First Mini PC arrived.

[roma_turok]

It’s finally arrived, the first Mac mini PC clone. Our review system was supplied by Evesham, but the barebone chassis is manufactured by AOpen and has until now been known as the Pandora. Sadly this catchy name is gone and AOpen re-named it the miniPC, which is just plain boring. Anyhow, name aside, this is a really cool looking little machine – it arguably looks even better than the Mac mini, mainly due to its aluminium case.


Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Centre Edition 2005
Intel 2GHz Pentium M 750 processor
512MB DDR-2 533MHz RAM
DVD/CD-RW/Dual Layer DVD-RW drive
80GB 5400rpm hard disk
Integrated Intel 915 graphics



To review:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=2284

[yoda313]

A 2ghz processor???? Whats the value in that? You can get 3ghz easily in a regular pc desktop.

[Gregg]

The value is in using it as HTPC.

[gll99]

80GB 5400rpm hard disk

Why not at least 7200rpm and maybe 200 gb? Initial costs couldn't be that much more at the manufacturing level or is there a heat or power supply issue?

[yoda313]

The value is in using it as HTPC.

But if your going to go high end and use hdtv cards you're going to need a lot more cpu horsepower than that (for file conversion that is). Hopefully for those that want this size unit it can be seriously upgraded otherwise its applications would be limited.

[roma_turok]

80GB 5400rpm hard disk

Why not at least 7200rpm and maybe 200 gb? Initial costs couldn't be that much more at the manufacturing level or is there a heat or power supply issue?

I think its notebook type drive, all notebook hard disks 5400rpm.

And yoda313 love the Ninja Turtles join to STAR WARS Force

[ROF]

Definitely not worth the price being asked with the components provided. You can build much better or the same machine at half the cost and put it into a mini-case if so desired.

[mbellot]

80GB 5400rpm hard disk

Why not at least 7200rpm and maybe 200 gb? Initial costs couldn't be that much more at the manufacturing level or is there a heat or power supply issue?

I think its notebook type drive, all notebook hard disks 5400rpm.

Nope, you can get 7200 RPM notebook drives.

My guess would be they went with 5400 for the same reason Tivo did: Heat.

Its a small case that looks poorly ventilated which probably also accounts for the 2GHz vs 3GHz processor, not to mention 2GHz makes the power supply requirements just a little easier to meet.

Its all about tradeoffs when you're trying to make a small, quiet package like this.

And there's no way in hell I'd buy one.

[jagabo]

It's a 2 GHz Pentium M processor -- Intel's low power notebook CPU. The fastest Pentium M is currently 2.1 GHz. A 2 GHz Pentium M performs somewhere between a P4 3.0 and 3.5 GHz -- with far lower power consumption. So it's no slouch.

There is some confusion though, the P-M 750 is a 1.86 GHz processor. The text of the article says 760, which is the 2 GHz CPU.