by Doors4ever
08/30/2004 | 11:21 AM
The word “barebone” is rather a new entry in the IT dictionary. It denotes a skeleton, a foundation to build a full-fledged computer system upon. Although some manufacturers offer “full-size” barebones (for example, Genius ships computer kits of a system case, mouse with keyboard and a speaker set), this term invokes an image of a small and elegantly-designed box in my mind.
<%BANNER[article]%>Such micro-cases are absolutely useless for an overclocker, but what about ordinary users?
Personal computers have been developing and specializing. We now have such categories as computers for work, for games, for the Internet.
That’s natural since specialization allows achieving better results. You wouldn’t use a heavy truck to deliver pizza, would you?
Today, I am going to examine a barebone system from First International Computer (FIC). It is called Condor:
First of all, let’s browse through the specification of this device. The Condor is a cute-looking metallic case with a volume of only 11 liters:
The Condor uses an i865G-based mainboard of a non-standard form-factor (214.3x266.7mm). The mainboard officially complies with Northwood FMB2 and the Prescott FMB1 requirements; it means you are permitted to install powerful enough processors with a power consumption of up to 78W. Socket 478 processors with 400/533/800MHz FSB and up to 2GB of DDR266/333/400 SDRAM are supported.
There’s only one power-on button on the front panel:
This lack of controls is deceptive: the left part of the front panel covers the optical drive bay. The button that opens it is designed as a decorative strip:
The door is opened up to give way to the outgoing tray. You can adjust the spot of the press to the particular optical drive model.
The central part of the front panel camouflages a 3.5” bay into which you can install a HDD, FDD or card-reader. Behind it, there are power-on and HDD activity indicators. The door is transparent against the indicators so you can always see them.
The bottom door of the front panel conceals a digital optical SPDIF output, a headphones socket and two USB 2.0 ports.
There are four more USB 2.0 ports at the back panel. The chipset supports eight USB ports in total, and the remaining two onboard ports can be employed with a special bracket you have to purchase separately.
Besides that, the back panel contains audio connectors (the Realtek ALC202A chip is responsible for the audio capabilities of the mainboard), keyboard and mouse connectors, a monitor output, and an RJ-45 LAN connector (Intel 82562EZ 10/100Mbps LAN).
There are vent holes in the top of the case, under a decorative grid, and a lever to open the system case up. All the sleek surfaces are protected with film against accidental scratches.
The case is easily disassembled. It unfolds like a book when you press the lever.
The two parts of the case are fastened with two clips: you release them to work with each part independently.
You won’t need a screwdriver to install the drives – they are fastened with clips, too.
You can install PATA or SATA drives supported by the chipset’s South Bridge. The necessary cables are included with the Condor.
The developers took care of proper airflows inside the case as shown in the pictures:
The CPU cooler you receive with the system facilitates the natural upward movement of hot air.
It is made of aluminum and is rather wide as its dimensions are dictated by the fastening holes on the mainboard.
The cooler’s sole has some thermal compounds pre-applied – it is covered with a plastic casing during transportation.
Thus, you only need your screwdriver for the first time to tighten the four screws on the CPU cooler:
I had some concerns about the cooling of the power elements of the mainboard, which are located in a stagnant area in front of the PSU where there is no airflow.
However, I found that the bottom and side panels of the PSU are perforated to remove the hot air.
The specified currents are rather high for a 200W unit. By the way, notwithstanding its small dimensions, the PSU is equipped with a 92mm fan – this allows reducing its rotation speed as well as noise, keeping the same efficiency of cooling.
There’s a COM port header on the mainboard, but you have to buy a special bracket to use it.
The mainboard allows installing expansion cards into two PCI slots and into the single AGP slot – if the integrated graphics core doesn’t suit you. It’s here that you may require a screwdriver for the second and last time, as all the three cards are fastened at once with a special bracket:
That’s how the assembled system looks:
I’d like to note that there are fastening spots for the cabling inside the case, which help you keep everything neat and tidy.
Overall, the assembly takes about 10-15 minutes (well, half an hour, if you read the user manual first), depending on the integrator’s skill, and even an inexperienced user should manage this job without much trouble.
I was sure from the start that the BIOS had no overclocking options because of two things. First, barebones just don’t usually offer them and, second, FIC is among Intel’s partners and outputs mainboards under the Intel brand, following their outsourcing program. I was right – all the CPU and memory-related parameters were set up automatically. The user can only disable unneeded devices and select the boot-up order.
Alas, the BIOS doesn’t offer you the control over the voltages, temperatures and fan speeds – it doesn’t even show you such information! The Motherboard Monitor utility couldn’t find any sensors and only reported the HDD temperature.
The operating system started up smoothly. From the CD you receive with the system you can install the necessary drivers automatically or specify exactly what needs to be installed. The installer program offers to reboot after the installation of each of the drivers. After this process was complete, I got a quiet and stable system.
The loudest component was the CD-ROM drive, the hard disk drive playing the second violin of the orchestra. The CPU fan was almost completely silent. Its rotation speed depends on the load and temperature – installing a hot graphics card and looping 3DMark03, I made the noise much more audible, although still not annoying at all.
Summing up, I was pleased with the Condor system from FIC. I found no serious drawbacks, save for the lack of control over the system’s health. I, personally, like to know that the CPU temperature and the voltages are normal and the system is stable and I’m not going to run into any unexpected troubles.
The pros of the Condor outnumber its cons, though. The well-thought design makes it easy to assemble and exploit the system. The capabilities of the chipset and mainboard are wide and allow building anything from a typewriter to a gaming station. The low noise level, compact size and elegant looks add the more appeal to this barebone.
After getting to know the Condor closely, the idea of purchasing a barebone system turned out even more appealing than before. Maybe you should also pay special attention to this solution? Let’s see what its performance is worth now, to top our positive impressions.
The Condor can make a good office machine – that goes without arguing. But can this system be made into a powerful gaming computer? The chipset and the mainboard permit that, but what about the PSU and the cooling system? I will try to answer these questions and will also share with you the benchmark results.
I tried to load the system fully using an ATI RADEON X800 Pro graphics card and an engineering sample of the Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz processor (Prescott core). Of course, it is rather unwise to put so hot a processor into a barebone system, but I got a real gaming station instead.
For comparison’s sake, I benchmarked an ASUS P4C800 Deluxe mainboard, too.
System | FIC SFF Condor | ASUS P4C800 Deluxe |
Chipset | i865PE | i875P |
CPU | Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz (Prescott) | |
Memory | 2 x 256MB Kingston PC3500 HyperX | |
Cooler | TaiSol CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS-7000A-Cu |
Thermal interface | Stock thermal paste | KPT-8 thermal paste |
Graphics card | ATI Radeon X800 Pro | |
OS | MS Windows XP SP1, DX 9.0b, Catalyst 4.6 | |
The processor worked at its nominal frequency on both mainboards.
The memory settings were different, however:
I couldn’t adjust the memory timings that the FIC mainboard selected automatically. Then, this i865PE-based mainboard doesn’t boast an analog of Performance Acceleration Technology available in the i875P-based board. Evidently, the system with the P4C800 is going to be faster in tests.
I ran my tests in several games as well as in 3DMark 2003 and 2001 SE. I always used 1024x768 resolution and the maximum graphics quality settings (except with Doom 3, for which I selected the High Quality settings). I forced 4x full-screen antialiasing and 16x anisotropic filtering in the graphics card driver’s Control Panel. I ran each test at least three times to avoid any fortuities.
No wonder a system with PAT and better memory timings is the performance leader, but we see that the Condor can challenge a full-size computer of the same configuration.
Now, about the noise level. The TaiSol cooler from the Condor’s accessories is purely aluminum and very sensitive to the increase of the load and temperature – it immediately speeds up its fan. Of course, cooling a Prescott-core processor is not a trivial task even for roomy system cases with additional fans. This cooler did the job done, but at the expense of noise. The speed was so high that the case was even vibrating a little.
I don’t think this is a serious drawback of FIC’s barebone, though. My tests show that the system can work under the most difficult conditions, which it is unlikely to encounter in real life. Versatility is the main advantage of the Condor Small Form-Factor PC. You can plug a Celeron in and use an integrated graphics core, if that’s enough for your tasks, but you can also install a powerful CPU and a modern graphics card to use the system as a portable gaming station.
The FIC Condor is a regular computer that you can adjust for your particular needs. It only lacks overclocking capabilities.