Gigabyte A963-RH review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 19 Feb 2007

Price when reviewed: £249

Supplier: http://www.fastekcomputers.co.uk

Reviewed By: Chris Finnamore

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Gigabyte's A963-RH uses entirely mobile components. This has its problems; notebook components are more expensive than their desktop equivalents and notebook hard disks don't come in capacities larger than 160GB.

However, the A963-RH is by far the smallest system in this group. It's about as big as a hardback book and would look unobtrusive next to your living room TV. It has S-video and optical S/PDIF outputs, so it would be easy to connect to your TV and sound system. Wireless networking isn't built into the chassis, but there's a free mini PCI slot and a dedicated USB port on the front for a wireless USB dongle.

Despite its small size, the A963-RH is easy to build. Its components are all on a tray, which slides completely out from the case, so there's nothing blocking access to the processor socket or memory slots. The notebook hard disk is tricky to fit, though; you'll need small fingers to plug the SATA power and data cables into the rear of the disk once it's screwed into the case. The A963-RH comes with a DVD writer already installed, so you don't have to provide your own.

The A963-RH produced the same overall score in the Shopper benchmarks as MSI's Axis 945GM. This score is on a par with the systems that use a desktop processor, and it's quick enough to play and record video. The A963-RH is a compact, quiet and well-specified PC, but it's expensive and not great value.

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