X-bit labs

Biostar Barebone Systems: Minimal Size Maximal Functionality (page 8)

Category: Mobile

by Vasily Melnik

[ 06/12/2005 | 02:05 PM ]

Proper cooling of the CPU and chipset is important, but what about the graphics card and hard drives? They are out of danger, too. The barebone’s innards are well ventilated thanks to the special holes in the sides of the air-duct. The CPU cooler is a separate heatsink (the fan is fastened on the face panel) with a massive copper sole, four heat pipes and aluminum ribs. A few more small blocks of thin copper ribs are additionally soldered right to the sole, but they play a minor role in the heat transfer process.

  
The small and neat cooler is a good example
of a heat-pipe-based cooling device.

Another innovation brought by the BTX standard has long been called for in barebones. The PCI Express x16 and PCI slots are shifted to the right, and the installed graphics card now doesn’t block the PCI slot and you can plug an add-on card there.

We have long waited for this simple solution that helps to use the functionality
of the barebone to the full.

Of course, you cannot install a top-end graphics card with a dual-slot cooling system here. But many cards of the GeForce 6800 GT or RADEON X800 PRO/XL class are equipped with a small single-slot cooler, which is quite enough for this barebone. An additional expansion card can be seen on the left. It carries an RJ-45 socket, a power connector for an external SATA hard drive and an adapter from the standard IDE cable to the Mini-IDE connector.

The network connector and the power connectors for
an external hard drive didn’t fit onto the rear panel.

The system is powered by a power supply from Teamgreat Technology. With wattage similar to that of the iDEQ 210P’s PSU, this model differs from it by having an active power factor correction device.

It’s a rare thing to meet active PFC in such a small power supply with.

I’ve already talked about the currents. So I only say that this power supply is sufficient for assembling a high-performance configuration. If you need more, then you should consider desktop computers rather than barebone systems.

On the whole, it is very hard, if possible at all, to find a match to the iDEQ 300G in terms of functionality. Well, I had actually expected something like that from a first product with support of the new CPU socket – it would be wrong to release a barebone based on the new chipset from Intel and to forget about the rest of innovations which are so vitally important in a barebone. I don’t think users would pounce on a product whose only difference from the competitors is the CPU socket.