AOpen EX65 SFF PC Review - Testing and Concluisions

Our testing hardware consisted of the following:

• Pentium 4 3.0GHz (with Hyper Threading enabled)
• 1GB of Crucial RAM (2x512MB)
• Western Digital 102AA IDE Hard drive

We pitted the system against itself, in order to see how the PBE could improve the system performance. Although the system is an SFF, the numbers we got weren't far off from those of larger systems with similar hardware, which is rather impressive.

*Not all test were completed due to the limitations of the 865G.

**Onboard Video could only finish one out of four tests.

*** It should be noted that the individual results in PCMark04 continually vascillated between the two settings, so the difference is not as large as it looks.

As can be seen, although the PBE adds a little speed to the system, it's not something most will notice unless overclocking. All tests were done without tweaking the system in any other way than to turning PBE on and selecting the "Load Turbo Defaults" option in the BIOS.

Finally, about the onboard video, remember that it's based on Intel's Extreme Graphics 2. This will do for most home and business users, including those wishing to use their computer as a home entertainment center, but for those looking to make home digital movies or play Doom3, investing on a video card is highly recommended. [Author's note: I was able to play Unreal Tournament's 2004 demo at 800x600 without any problem, so it should be good enough for most games. Don't expect to play Final Fantazy IX, however. During tests, the game wouldn't even load.]

Conclusion

As far as SFF systems are concerned, we haven't seen any more rock-solid than this. Those looking to save space, but who dread the possibility of giving up the power of a full size system, should take a close look at the EX65 and other members of the XCube series. With its Hyper-Threading, dual-channel DDR2, 8X-AGP, and system tuning options, this system has proven to be one of the best built SFF systems we've tested.

Pros

• Great looks
• Easy to assemble
• Support for high-end components
• Supports system tuning
• Generally pretty quiet

Cons

• Tech support
• Very noisy under high workloads
• No on-board DVI

Thank you for joining us today on Dev Hardware for this review of the AOpen EX65. For more information on the EX65 and others in the XCube series, see the products home page here. You can also pick it up for $295 at NewEgg. For more hardware news and information, drop by our forums, or go back to the front page.