AMS e-Cube EG65 Review - Specifications
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Manufacturer: | AMS |
| Product: | e-Cube EG65 |
Price: | USD$329 MSRP |
Availability: | NOW |
Reviewed By: | Jim "Justi" Miller |
Review Date: | August 2003 |
AMS e-Cube EG65 Barebones System Review
MANUFACTURERS SPECIFICATION:
Rather than a lot of prose or paraphrasing, let me just show you exactly what the manufacturer has to say about this product and it's components...
You'll notice that this thing does not hold back when it comes to features. With support for 8x AGP, Serial ATA, USB 2.0, on-board LAN, video, and sound, this system is slightly more than a normal barebones PC, especially considering it's size..
Let's take a look at a few of the important features up close.
Intel 865G Chipset:
The 865G is a bigtime chipset in every way. Sporting every feature you'd look for in a performance PC the 865G allows the e-cube to push out huge performance in it's little package.
Rather than list two pages worth of chipset info that would be largely reduntant I'll simply link the Intel page that shows everything you could ever want to know about the 865G. So, CLICK HERE if details are your thing and you want to see the full menu of features.
Intel Extreme Graphics 2:
The mere phrase "On-board Video" makes me wanna run as fast as I can in the opposite direction. As a gamer, and certainly in a gamers box, we typically are very picky about the graphics adapter we run. When I first looked at the specifications of this Intel Extreme Graphics 2 I saw something I didn't expect, potential...
| FEATURES | BENEFITS |
| Multi-texture | Useful for creating light maps, atmospheric effects, and more |
| 2kx2k texture | Enables desktop-size textures |
| Cube reflection textures | Enables environment specular reflections |
| Render-to-texture | Allows auto-generation of texture on the fly |
| Projected textures | Projects textures onto other objects |
| DOT3 bump-mapping | Models realistic surface details |
| Destination alpha blend | Creates effects like force fields, flames, or plasma beams |
| Point sprites | Provides particle systems for atmospheric effects such as snowfall |
| Per pixel fog | Enables depth-cruising or hidden objects |
| Alpha blended sub-picture support | Enables softer effects for captions and subtitles |
| Anisotropic filtering | Provides high quality views of oblique surfaces |
| Hardware motion compensation | Provides high-quality DVD playback |
| 5x2 overlay | Delivers smooth scaling of DVD playback |
| Intel® Digital Video Output (DVO) | Extends the integrated graphics engine to support digital FP and TV-out |
| Dual display | Supports synchronous display on analog and digital ports |
Specifications Enhanced 2D
- 256-bit internal path
- 8/16/32bpp
- DirectDraw*, GDI, GDI+
- Anti-aliased text support
- Alpha blending
- Alphas stretch blitter
- Hardware alpha blended RGB cursor
- Color space conversion
- 5x2 overlay support
- Rotate, scale and translate operations
High-performance 3D
- 256-bit internal path
- 32bpp/ 24ZorW/ 8 Stencil
- DX7*/DX8*/OGL*1.1
- DXTn texture compression
- Up to 4 textures / pixel on a single pass
- Cubic reflection map
- Embossed/DOT3 bump mapping
- Multi-texture
- DOT3 bump-mapping
- Point sprites
Video and Display
- DirectShow*/DirectVA*
- Hardware motion compensation support for DVD playback
- 4x2 overlay filter
- 350 MHz DAC frequency
- Maximum DVO pixel rate of up to 330MP/s
- Flat panel monitors and TV-out support via AGP Digital Display (ADD) cards
- 350 MHz DAC for 1800x1440 @ 85Hz max CRT resolution or 2048x1536@60Hz max FP resolution
- Synchronous display for dual monitor capabilities
- 350MHz RAMDAC for up to QXGA analog monitor support
- Dual DVO ports for up to QXGA digital display support
- Multiple display types (LVDS, DVI, TV-out, CRT)
Now this is obviously no Radeon 9800, or even 9600 for that matter, but one can't help but admit that it's not too shabby for on board graphics. We actually tested the on-board Extreme Graphics 2 quite a bit (see the benchmark section) and while this isn't exactly a complete answer for a gamer, it's not too shabby either..
Let's head to page three and assemble this system so we can get to some testing. :)
Next: System Assembly >>
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