Beating their competition to the punch, AOpen has launched the first Pentium-M based SFF to hit the market, the EZ855-II XC Cube. Borrowed from mainstream laptop systems, the Pentium Mobile is ideally suited for the small form factor environment, having impressive performance without the power and heat requirements of the Pentium 4 desktop class processor.

While those looking for raw power may not find the Pentium M something to get overly excited about, consider the typical issues associated with SFF systems: heat, noise, and power. The Pentium M goes a long way in solving all three of these problems, providing cool and quiet operation at a relatively low wattage. Expect to see Pentium M based home theater SFF?s hit the market soon, the combination of cool and quiet makes these systems ideally suited for the task. Begins to make you wonder why it took so long for SFF manufacturers to bring Pentium-M based systems to the market.

AOpen?s EZ855-II XC Cube features the EZ style case design; our review unit was white but the system is also available in black. The EZ855-II sports the Intel 855GME chipset with the ICH4M Southbridge. Similar to many laptop configurations, it supports a 400MHz front-side bus and single channel DDR up to 333MHz. The system features the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator integrated video solution as well as an AGP 4X slot. Six channel AC?97 integrated audio and Gigabit Ethernet are also featured. One item conspicuously missing on this system is a Serial-ATA port; instead the EZ855-II features dual legacy parallel ATA-100 ports.

AOpen has even thrown in a surprising set of Bios overclocking options, that one wouldn?t typically expect on a “cool and quiet” SFF system. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let?s take a closer look at the overall system specifications:

Processor	Intel Pentium M Socket 479 CPU at 400 MHz FSB
Chipset	Intel Centrino 855GME + ICH4M
Memory	2 x DDR 266/333 MHz up to 2GB
Audio	AC’97 v2.2 5.1 Channel Audio Controller
LAN	Gigabit LAN Network Controller 10/100/1000Gbps
PSU	270W 110/230V AC
Dimensions:	320mm(L) x 200mm(W) x 185mm(H)
Parallel ATA	Two UDMA-100 Dual Channel PATA Ports
Serial ATA	None
On-Board Video	Intel 855 Graphics Media Accelerator
PCI	1 x 33MHz
AGP	1 x AGP 4X

Front Panel Connections

2 x USB 2.0 1 x Firewire 1394a (6-Pin) 1 x Firewire 1394a (4-Pin)1 x Mic In 1 x Headphone Out 1 x Optical SPDIF Out 1 x Power Button/LED

Rear Panel Connections

2 x USB 2.0 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x Firewire 1394a (6-Pin) 1 x Audio Front Out 1 x Audio Rear Out 1 x Audio Center/Bass Out 1 x Optical SPDIF Input 1 x Coaxial Audio Output 1 x RJ45 LAN 1 x Serial (9-Pin) 1 x VGA (15 pin DSUB) 1 x PCI Slot 1 x AGP Slot

AOpen has complemented the EZ855-II with a typical ?no-frills? lineup of accessories including standard IDE and optical ribbon cables, power cables, and extensive documentation. Screws and a micro-fiber cloth for “polishing” your system are also provided.

We?ll begin by taking a closer look at the XC Cube?s external case design?

Benchmarks

Benchmarks

In what can only be described as a paradox, you?ll see below that AOpen?s EZ855, coupled with the Intel Pentium M "Dothan" processor bring together quiet, cool, and performance like no other SFF we?ve seen.

First up, we decided to exercise the surprising array of overclocking options in the EZ855?s Bios and give the Pentium M a run for its money. Keep in mind out Dothan was rated for 1.7 GHz. Using the FSB as the primary means of overclocking the unit, we pushed the default 100 MHz front side bus to 110 MHz initially, which corresponds to 1.87 GHz with our 17X multiplier on this Dothan. Flawless benchmarks, rock solid stable. The next bump to 2.04 GHz proved stable as well, with a 120 MHz FSB. Unfortunately pushing to 125, and then progressively back down to 121 proved that 2.04 GHz was as fast as we were going to get this particular silicon to go.

That said, 2.04 GHz is pretty impressive for a CPU designed for mobile applications where overclocking is typically unheard of! So first up, we?ll take a quick look at Sandra 2005 results for CPU and memory bandwidth across the three clock speeds.

Quite a bump in performance from this little bugger. Memory bandwidth testing showed similar results.

Now, the question is, how did this overclocking effect the supposed "cool" operation of the Pentium M? Feast your eyes on this.

That?s right folks, as you pull your jaw back up from the floor, you?ll see that the EZ855 had our Dothan sitting at 35 degrees Celsius under full load with the standard FSB. Yes, that?s 35 Celsius, with a simple fan and heatsink, within the confines of this small form factor system. Overclocking barely raised the temperature over 10%, up to a paltry 39 Celsius at full load at 2.04 GHz. This reviewer says? wow.

But before you run out to buy a Pentium M CPU, let?s remember exactly what kind of penalty we?re paying here in performance. First up, comparisons against other SFF systems with our old trustworthy PC Mark 2002. And before you jump down our throats for using PC Mark 2002, keep in mind we do so such that we can provide our readers with accurate comparisons to other, older SFF systems.

As you can plainly see, the Dothan sits at the bottom of the barrel CPU performance wise. Not terrible though, it?s within 20% of the Athlon 64 3200+. Similar results on the memory side of the house.

But if those left you a bit less enthusiastic about the Pentium M, then have a look at these environmental benchmark comparisons. Remember folks, the Pentium M and AOpen EZ855 SFF are designed for quiet and cool, but these stats break records. Here?s the temperature comparisons.

Can you say less than half the temperature of the Prescott 3.2 in the SB75G2? And if you thought temperature was interesting, then you?ll enjoy the noise benchmark even more.

Certainly a record breaker in our lab, the AOpen EZ855-II XC Cube was virtually undetectable on our sound meter at 31dbA. This reviewer can honestly say that this system is barely detectable when on, even in a quiet environment. Being extremely sensitive to noise, I can honestly say that this system is the first SFF I would personally consider adding to a bedroom or other HTPC environment where noise counts. The system is dead quiet, and your AGP cooling solution or hard-drive will definitely be the loudest item within your system, by a long shot. Incidentally, we never heard the CPU fan spin up any louder than the default RPM during any load testing.

Well, with all that to munch on, let?s draw some final conclusions?

< previous - (7 of 8) - next >

---

• External Design (1 of 8)
• External Design Cont?d (2 of 8)
• Internal Design (3 of 8)
• CPU Thermodynamics (4 of 8)
• Bios (5 of 8)
• Testbench Setup (6 of 8)
• Benchmarks (7 of 8)
• Conclusion (8 of 8)