Customer Reviews

CompuLab fit-PC2 XP HD, Atom Z530, Windows XP Home w/ CyberLink codecs, RAM 1 GB, HDD 160 GB

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Recently I decided to buy a second computer to use for web and multimedia (99 percent of what I do) and to leave the gaming machine off when not in use. The main reason for this was to reduce the my energy consumption while performing these low power tasks - the gaming machine was overkill. I combined the Fit-PC2, Thinkvision L1940P, and Windows XP. My energy consumption dropped from 240 watts to 30 with this combination. The Fit-PC2 is about one fifth the size of a laptop - tiny. I purchased the Fit-PC2 pre-loaded with Ubuntu 8.04. It ran well out of the box but certain applications were quite sluggish - Firefox web browser, and particularly multitasking. I upgraded to to Unbuntu 9 to see if the sluggish operation issues would clear up. Unbuntu 9 was much worse than Unbuntu 8.04 and in my opinion unusable. Over the next 3 days, I installed every version of Linux there was to see if I could get this machine working at an acceptable speed. Only 2 were fast on this machine: Slax Linux and Puppy linux. Both operated very fast with this machine and had the tools that I wanted to use for multimedia and web surfing, but some of their applications are out of date, particularly the web browsers would not support flash or other add-on type programs for web surfing. As a last resort, I pulled Windows XP Professional off of the shelf and installed it on my Fit-PC2 machine. I was certain that this machine would not have the power to handle a Windows install. To my surprise, when I booted up Windows XP this machine performed faster than even the tiny Linux installs. Windows XP Pro installed without a hitch on this machine, and it continues to perform almost as good as my 3000 dollar gaming machine for web and multimedia applications. By the way, I am able to play full screen videos off the web, off CD, off Netflix using this machine without skipped frames or slowdown. My current setup uses only 30 watts of power which is less than a third of what a 100 watt light bulb consumes. The Fit-PC2 itself uses about 10-12 watts of power as measured at the plug outlet by a Kill-O-Watt meter. I highly recommend this machine to anyone interested in reducing their energy consumption or reducing their carbon footprint.

When I bought this computer, I was expecting it to use it as a small, low cost of operation ($7 / yr for continuous operation) home server. I decided that before I set this up as a server, I would see how Windows 7 ran on it. I was surprised to find out that Windows 7 ran flawlessly once you let Windows Update automatically update all of the drivers, and restart a couple of times. Since installing Windows 7 on this machine, I have made the decision to stick with 7 permanently, because on this machine, it runs even faster than XP.

It's biggest, and most initially unnoticable benefit compared to a regular computer is that it makes almost no sound at all. I've been using this system for about a week now, and when I switch on my laptop to transfer some of my files, the laptop seems annoyingly loud in comparison. Two weeks ago, I would've told anyone that as long as a PC wasn't roaring, it doesn't really need to be quiet, but finally experiencing for myself what an almost noiseless computer system sounds like, has opened my eyes to just how much a little bit of silence can contribute to a good computing experience, and a reduction of overall fatigue.

When I was looking at the fit-PC2, one of the things I read about was its video decoder hardware. I thought that it was only a band-aid solution to not having a dedicated video card, but the fit-PC2 plays youtube and other online videos without dropping any frames whatsoever, even in fullscreen mode, which is something my 6-month old laptop with a Radeon HD 3400 video card cannot do reliably.

My only three complaints so far, are:
1. The USB connectors on the front of the enclosure are mini-usb ports, and in order to use them, you must purchase a separate adapter.
2. It only comes with 1 gigabyte of ram, and it is non-upgradeable. Windows 7 can combat this somewhat with ReadyBoost, and I recommend purchasing a very fast 2 or more GB USB flash drive, or a few smaller USB drives to work with ReadyBoost.
3. The computer heats up too much, and I worry about how long the hard drive will last at this temperature. I am considering attaching a few heatsinks, like the one Amazon sells here. 43 X 45 X 10MM HEATSINK

I would avoid recommending it to anyone who wants a computer for gaming, video editing, studio music production or tasks like that, but for simple word processing, database access, web browsing, light-to-moderate programming, home miniserver, or similar uses, it functions rather capably.

I bought this by pre-ordering directly from CompuLab and have been very pleased with its performance. I cloned the original 160GB 5400RPM drive with XP initially to a 320GB WD Scorpion Black (7200RPM) and cut the boot time to right around 30 seconds. I later went with a 30GB Vertex SSD since I was going to be in a more extreme environment (outdoors 24/7). The unit boots in 23 seconds from the SSD. I/O with the SSD is blazingly fast for an Atom-based system. In the observatory, I use this PC to run the mount, filter wheel, camera, and an autoguider along with Cartes du Ceil. The unit handles those concurrent jobs admirably and is completely silent. This tiny little unit tucks away into the mount very neatly and allows me to keep the cable runs very short. I too wish the USB ports on the front were full sized, but cables are available for those. I also wish the SD card slot was either full sized or micro sized - while micro cards do work with the Fit-PC2 you need a hard-to-find mini-SD adapter to use the micro cards (fast/large mini-cards are rare). I have found the unit to be very reliable and am thinking about buying another (diskless version).

Bought the winxp version of this as it was cheaper than the linux version at the time.

I've run it with both.

My application is an office pc, and streaming video server as well.

It is a good low wattage pc, though it gets quite warm in use.

It falls short on support for the intel video driver. Compulab ships the pc with the windows driver, but won't sell you another copy if your hard drive crashes. So, if your hard drive scrambles and you are depending on windows video acceleration, tough cookies.

On the linux side, it's hamstrung too. Although it runs Ubuntu linux, the fitpc has to update from compulab's own repositories. This keeps you a version or two behind the rest of the Ubuntu community. If you install Ubuntu yourself, you need to either tie into their repositories, or lose - you guessed it - the video acceleration drivers.

You can buy a version of this thing that goes on with power on, btw - that's a choice you have to make up front. Amazon's version doesn't do that, if the power goes off and then on again, the pc is going to remain off - and that modification can't be made in the field.

Oh - if it does get too warm, it slows itself down - can be frustrating if you don't know what's happening, the pc just gets slower and slower until you cool it a little bit....

The video out is hdmi - but does NOT include audio in the hdmi cable, that comes on a pc audio cable instead. Your TV might not be able to handle that.

So - if you NEED a super low wattage pc - and can live with the peculiarities - here it is. Otherwise, there are better choices for a few more watts and a little bigger footprint.

I've had the FIT-PC2 for 2 days now and my initial experience has been good.

I love the size and a construction of the unit. Well built, and no fan. Runs a little warm, but not excessively.

It ran flawlessly out of the box (Windows XP home) and worked with my Dell 22" monitor and an HD tv.

I am using it via wired Ethernet, but the wireless worked fine.

The only issue I found so far is when watching [...] the video is "choppy".
I don't this it's the network (I am wired and another computer on the same Lan works fine).
I am going to try Windows 7 on it next (I have a pre-release RTM copy).

I gave it 4 (out of 5) star, only because of the choppy video.

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1/5/2010 Update

I've upgraded the O/S to Windows 7 and while there is still some choppy video it's MUCH better. Very watachable.

I wish I had waited until the 2GB version was available, Only 1GB of memory is an issue for me. I am going to try using a USB flashdrive with "ReadyBoost" to see if this helps.

I've noticed on the web site [...] that the newer model (fit-PC2i) can be ordered with 2GB of memory and a 2Ghz CPU, but I don't see it available here on Amazon.com yet.

I would now rate it 4 1/2 stars.

I love this computer. It is so small and easy to carry. My only issue is that it appears to lock up if you leave if turned on for longer periods of time (days).

Ted