Pros And Cons

07:00 - Wednesday 4 August 2004 by Siggy Moersch
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: 13, barebones, reviewed, are, anything, but, square

Table of content:
7 – Pros And Cons
  1. 1 – Searching For The Quiet Barebone
  2. 2 – The Way It Should Be
  3. 3 – The Way It Should Be, Continued
  4. 4 – Test Candidates With AGP Graphics Slot
  5. 5 – AOpen XC Cube AV (EA65): The Multi-talent
  6. 6 – Under The Hood
  7. 7 – Pros And Cons
  8. 8 – AOpen XC Cube EX65: Design Is A Matter Of Taste
  9. 9 – Under The Hood
  10. 10 – AOpen XC Cube EY65: A Lot Of Intel Platforms
  11. 11 – Under The Hood
  12. 12 – ASUS Terminator 2 T2 Offers An Arnold Double Team
  13. 13 – Under The Hood
  14. 14 – Pros And Cons
  15. 15 – MSI MEGA Barebones: Two Unequal Brothers
  16. 16 – PC Alert 4: Monitoring of the temperature and fan speed
  17. 17 – MSI MEGA180: The AMD Version
  18. 18 – Pros And Cons
  19. 19 – MSI MEGA865: Suitable For Intel Pentium 4 CPUs
  20. 20 – Pros And Cons
  21. 21 – Jetway MiniQ Twin: Two Users Simultaneously
  22. 22 – Under The Hood
  23. 23 – Pros And Cons
  24. 24 – Soltek QBic EQ3801A: AMD64 Power Barebone
  25. 25 – Under The Hood
  26. 26 – Pros And Cons
  27. 27 – Test Candidates Without An AGP Graphics Slot
  28. 28 – Under The Hood
  29. 29 – Pros And Cons
  30. 30 – Shuttle XPC ZEN: Smallest Barebone With External Power Supply
  31. 31 – Under The Hood
  32. 32 – Pros And Cons
  33. 33 – Test Candidates With A PCI Express Slot
  34. 34 – Under The Hood
  35. 35 – Pros And Cons
  36. 36 – Shuttle XPC SB83G5: VW Meets Barebone
  37. 37 – Under The Hood
  38. 38 – Pros And Cons
  39. 39 – Noise Measurements: All Candidates At A Glance
  40. 40 – Configuration Table
  41. 41 – Configuration Table, Continued
  42. 42 – Configuration Table, Continued
  43. 43 – Test Equipment, Continued
  44. 44 – Accessories: Useful, Useless And Comical
  45. 45 – Shuttles TFT In An XPC Design
  46. 46 – Shuttle XP17, Specifications
  47. 47 – Shuttle PC40: Upgrade To Quiet Power Supply.
  48. 48 – Lights Go On In The Peripheral Connectors
  49. 49 – Molex Connector: Let There Be Color
  50. 50 – RAM Freezer From Revoltec
  51. 51 – Area 51 Is Everywhere: The Aliens Have Landed.
  52. 52 – Conclusion

Pros And Cons

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Pros:

Multimedia functions without Windows; Good display and remote control; Parallel interface; DVI and S-Video support; Easy installation of hardware; Edges are ground down; TV and radio tuner; InstantOn software.

Cons:

Loud CPU fan; Poor cable routing.
Brief Conclusion

The XC Cube AV from AOpen does everything that a multimedia computer can - and more. The TV and radio tuner card changes the barebone into a full-blooded video recorder and additionally plays MP3 or audio CDs. After switching on the XC Cube AV, it is ready to use within five seconds because Windows is not absolutely necessary for playing DVDs or CDs: the barebone has its own Linux-based operating system. But don't worry. Installing the InstantON Linux is user-friendly and the software installs itself almost on its own.

InstantON: a Renaissance machine with a Spartan configuration

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