The most recent articles from PC Magazine

Aopen XC Cube AV

PC Magazine staff — 2004-11-02T14:45:37.000Z

PC Magazine staff, PC Magazine, Tuesday 2 November 2004 at 14:45:37

A multimedia barebones PC that packs a punch

The current flagship of Aopen's SFF PC XC Cube range is the multi-talented AV multimedia barebones PC.

As well as the usual motherboard and CPU fan of normal barebones packages, the AV also comes with a PCI TV/FM card and its own Linux-based OS called Instanton. This OS takes up just 100MB of disk space and allows the AV functions to be ready to use within six seconds, great for playing DVDs, watching TV or listening to music.

The installation is easy and the accompanying booklet guides you through all the steps to get started. Instanton must be loaded before you install Windows or any other OS. For ordinary Windows, the Intervideo Home Theater application is provided. The Instanton DVD, audio and Home Theatre functions can be controlled via the supplied infrared remote control.

The system is well built and looks good in its black finish. It features a multifunctional front display panel and controls that light up blue when the unit is switched on. At the heart of the XC Cube AV is one of Aopen's own UX4SG-1394-II motherboards, built around Intel's 865G chipset.

This supports Socket 478 Pentium 4s with 400MHz, 533MHz and 800MHz FSB speeds up to 3.2GHz (including Prescott versions), but it may be wiser to install a less powerful CPU because of problems with the heat generated by larger processors.

The CPU cooling fan is very loud when the system is first switched on and, although the noise level drops after a while, the AV is not what you would call a silent PC. Two Dimm slots support up to 2GB of DDR266/333/400 memory, depending on which processor you fit.

To fit the processor and memory, the whole drive cage can be removed by undoing two screws. The drive cage contains a seven-in-one card reader, but if you don't mind empty slots in the front of your AV you can remove it and fit a second hard drive.

Above and below the card readers are the 5.25in and 3.5in drive bays. Aopen supplies a Sata data cable and specially shortened parallel ATA cables to use on any standard hard drive.

The integrated graphics supplied by the Intel 856G chipset is fine for everyday applications, but that's about the limit. For serious gaming you should add a decent 3D card in the AGP slot.

However, with the TV/Radio card sitting in the PCI slot, there's not much room to get rid of heat generated by the graphics card, and the graphics card will need to be a slimline model that doesn't need more than a single expansion plate.

Apart from these reservations, the XC Cube AV offers the chance to make a true multimedia PC in a format that will grace any room.

Shuttle XPC SB81P

PC Magazine Team — 2004-08-27T09:46:23.000Z

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine, Friday 27 August 2004 at 09:46:23

This small form factor PC from Shuttle is ahead of the game.

Shuttle has been at the forefront of SFF (Small Form Factor) PC design since the concept first saw the light of day, and its latest offering, the XPC SB81P, shows that it is still one step ahead.

The XPC SB81P is based on Intel's latest 915 chipset and 775-pin CPU socket and features some clever design updates.

It's a little taller and longer, and now has the 6-in-1 memory card reader positioned above the optical drive bay, hence the increase in height. The internals have been redesigned to allow the fitting of three hard drives - overcoming the lack of drive bay space that has been a problem with the format.

The removable drive cage unit has been redesigned to accommodate two extra hard drives across the top of the cage, using the special drive rails supplied; these are in addition to the standard 3.5in drive bay.

The Shuttle FB81 motherboard uses the RAID version of the ICH6 Southbridge, which supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 arrays. The core chipset is the 915-G, which incorporates the latest version of Intel's integrated graphics, the GMA 900. This is fine for everyday use, but if you want to play serious games with the SB81P you will need to install a PCI Express graphics card in the 16X PCX graphics slot.

The heatpipe technology that Shuttle uses to cool the CPU has always been one of the most impressive things about the Shuttle range. This system has been redesigned to take into account the increased heat generation of the latest Intel Prescott CPUs. There's now a dual-fan processor cooling system that has been moved to the front of the case.

Despite these two fans and a further two case fans, the SB81P isn't as noisy as we'd feared, mainly because the fans have new four-pin connectors that allow for more advanced cooling settings to be set in the BIOS.

Once again Shuttle has pushed the boundaries of what's possible with the SFF format and maintained an edge over its rivals. The SB81P could easily form the basis of a powerful desktop or even entry-level workstation system.

Contact: Microdirect (0870) 444 4456

www.microdirect.co.uk

Lian-Li PC-V2000

PC Magazine Team — 2004-07-22T13:55:05.000Z

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine, Thursday 22 July 2004 at 13:55:05

An ideal case for anyone with a number of drives.

Lian-Li's PC-V2000 is a huge full tower case complete with a set of castors so you can move it around. It's really more of a workstation/server case, but if you need space for a huge amount of drives, this is the case for you.

As with all Lian Li cases, the build quality is superb, with a good grade of aluminium used throughout. There are some neat touches, such as threaded washers to hold screws. This prolongs the life of the case as the screws can't rip out of the aluminium.

All the access holes for the cable runs are lined with plastic to save knuckles and cables from chafing.

This case excels in the number of design innovations it features.

The side panels are held in by a lock and thumbscrew. Undoing the trapped thumbscrew allows the lock to be pulled out, to release the panel, so you can see just how different the V2000 is.

The case is divided into internal sections. The motherboard is fitted in the top section while the drives and power supply sit in the bottom section under the floor that divides the two.

When fitted the power supply sits on top of a drilled aluminium plate that allows the PSU to draw cool air through the grill in the bottom of the case. In case you need more cooling there's space for two 8cm fans to be mounted directly above the PSU.

Two 12cm fans are pre-installed in the PC-V2000, one in the upper rear panel by the motherboard and the other in the front of the chassis. Both of these are rubber mounted, and the front one is filtered.

As mentioned previously, this case can hold a huge number of drives: six 5.25in and twelve 3.5in in two drive cages. The uppermost 5.25in bay has a drop-down door on it, so there is no need to hunt down a silver optical drive for this bay at least. Special fixing screws are supplied for the hard drives. With these screws the drives become tool-free, slipping into cages with sliding locks to lock drives into place.

To reach some of the bays you will need long data cables and you will have to choose your power supply with care - ones with stiff cables may not be able to reach the motherboard.

Lian Li supplies all the screws and bits you need to install everything into the case.

Contact Perfex (0870) 141 7161

www.overclock.co.uk

Specifications:

Format Full ATX tower
Dimensions (DxWxH)62.5x21.0x61.7cm
Weight 8.5kg
Drive bays 13 x 3.5in (1 external),6 x 5.25in
Expansion brackets 7
Front ports 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x audio, 1 x FireWire
Cooling fan 2 x 120mm
PSU rating no PSU

Antec SLK2650-BQE

Simon Crisp — 2004-07-22T10:40:15.000Z

Simon Crisp, PC Magazine, Thursday 22 July 2004 at 10:40:15

Antec's latest addition to its range of PC cases.

Another addition to Antec's Solution Series of cases, and the smaller sibling of the SLK3700-BQE (PC Magazine, April 2004), the SLK2650 is a compact midi tower model with the build quality and features that we have come to expect from Antec.

The black finish on the good quality steel chassis isn't the smooth piano-gloss finish of the LifeStyle range but rather a matt crackle finish.

Behind the door forming the top half of the front fascia are the externally accessible drive bays - four 5.25in and two 3.5in. Also behind the door are the power and reset buttons. The lower half of the fascia houses two USB ports.

Cleverly hidden behind the blanking plates for the 5.25in. bays is the mounting rail that allows you to remove drives tool-free once you've screwed on the supplied adapters.

The two smaller external drives are not tool-free and the mounts for these form part of the main hard drive cage. The cage accepts another two 3.5in drives and features rubber mounts to lessen the impact of any drive vibration.

The motherboard back plate is fixed but this doesn't present too much of a problem. The expansion plates are fixed by screws, but these are protected by a removable plastic cover which has a tiny storage area built into it to hold spare screws and accessories.

For cooling the SLK2650 comes with a rear mounted 120mm Antec low speed quiet fan, with options to fit 80mm fans in the front of the chassis and in the case's Air Guide. The Air Guide is an adjustable duct built into the side panel that sits above the CPU, providing cooling direct to the processor.

Included with the SLK2650 is one of Antec's own quiet SmartPower 350W power supplies. Antec supports the case with a three-year return to base warranty.

Contact: RiskFree (08700) 110700

www.riskfree.co.uk

Specifications:

Format Midi ATX tower
Dimensions (DxWxH) 42x21x42cm
Weight 7.3kg
Drive bays 4 x 3.5in (2 external),4 x 5.25in
Expansion brackets 7
Front ports 2 x USB 2.0
Cooling fan 1 x 120mm
PSU rating 350W

AOpen XC Cube EY65

Simon Crisp — 2004-06-03T13:49:40.000Z

Simon Crisp, PC Magazine, Thursday 3 June 2004 at 13:49:40

Save desk space with this small form factor PC from AOpen.

The latest addition to AOpen's popular barebones XC Cube range is the Intel-based EY65. This series does away with the dropdown doors for the floppy drive/card reader and the front port bay of the original XC Cube. Instead, there's a black panel for the bay and the front ports are left open.

Installed with AOpen's UX4SG-1394 motherboard, the EY65 has most of the integrated features we've come to expect from a small form factor PC.

The board uses Intel's i865G (Springdale) chipset and supports all Intel Northwood processors up to the 800MHz front-side bus (FSB) 3.2GHz P4.

On the downside, the large processor fan is a little noisy when first turned on.

The two DIMM slots allow for a maximum of 2GB of memory (up to DDR400) to be installed using the chipset's dual-channel memory support.

The chipset also supplies the integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 card. If you want to play serious games there is an 8X AGP slot. Thanks to the size of the case, it can happily seat a full-height card, as can the single PCI slot. Also integrated is a Gigabit Ethernet port, while a Realtek ALC650 controls the 5.1 audio.

Two Serial ATA (Sata) and two IDE ports are supplied, with the Sata solution producing the tidiest cable arrangement. AOpen supplies Sata data and power cables with one connector angled at 90§ to make fitting easier.

The barebones PC comes with a well written manual full of colour photos showing how to assemble the Cube.

Overall, the EY65 is a stylish addition to the family and comes close to beating Shuttle at its own game.

Contact: AOpen

www.aopen.com

Specifications:

CPU support Intel Pentium 4 Northwood processor
Chipset Intel 865G
Memory 2x DDR DIMM slots (PC3200)
Graphics Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2
Expansion slots AGP slot, PCI slot
E-IDE controllers 2 parallel ATA slots, 2 Sata slots
I/O 4xUSB 2.0, 2x6-pin FireWire, 1x4-pin FireWire, 2xPS/2, 2xS/PDIF, serial, parallel, LAN, VGA, 5 audio

Antec Aria

Simon Crisp — 2004-06-01T15:55:39.000Z

Simon Crisp, PC Magazine, Tuesday 1 June 2004 at 15:55:39

A small form factor case from Antec.

Small form factor (SFF) PCs are turning up more and more as the basis for mainstream systems. However, for some people they aren't big enough to take all the expansion cards they use. Antec's Aria is not only bigger than the usual SFF cases but unlike all the others it is not a barebones system - it's just an empty case.

Antec makes some of the best built cases around and the Aria follows that trend. Part of the Lifestyle range of cases that includes the popular Sonata and Overture cases, the Aria is large enough to accept microATX motherboards, which makes it a lot more flexible than the normal run of SFF PCs. While it is the same height as AOpen's XC Cube, it is some 50mm wider, mainly to accommodate the AGP and three PCI slots of a microATX motherboard.

Build quality is high, as we've come to expect from Antec, and it looks stylish, with a silver and black finish.

The chassis is made from aluminium, with removeable side and top panels allowing full access to the insides of the case. The side panels are made from two skins of aluminium with a plastic panel sandwiched between them, while the top panel is a single aluminium layer with a plastic panel, all of which keep the case weight down to a respectable 4.75kg.

The rear of the case is dominated by the 120mm cooling fan and the power supply, both of which are part of Antec's quiet component range. The large fan spins more slowly, thus reducing noise levels. The 300W power supply means that there's plenty of power for a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition or Athlon 64 and a powerful graphics card.

Antec also includes one of its Cyclone blower fans in an empty expansion slot, to aid internal cooling further.

One of the major plus points of the Aria is that it can take up to three 3.5in drives. At first glance, the one-piece aluminium removeable drive housing looks like it can accept only the usual single 5.25in drive and 3.5in drives, but there are screw holes for mounting one more 3.5in drive vertically on either side of the larger bay.

The top rear of the cage has a couple of rubber pads to aid in the reduction of case vibration from the drives. The larger of the two bays has a sprung dropdown door to hide any optical drive, so you don't have to match the colour of the drive to the outside of the case.

Built into the front of the case is a seven-in-one card reader that connects to a USB 2.0 header on the motherboard and is accompanied by two USB 2.0 ports, a 6-pin FireWire port and two audio ports.

The Aria is well designed and impressively built case, ideal if you want to slim down your tower PC but are put off by the lack of flexibility offered by most SFF cases.

Contact Perfex (0870) 874 0074

www.overclock.co.uk

Specifications:

Format MicroATX cube
Dimensions (DxWxH)33.5x26.9x20cm
Weight 4.75kg
Drive bays 3x3.5in 1x5.25in
Expansion brackets 4
Front ports Seven-in-one card
reader, 2 USB 2.0, 2 audio, 1 FireWire
Cooling fan 120mm
PSU rating 300W

Antec Overture

PC Magazine Team — 2004-05-20T17:01:23.000Z

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine, Thursday 20 May 2004 at 17:01:23

A stylish looking case that fits neatly on your desktop.

If you are in the market for a well constructed, well finished, full size desktop case, Antec's stylish Overture is well worth putting on your shortlist.

Built out of steel, the Overture is no lightweight, weighing 11kg including the power supply - an Antec TruePower 380watt unit using Antec Quiet PC technology.

Two thumbscrews at the rear of the case hold the top panel in place and once this is removed getting to everything is easy and straightforward. The Overture is large enough to take full size ATX motherboards and full height/length expansion cards.

The 3.5in hard drive bay sits near the rear, held in place by two screws and with rubber drive mounts. The power supply is positioned in the front left hand side of the case, on top of which are two more 3.5in drive bays, both with external excess. The 5.25in drive bay is tool-free, held in place by a large clip.

The front bezel holds the power and reset buttons, a FireWire port, two USB 2.0 and two audio ports.

Finished in the familiar gloss Piano Black of the Lifestyle series of Antec cases, the chassis sides and top are set off by the silver finished front bezel.

Contact: Perfex (0870) 141 7161

www.overclock.co.uk

MSI Mega 180

PC Magazine — 2004-04-01T11:56:13.000Z

PC Magazine, PC Magazine, Thursday 1 April 2004 at 11:56:13

A stylish barebones system from MSI.

The MSI Mega 180 is one of the latest small form factor (SFF) barebones system and is targeted at the style-conscious PC user.

Physically, the Mega 180 is as attractive as any small form factor unit we've come across. It has a dark but highly reflective front panel that contrasts with a coloured strip housing the main volume and power controls.

Installing additional components such as a hard disk drive is never easy in a case of this size, but the instructions provided are straightforward and colour photographs illustrate each step.

The unit is supplied with the nVidia Nforce2-based MS-6796 motherboard. This provides a single PCI and 8x AGP slots, as well as a pair of empty DIMM slots that are capable of accepting up to 2Gb of DDR266/233 memory in a dual-channel configuration. An integrated Geforce4 MX graphics card rounds things off.

The MEGA 180 is well specified. MSI has incorporated an MP3 CD player and FM radio tuner that can operate without the computer being switched on. These can be controlled via an infrared remote control - ideal for the living room.

There are 10/100Base-T LAN, S/PDIF in/out, four USB 2.0 ports and two FireWire ports for connectivity.

Contact: Scan (0870) 755 4747

www.msi.com.tw

Antec Super LANBOY

PC Magazine Team — 2004-03-08T12:11:57.000Z

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine, Monday 8 March 2004 at 12:11:57

The Super LANBOY case from Antec combines the advantages of portability and quietness.

Antec's original LANBOY was a lightweight aluminium case designed to be carried to and from LAN parties and even came with a carry strap.

The updated Super LANBOY adds features that were first seen on Antec's Sonata case to the original's portability, which mean the machine now runs almost silently.

It's nearly the same size as the Sonata, but the Super LANBOY is constructed from lightweight aluminium, giving it an empty weight of just 4kg, compared with 9.5kg for the Sonata.

Despite its compact size (Antec calls it a 'super-mini' case), it has enough space for nine drive bays: three 5.25in and two 3.5in with external access, plus a further four 3.5in internal bays.

These internal bays are identical-to the ones used in the Sonata. They are mounted sideways to the case, with tool-free drive trays with rubber washers. These drive trays and the side panels are the only tool-free parts of the case, and the motherboard backplate is fixed.

Dominating the lower portion of the front bezel is the 120mm Antec fan that's illuminated by a blue LED. Surprisingly, there's no air filter.

A second 120mm fan (not illuminated) is included for the rear panel, and both of the fans are rubber mounted to reduce vibration and noise.

Separating the air intake from the lockable fascia door is a panel with the power and reset buttons, and two USB 2.0 and two audio ports.

A novel touch is the inclusion of what Antec calls a tool box. Sitting beside the external 3.5in drive bays is a small plastic drawer with a sliding lid, which can be used to hold small items such as screws and standoffs.

As with most Antec cases, the Super LANBOY comes with an easy-to-use manual.

Contact: Perfex (0870) 141 7161

www.overclock.co.uk

Antec P160 Super Midi tower

PC Magazine Team — 2004-03-05T11:08:55.000Z

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine, Friday 5 March 2004 at 11:08:55

This case is from the Performance One range which features cases that combine the best of quiet PC and high performance case technologies.

The P160 is constructed from 1.2mm anodised aluminium with a silver-finished plastic front bezel and comes with an impressive list of features. But, as with most high end cases, there's no power supply.

In order to keep case noise down to a minimum, the P160 comes with a rubber-mounted Antec 120mm fan in the rear panel (there's another 120mm fan mount in the front should you need extra cooling) plus rubber mounts for the tool-free hard drive trays.

Also useful is the removeable motherboard tray, which makes building the PC so much easier than with a fixed backplate.

The P160 shouldn't disappoint in terms of drive bays. It has 10 in all: four externally accessed 5.25in, two external and four internal 3.5in.

The top two 5.25in drive bays have spring-loaded doors that open when the loading tray of the optical drive pushes against them.

The front of the case is dominated by three large air intakes. Behind these is a filter and, for cosmetic effect, there's a blue LED in the top of each intake.

The top of the front bezel houses an I/O panel that tilts up at 45 degrees, which is useful if you're standing the P160 on the floor. The panel houses two USB 2.0 ports, two audio ports and a single FireWire port as well as LED readouts for the two temperature sensors that are supplied with the P160.

These sensors are supplied on cables long enough to reach most parts of the case and the readout can be set to display degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit.

Antec also supplies a well written manual with the P160.

Contact: Perfex (0870) 141 7161

www.overclock.co.uk

HP Compaq T5700 Thin Client

Alex Arias — 2004-03-02T11:19:01.000Z

Alex Arias, PC Magazine, Tuesday 2 March 2004 at 11:19:01

Flexible, robust and powerful.

Thin clients are designed for areas where access to centralised applications is required. Although they've been around for many years, recent trends indicate a renewed interest in these products.

The t5700 is a solid state device that provides a robust and powerful thin client. It is available at two processor speeds, using either a 733MHz or at 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe CPU. These are known for their low power consumption, while their low heat generation removes the need for cooling fans. In addition, the lack of local drives or other moving parts should make for a highly reliable unit.

Flash memory can be upgraded to 512MB while a single DIMM slot takes up to 1GB of DDR-SDRAM system memory. This should provide greater flexibility with local applications or a better response with multimedia functions.

The onboard graphics are based on the ATI Rage XC chip with 8MB of dedicated memory and supports resolutions up to 1,600x1,200 at 16-bit colour with an 85Hz maximum refresh rate. Audio output is also included, along with a builtin microphone and four USB ports, and a single PCI expansion module can be purchased for £16 (ex. VAT).

The base operating system used is Microsoft's Windows XP Embedded.

The Altiris deployment agent with Citrix ICA Client 7 and Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol 5.2 support are pre-installed. The 18 terminal emulation modes should provide easier integration into the existing infrastructure.

Overall, as a high-end thin client the t5700 should provide a lasting and flexible investment, although the clients are just part of the puzzle within this type of infrastructure.

Contact: HP

www.hpstore.hp.co.uk

Specifications:

Dimensions: (DxWxH) 20.5x5.5x19.5cm
Weight: 1.39kg
CPU: Transmeta Crusoe 1GHz Memory 256MB Flash (512MB max, 256MB system (1GB max)
Graphics: ATI Rage XC 8MB
I/O ports: 4 USB, 1 RJ45, parallel, VGA, serial
Expansion: 1 x PCI slot (optional)
Resident: OS Windows XP Embedded
Resident browser: IE 6.0
Security: Kensington Lock slot
Warranty: 3 years RTB

Biostar iDEQ 200T & iDEQ 200V barebones systems

PC Magazine Team — 2004-02-06T15:12:04.000Z

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine, Friday 6 February 2004 at 15:12:04

With the popularity of the SFF (small form factor) PC increasing we review Biostar's barebones iDEQ in both AMD and Intel versions.

iDEQ 200T

The 200T is the Intel-based system, attractively finished in brushed aluminium with a silver plastic front bezel that contrasts with the rest of the chassis. The front bezel has a slide down panel to hide the 5.25in and 3.5in externally accessed drive bays.

Unlike other cubes, the iDEQ's case panels are split into three, all of which are tool-free, useful if you only want to access the AGP and PCI slots.

At the heart of the system is one of Biostar's own motherboards, based on the Intel 865G/ICH5R chipset combination, so you get 800FSB processor support, dual channel memory, integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 and Serial ATA RAID 0/1 support.

If you're not impressed with the integrated graphics then the motherboard provides an AGP 8X slot and there's also a single PCI slot.

With integrated LAN, 6-channel audio, two USB 2.0 ports and a FireWire port, it's hard to think what else you would want to add apart from perhaps a modem.

With a fan in the power supply, a case fan and a CPU fan, this isn't the quietest SFF system but it's not unacceptably noisy.

When you open the case for the first time you get a pleasant surprise. All the data cables are already attached to the motherboard and tucked neatly out of the way, so all you need to do is install your drives.

The 200T comes with two well written and illustrated manuals, all screws needed to fix the drives and Serial ATA and power cables.

iDEQ 200V

Externally identical to the 200T, the AMD-based 200V has at its heart a Biostar M7VBA motherboard. Using a VIA KM400 Northbridge it provides support for AMD Socket A processors with 200MHz, 266MHz or 333MHz FSB speeds up to an Athlon XP 3000+.

Also provided by the KM400 are the VIA UniChrome integrated graphics but, as with the 200T, there's an AGP 8X slot.

Two DIMM slots provide support for up to 2GB of PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200 RAM but only in single channel mode. There's also integrated LAN, six-channel audio and a front-mounted FireWire port.

VIA's VT8237 Southbridge provides support for up to eight USB 2.0 ports and the two Serial ATA ports. Serial ATA RAID levels 0 and 1 are supported.

There's room for two hard drives if you don't want to use the 3.5in externally-accessible drive bay for a floppy drive or multi-format card reader.

Like the 200T, it comes with illustrated manuals and all the fittings you need to get started.

Contact: Dabs.com

www.dabs.com

Price:

iDEQ 200T - £189.99 (inc. VAT)

iDEQ 200V - £144.99 (inc. VAT)

Beantech BT-85 Acrylic case

PC Magazine Team — 2004-02-04T11:59:19.000Z

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine, Wednesday 4 February 2004 at 11:59:19

Give your PC some individuality with this stylish PC case.

Are you fed up with your beige, black, grey, aluminium, blue, green or polka-dot case? Then maybe Beantech has the answer with the BT-85 Acrylic clear case.

If you are worried about electromagnetic shielding then read no further because the BT-85 doesn't have any - these cases are designed for demonstration purposes only, even though they're popular with overclockers.

Of all the acrylic cases that have at one time or another passed through VNU Labs, the BT-85 is the best one yet. Well built with all the edges polished and corners smoothly rounded off, the BT-85 is full of neat, simple design features.

A midi tower, the BT-85 has four 5.25in. and two 3.5in. drive bays with external access and five internal 3.5in. bays. These internal bays have rubber mounts that helps minimise any hard drive vibration.

For ease of installation, the motherboard plate slides out, making the fitting of the motherboard as easy as it should be. Not only that, but the expansion plates have threaded brass nuts embedded in them, making the retention of any expansion cards a breeze. Even the ATX I/O back plate is acrylic.

There are enough case fans to keep most enthusiasts happy. In total there are four 8cm fans pre-installed - two in the front panel, one in the side panel and one in the rear panel. These fans have sleeve bearings and are fitted with blue LEDs, and their speed can be controlled by a rotary knob at the front of the case. Also housed in the front panel are a FireWire port and two USB ports.

Beantech plans to offer a transparent power supply (price TBA), so you don't have to have a large grey block at the top of your case.

Contact: Beantech (0870) 162 0818

www.roscopc.com

AOpen H360 Mini ATX case

PC Magazine Team — 2004-01-23T15:58:44.000Z

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine, Friday 23 January 2004 at 15:58:44

A case for your desktop PC from AOpen.

If you're looking for a small desktop case or a Home Theatre case then maybe the H360 from AOpen may fit the bill. It can also be stood upright so it can be used as a book PC.

The first thing you need to realise is that this case is for MicroATX motherboards and because of the low profile it will only accept half-height cards, which may take some finding. The answer to this is to buy a motherboard with as much integration as possible.

The H360 is built from steel and has some nice design features and a stylish finish. Despite its small size; 336x99x405mm it's easy to work with.

AOpen supply the H360 with a 250W power supply. At first glance this may appear a little on the low side, but don't forget you won't be powering a multitude of drives so it should be adequate for a P4 or Athlon CPU.

A lot of thought has been put into the design of the main 3.5in. drive bay. It sits on the bottom of the case with the other drive bay cage on top of it. Most other manufacturers of this type of case would leave it there, not so AOpen. The bay is covered in ventilation holes and even the base of the chassis has ventilation slots built into it.

The other drive cage, with two more 3.5in drive bays, one of which has front access and a 5.25in drive bay can be removed, so drives can be added easily. AOpen supply tool free mounts for all the bays.

Front access to the drives in by two drop down panels, sprung in the case of the 5.25in bay, so tray loading optical drives can drop the door when the eject button is pushed. Behind another drop down door sit two USB ports, a FireWire port and two audio ports.

Contact: Dabs

www.dabs.com

AOpen EZ18 XCcube

Simon Crisp — 2003-12-12T10:15:55.000Z

Simon Crisp, PC Magazine, Friday 12 December 2003 at 10:15:55

PC Magazine's exclusive preview of AOpen's XCcube.

AOpen's first venture in the cube PC market is the XCcube, which is housed in a stylish, well-built white aluminium case. It's available in Intel (EZ65) and AMD (EZ18) versions. We looked at the EZ18 AMD version.

Housed in the 300 by 200 by 185mm case is one of Aopen's own UK79G-1394 Socket A motherboards, based on nVidia's nForce2-GT chipset. It offers support for 200-333MHz FSB Duron, Athlon and Athlon XP processors. The two DIMM slots can support up to 2GB of PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200 RAM. If you don't want to bother with the onboard graphics, there's an 8X AGP slot, as well as a single PCI slot, both of which can use full-height cards.

As with most new AOpen motherboards, the XCcube comes with useful utilities for BIOS updating, restoring, overclocking, fan monitoring and so on. The unit has a great design feature to ease installation - by undoing a thumbscrew, the hard drive cage pulls out at an angle to clear the case, which makes fixing the drive so much easier. A second 3.5in. drive bay is available with external access, hidden behind a drop-down panel. The 5.25in. drive bay also has a panel in front of it, hinged in such a way that it drops open when the drive tray comes out.

As with most cube PCs, the XCcube is highly integrated, with a rear I/O plate full of ports - two PS/2, two VGA, serial, S-video, FireWire, optical audio in, LAN, two USB 2.0 and three audio ports. If that wasn't enough, behind a drop-down panel on the front fascia there are a further two USB 2.0 ports, microphone and headphone jacks, 4and 6-pin FireWire ports, as well as another optical audio port. AOpen has also included an extra expansion plated that adds both a parallel and a co-axial RCA video socket to the ones available through the motherboard.

The CPU heatsink features a large fan, which when first started, is noisy. However, when it settles down, it's not too bad.

Contact: Mitek (01782) 566600

www.mitekcomp.co.uk