Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Solutions > Desktops > 13 Barebones Reviewed Are Anything But Square

13 Barebones Reviewed Are Anything But Square

07:00 - Wednesday 4 August 2004 by Siggy Moersch

1. Searching For The Quiet Barebone
2. The Way It Should Be
3. The Way It Should Be, Continued
4. Test Candidates With AGP Graphics Slot
5. AOpen XC Cube AV (EA65): The Multi-talent
6. Under The Hood
7. Pros And Cons
8. AOpen XC Cube EX65: Design Is A Matter Of Taste
9. Under The Hood
10. AOpen XC Cube EY65: A Lot Of Intel Platforms
11. Under The Hood
12. ASUS Terminator 2 T2 Offers An Arnold Double Team
13. Under The Hood
14. Pros And Cons
15. MSI MEGA Barebones: Two Unequal Brothers
16. PC Alert 4: Monitoring of the temperature and fan speed
17. MSI MEGA180: The AMD Version
18. Pros And Cons
19. MSI MEGA865: Suitable For Intel Pentium 4 CPUs
20. Pros And Cons
21. Jetway MiniQ Twin: Two Users Simultaneously
22. Under The Hood
23. Pros And Cons
24. Soltek QBic EQ3801A: AMD64 Power Barebone
25. Under The Hood
26. Pros And Cons

27. Test Candidates Without An AGP Graphics Slot
28. Under The Hood
29. Pros And Cons
30. Shuttle XPC ZEN: Smallest Barebone With External Power Supply
31. Under The Hood
32. Pros And Cons
33. Test Candidates With A PCI Express Slot
34. Under The Hood
35. Pros And Cons
36. Shuttle XPC SB83G5: VW Meets Barebone
37. Under The Hood
38. Pros And Cons
39. Noise Measurements: All Candidates At A Glance
40. Configuration Table
41. Configuration Table, Continued
42. Configuration Table, Continued
43. Test Equipment, Continued
44. Accessories: Useful, Useless And Comical
45. Shuttles TFT In An XPC Design
46. Shuttle XP17, Specifications
47. Shuttle PC40: Upgrade To Quiet Power Supply.
48. Lights Go On In The Peripheral Connectors
49. Molex Connector: Let There Be Color
50. RAM Freezer From Revoltec
51. Area 51 Is Everywhere: The Aliens Have Landed.
52. Conclusion

Many choices, few run quiet

Consumers increasingly want a second PC or want to put a PC in the living room. There is still a great deal of hesitation because many people still don't know whether a barebone (also known as mini-PC) can replace a PC, a DVD player and/or a video recorder. The answer is clearly yes. Correctly configured, one single barebone does all these tasks - with panache.

Equipped with the right hardware and software, a mini-PC is a true Renaissance machine when it comes to video and audio formats. In fact, provided it has a TV tuner card - whether analog or digital - the mini PC can replace any video or DVD recorder. And to top off its feature set, the barebone PC can also serve as a regular work or gaming computer.

Due to its compactness, the case cannot be upgraded with hardware at will - space is simply too tight. A midi tower can accommodate multiple 5.25" drives and hard disks, but the space in the interior of a barebone is maxed out at one hard disk and one drive. Once again, it is a matter of size. If you want to install more, the case will have to be larger and you can no longer opt for a mini PC. But, who wants to install a PC tower in the living room, anyway? A slick barebone in black or silver would be much more preferable.