Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs have certainly been a huge focus here at Sudhian over the last 6 months. There are many factors that contribute to the surge of SFF components and systems. Basically hardware has certainly surpassed the performance needs of the currently available software, which has allowed companies to focus more on integration, cooling, and silencing of components. The major players in the SFF Arena thus far have been AMS, ECS, Shuttle, SiS and VIA. Combined these companies have complimented each other nicely to produce some very exciting SFF components and systems including several we have reviewed such as:

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  VIA Eden



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  Shuttle SS50



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  ECS Desknote



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  Zero Footprint PC



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  AMS gBox



• 
  

  Shuttle SS40g

 

Today another player enters the SFF scene, MSI. The above reviews, all SFF, certainly catered to the SFF enthusiast market with silent operation, aluminum cases, and fancy lighting. The MSI Hermes barebone enters the SFF scene with a more corporate look and feel to it. The positioning for the Hermes is clear from looking at it; however don’t always judge a book by its cover. The Hermes is feature packed enough to please many die hard SFF enthusiasts.

Comparative Shots:

From the picture above, you can see the MSI Hermes mounted vertically. It is generally much larger then the two Cupid Eden based systems on each side of it. Nevertheless, mounted in the vertically “bookpc” type position, the MSI Hermes makes a very small footprint.

The MSI Hermes can also be mounted horizontally. The Shuttle SS50 and Cupid systems show the size comparison.

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