Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Barebone Review: Atom dual core performace is excellent and = low watts, March 25, 2009
>>>> UPDATE! mon 20 july 2009 <<<<
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I make a puzzle with tcpmp win32, and now with it you can play even 1080p
videos and others high bitrated videos with the intel GMA !
You can play HD content with it totally smoothly ! for eee pc as well
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This is the best low consuption computer.
COOL
> There is no hard drive, memory, or disc drive. So you can choose what you want and save money, and choose low power hard disk
> Only 30 W of power are required :-) Earth will thank you
> Atoms dual core performance is great, don't worry about it if you are planning using it like a server 24/7
BAD
> There is no wifi card
> Intel GMA video chip is slowly and crappy. Here is my recomendation:
You will realize, that you actually can't play high definition videos with the wife of the Atom processor, the Intel Graphics Media "Accelerator" (GMA). Frame skipping and audio cuts, will be totally a mess.
Can be frustrating, but there is a solution:
> Deactivate deblocking filter on all the codecs that support it (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC)
How ?
Install klite codec pack, and at the end of the setup, choose deactivate deblocking.
If you use build-in codecs player programs such GOMPlayer, there are options for quit deblocking filters.
This way you can play even 720p hardly encoded videos, you will see some blocks here and there, but no frame skipping or audio cuts.
Alternately, if you need more performance, you can choose 16bit of color depth.
FEATURES:
There is a:
1) cdrom/dvd bay, 2) mini pcie port, 3) wifi antenna -and rear socket for it- 4) rear jacks for 7.1 speakers system -and line-in/out and mic- 5) one frontal speakers jack 6) one frontal microfone jack 7) two frontal usb ports 8) four rear usb ports 9) one rear ethernet jack 10) one rear VGA port 11) one frontal SD/MMC card slot 11) two SATA internal ports -sata only- 12) CF internal port -compact flash port- 13) one DDR2 200-Pin SODIMM Laptop Memory RAM slot 14) 3.5 hard disk bay 15) one power button 16) one power supply 17) one disc with drivers/controllers 18) one vertical stand adapter 19) one multilanguage user manual
There is no:
1) reset button 2) wifi card 3) DVI port 4) IDE ports -sata only- 5) hard disk -must get it- 6) compact flash drive 7) dvd/cd drive 8) ram memory -must get it-
Enjoy your hardware.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gets the job done, low powered, June 20, 2009
I needed something that could run 24/7 as a file server that could be occasionally used as a Desktop. While I would not recommend this as an everyday desktop, it gets the job done.
Pros:
Size
Solid Build - High quality contruction, feels like a mini business class desktop.
Low Power Usage
Took only 10 minutes to install ram, hard drive and dvd burner.
External power supply reduces heat (laptop type ac adapter).
For much less than $300 I was able to build a 1tb file server that will outperform just about any NAS in that price range.
Cons:
No WDDM 1.1 support for the 945 chipset. This cripples Aero performance when using Windows 7. No linux drivers for this chipset, forcing VESA drivers.
Loud - The single fan is louder than I expected. I'm looking into replacing the fan.
You can not run 2 hard drives at the same time due to power limitations. Not an issue for most people, but worth a mention if somebody is planning on using the ODD sata port for a 2nd hard drive...
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Other thoughts:
After reading rave reviews of Windows 7's performance on netbooks I thought this would be a no brainer. I did not take into consideration the low netbook resolution which is much easier on the graphic chip than my 19" monitor is. Disabling some visual effects like transparent windows and animations helps, but Windows XP may be a better option for everday use.
Edit: After trying everything from Ubuntu to Windows 7, I've found that Windows XP runs better than anything else on this. Everything works the way you would expect it to in XP, while everything else either suffered from less than full hardware support or inconsistent performance. (end edit)
Built in CF slot is perfect for a permanent ready boost solution.
Performance is exactly what I expected. A quieter fan and a chipset that supports WDDM 1.1 would have earned it a 5th star. No regrets here...
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Notes on Amazon:
My first order was dead on arrival. Amazon got a replacement to me less than 17 hours after I submitted the return request. They paid for the return shipping and overnight shipping for the replacement. I can't say enough good things about Amazon.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Small, Low Power, Decent cable routing, Pleasant to work in., June 5, 2009
It's a pretty decent low power system, and MSI did add a couple of nice things I'll describe below. The box is a bit heavy for the size. If placed horizontally 's about the size of a VHS player (for those young ones, slightly taller than a slim DVD player, but not as wide.)
Hardware:
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PROS:
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- Even though it is not specified, the kit actually includes screws for both the Hard drive and the Optical drive. This was a nice surprise (I usually buy OEM drives which don't include screws), since I thought it may not have them.
- External passively cooled power supply. (it's just a brick, like a laptop's psu, so no noise)
- Small and sturdy, includes card reader.
- Awesome cable management - got to give them props 6 stars for how neatly organized everything is in there. Nothing is loose, the SATA disk drive cables are color coded and already set up for you in very neat fashion. Same with all the cables in there (LED cables all bundled together, etc).
- Passively cooled chipset and processor, no fan = no noise. Big aluminum heat-sink on to, covering both.
- Consumes about 40-50 watts on normal use (less than a regular lightbulb!)
CONS
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- The only fan gets loud constantly.
- Overheats a lot (I may have gotten a bad item - we'll see how it goes). But one design aspect that they chose to save money was using 1 big heatsink over both the chipset and processor. The problem is the uneven heights of these two, so they went cheap on us and added extra layers of paste for contact on the shorter item, which is not optimal at all. I saw temperatures of 89 degrees (Celsius!) almost 200 Fahrenheit. I would rank this item 1 or 2 stars, but I can't seem to change my rating now.
- No wifi card included. Just a bad decision, charge a few bucks more and include one. Having the antenna makes you think there is wireless included, plus these days people want/use wireless a lot.
- IMPORTANT - To make matters worse, they do not include an flat head (M2) screw, which you need to attach the wifi card onto the motherboard. If you plan on using the mini pci-express slot for wireless, please avoid unnecessary hassle and buy this screw. How much could it cost MSI about 2 cents? It would save a lot of heartache. It's an absolutely tiny screw, so chances of having an extra one that would fit are virtually zero.
Other thoughts (neutral comments)
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- Need to remove the drive cage to install the mini pci-e wifi card.
- Can't play HD content (I already knew this)
- Includes antenna for wifi card (nice, but I wish they had included the card as well, as it is, it's only a tease)
- Looks ok, but I wish the optical disk drive had a cover for it, to make it blend in more in a living room. Right now it is just the exposed drive (so you can't really re-use say, a white dvd drive). It is a little better in person though, the photos here aren't that good. I'll upload some photos soon, make sure to check them out.
NOTE:
I will add more details in a week or two after using the system some more.
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2115|R3EYFPBHOE6XYO;2115|R3CUNPTV0QAU6R;2115|R312W3NRG400PC;
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