It?s certainly not your normal looking SFF system. That is, if normal means a Shuttle XPC. ABIT, a well known and respected manufacturer of enthusiast motherboards, has released their first Small Form Factor system, and to their credit, it?s anything but ?just another Shuttle XPC?.

 If you?re an enthusiast, you?re sure to have heard of ABIT; however, up till now it?s more likely in the context of standard desktop motherboards. Having carved out a significant chunk of the high-end desktop market, ABIT has decided to leverage their reputation and tackle Shuttle, among others, in the rapidly growing SFF barebones systems space.

According to our friends at ABIT, the DigiDice is a ?mainstream P4 system with superior overclocking capabilities?. Your first impression, like ours, may be that this system looks more like an HTPC (Home Theater PC) than a mainstream desktop. In fact, the barebones system includes an IR remote, case-mounted LCD screen, 6-in-1 media card reader, and a ?stereo-style? volume controller. Definitely hallmarks of a Home Theater PC setup. But on the inside, you?ll find an Intel i865G based motherboard featuring aggressive overclocking features, dual channel DDR, ABIT?s own version of PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology), as well as room for two 5.25? optical drives and a few other surprises.

Hats off to ABIT for not creating a Shuttle XPC clone and instead going for something a bit different. As you?ll soon see, the DigiDice brings together some of the best features of the Shuttle XPC?s, while tossing in a few extra bells and whistles that you won?t find on any other existing SFF system. Of course, it?s not all rosy. But it sure smells like roses. Just exactly what the hell am I talking about? Read on to find out?

But first, let?s start with the overall system specifications:

Processor	Intel Pentium 4 / Celeron 478-pin 533/800MHz FSB
Chipset	Intel i865G + ICH5 (ICH5-R Optional)
Memory	2 x 184 pin DDR SDRAM up to 2GB at PC3200
Audio	Realtek ALC650 AC?97 5.1 Channel Audio Controller
LAN	Realtek 8101L 10/100 Fast Ethernet
PSU	Enhance 200W 110/230V AC
Dimensions:	255mm(L) x 307mm(W) x 215mm(H)
Parallel ATA	Two UDMA-100 Dual Channel PATA Ports
Serial ATA	Two UDMA-150 SATA Ports
On-Board Video	Intel Extreme Graphics 2
PCI	1 x 33MHz
AGP	1 x AGP 4X/8X
Other Internal Headers	1 x Floppy Disk 4 x Fan 2 x CD-In

Front Panel Connections

2 x USB 2.0 1 x Firewire 1394a (6-Pin) 1 x Mic In 1 x Headphone Out 1 x Power/Volume Shuttle Controller 4 x Multimedia Hot Keys 1 x 6-in-1 Card Reader 1 x LCD Display

Rear Panel Connections

2 x USB 2.0 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x Audio Front Out 1 x Audio Rear Out 1 x Audio Center/Bass Out 1 x Line In 1 x RJ45 LAN 1 x SPDIF Out 1 x PCI Slot 1 x AGP Slot 1 x VGA (15-Pin)

This system comes loaded with accessories including a rugged carrying bag, infrared remote control, an assortment of cables and fans, and even an essential oils kit. More on that last item later. In the meantime, ABIT has curiously left out a Serial-ATA cable as well as the necessary screws to affix your internal drives into the system.

When you first collect all the accessories together, you may be a bit overwhelmed. Just what exactly are all those parts? Three fans, a heatsink, a heat duct, and many plastic peg screws, among other things. You?ll find assembling the DigiDice to be a bit more of a chore than other small form factor systems, but is it worth the extra effort? Let?s find out. We?ll begin by taking a look at the case externals?

Motherboard and CPU

Motherboard and CPU

Let?s start by removing both drive chassis. From the top of the system, as you?ll see below, there?s plenty of room within the DigiDice. Does that heatpipe on the back of the CPU look familiar?

Similar to Shuttle, ABIT has opted for a heatpipe solution to help cool the CPU. Unlike Shuttle, they?ve also included a CPU fan directly on top of the CPU heatsink. We?ll talk more about cooling in a few moments, but for now, notice that the CPU heatsink is attached to the motherboard with screws. This is unlike most other SFF systems we?ve reviewed which use clips. Some users argue that attaching a heatsink with screws can put your CPU at risk to cracking during installation. I?d personally advise that when screwing in the heatsink apparatus, do not screw one screw all the way down to begin with. This will put a lot of pressure on one corner of the CPU and risk damage. Instead, start by screwing each screw a short ways and try to keep the pressure on the CPU uniform as you begin to tighten the screws down.

You?ll notice the dual channel DDR slots towards the front of the motherboard, the passively cooled Intel i865 chipset Northbridge near the center, and the AGP and PCI slots off to the side. Thankfully with the passively cooled chipset, ABIT need not add yet another fan to the system.

As previously mentioned, the AGP card slot is actually located closer to the CPU, with the PCI slot off towards the far side of the case. You?ll notice some extra room between the slots as well.

This extra room, and the extra rear card slot on the back of the system can accommodate the massive cooling solutions sometimes found on enthusiast video cards. Unfortunately, ABIT has included the motherboard header for some of the front system ports in-between the AGP and PCI slots. This means that you?ll see a beige cable protruding from between the slots, which may interfere with an oversized AGP solution. Note, this did not present an issue for our ATI Radeon 9800Pro, as it does not require any extra room outside of the AGP slot it fills.

With most of the internals down, let?s try and understand how ABIT has decided to cool the DigiDice?

< previous - (3 of 10) - next >

---

• External Design (1 of 10)
• Internal Design (2 of 10)
• Motherboard and CPU (3 of 10)
• Installation and Cooling (4 of 10)
• Bios (5 of 10)
• Testbench Setup (6 of 10)
• Benchmarks and Overclocking (7 of 10)
• Performance, Temps, and Noise Comparisons (8 of 10)
• Some Unique Features (9 of 10)
• A Rosy Conclusion? (10 of 10)