AOpen XC Cube EX945-GC review

Barebones PCs tend to cost around £200, so AOpen's latest XC Cube will appeal to anyone looking for a small form factor PC on a budget.

It's not bad-looking and it strikes a good balance between size and roominess, because while it's compact there is room inside for components.

There's a 5¼in bay for an optical drive, a 3½in bay for a media card reader or other front-panel device and an internal 3½in bay for a hard disk. There's no need to buy an optical drive with a black front panel as it will be hidden behind the XC Cube's hinged door. Inside, the eject button has three positions, which should ensure it hits your drive's button.

Only one SATA cable and power converter is included, so you'll need a second if you want to install a SATA hard disk and optical drive. The power supply has three power connectors, all of which are the standard four-pin Molex type. This means you can only install an x16 PCI-E graphics card that doesn't require extra power, as there's no PCI-E power connector. Long cards will fit, but they'll need low-profile heatsinks, or else they'll stick out of the side of the case. Behind the x16 slot is a x1 PCI-E slot.

There are two DDR2 memory slots, which will accept up to 4GB of 533 or 667MHz memory. Although the Intel 945GC chipset is a little old, it still supports LGA775 processors with up to 1,066MHz frontside bus speeds. This includes the Core 2 Extreme X6800, but few people are going to need this much power.

If you don't need 3D power then the onboard Intel GMA 950 graphics chipset should suffice, but it only has a VGA output. There are also no DVI or TV outputs. You do get 7.1 audio, via mini-jack outputs, but there are no S/PDIF connections.

Installing components into the XC Cube is straightforward. The only exception is the processor cooler, which has four screws that are tensioned by springs. Two screws are blocked by the top rail of the case, which makes it impossible to use a normal screwdriver. We had to resort to a right-angled ratchet, which is a tool not everyone will own. The other two screws need a long-necked screwdriver.

The BIOS is a basic affair, and there are few settings. You can overclock the processor's FSB, but there are no options to lock the PCI Express bus's speed or any voltage settings. There's no RAID, either, and limited power management settings.

The XC Cube does not have the frills of Shuttle's SN68PTG6 (reviewed in What's New, Shopper 240) so it is best suited to home office use, where RAID, Gigabit Ethernet and HDMI outputs are superfluous, and you're not paying for features you don't need.

Author: Jim Martin