus
EN7900GT
TOP/2DHT/256M/A can connect to the television via a couple of
different methods; through S-Video and component output for high
definition televisions.Continue Here>>
Aside from perhaps the optical drives, the power
supply is the most underrated component inside the modern PC. The new PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1
Kilowatt power supply is easily the biggest
and baddest computer power supply on the market. This power
supply has the ability to deliver 1kW of power
continuously, and has a peak rating of 1.1kW! The PC Power &
Cooling Turbo-Cool 1 Kilowatt power supply has three +12V
rails with the ability to deliver 66
Amps of continuous current (70A peak). It is almost twice as long as a standard ATX power supply,
and pretty heavy. Like many of the other power supplies that have passed
through the PCSTATS test labs, the PC Power
& Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW supports
Active PFC.Continue Here>>
A multi-bay backplane module is a box the size of
a couple optical drives stacked on top of one another that stores a
handful of serial ATA hard drives in compact, individually
hot swappable drive caddy's. When internal hard drive space in a
computer case is full, or if quick access to hard drives is called for,
this box will allow you to add up to
three SATA hard drives in the space normally occupied by two 5.25"
optical drives. IcyDock call this module the MB453SPF-B, and it
provides a convenient way to increase data storage capacity in the smallest
possible volume of drive bay space. Furthermore, the multi-bay module
is effectively transparent. In other words, data transfer
speeds are identical
to the hard drive plugged directly into the
motherboard SATA header. Continue Here>>
Shuttle's latest Small Formfactor PC is its XPC
SN27P2 which is based around nVIDIA's nForce
570 Ultra chipset and supports 940-pin socket AM2
Athlon64 X2/FX and Sempron
processors. It handles a whopping 8GB of
memory. The BTX-style motherboard layout means you can
install a PCI Express x16 videocard with a dual-slot heatsink! Other
standard features integrated into the nVidia nForce 570
Ultra chipset
include Gigabit Ethernet LAN, 7.1 channel audio,
SATA2 that offers up RAID
0/1/0+1/5, an external Serial ATA II jack and the full gamut of nVidia
nTune, FirstPacket and MediaShield technologies. Overall theShuttle XPC
SN27P2 Small Formfactor barebones
PC is a great package.Continue Here>>
nVIDIA's integrated
GeForce 6100 is on par in both 3D abilities and feature sets as other
stand alone entry level videocards. To anyone on a tight budget looking to
get the most from their computer, a motherboard with this kind of
chipset offers a tone of value. The Biostar
TForce 6100 AM2 motherboard packs quite a lot into a microATX
platform; top of the line integrated graphics, PCI Express, networking,
SATA and IDE hard drive support, and integrated sound card. The Biostar
TForce 6100 AM2 should be a good little
workstation motherboard, perfect for one of the new Socket
AM2 Sempron 3600+ or Athlon64 3800+ processors.Continue Here>>
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PCstats Weekly Tech Tips: Taking Care of Vista |
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With the latest Windows Vista beta available to the public, many have jumped onboard to give the new OS a shot. One of Vista's new features that is supposed to protect the system from malware is called the User Account Control (UAC). If you have the "Protected Admin" access, you can normally run privileges as standard users. Yet in order to run apps or tools that require admin level preiviledges, the UAC admin tool promps to ask you whether you want to go ahead. While this sounds like a good feature on paper, in real life it is incredibly annoying.... since there are a whole host of legitimate applications that require administrative access and the UAC prompts every single time.
If you're a fairly experienced computer user you can disable this feature from within Windows Vista beta. First go to your "Control Panel" then open up "Administrative Tools", from there double click on "System Configuration" and click "Continue" to accept the UAC prompt. Now select the Tools tab and scroll down and select "Disable UAC" then click "Launch". After that's done reboot your computer and you're all set. The little annoying UAC prompt which pops up all the time will no longer ask you about running with administrative access. It's less secure, but I think most people have a pretty good handle on PC security these days so operating without UAC is allowable for most individuals.
Was Colin's tip as good for your PC as it was for his? Let PCSTATS know what you think, and be sure to stop by PCSTATS Forums and post your comments or questions. |
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PCstats Issue
No.216
Circulation: 176,908
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