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Fujitsu Esprimo E5646 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £761
inc VAT

A small and robust desktop PC, but it’s overpriced and there are better alternatives available.

Specifications

2.6GHz AMD Phenom II X6 1035T, 4GB RAM, N/A display, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop

While home desktop PCs can usually be as big and power-hungry as they like, a different set of priorities applies to computers designed for the business market. Fujitsu’s Esprimo E5646 is a prime example of this. It’s small, measuring just 10x330x375mm. That’s somewhere between the size of a mini PC and an old-fashioned desktop. Fujitsu has actually used a desktop case, rather than the now-ubiquitous tower design, and it’s sturdy enough to put your monitor on if you need to save desk space.

Another priority for businesses is power consumption. The E5646 uses no measurable power when in sleep mode and just 54W when idle on the desktop. A final concern, which only affects some businesses, is that of approved suppliers. If you’re subject to a company policy that says you can only buy your hardware and matching support contracts from – for example – Dell, Lenovo or Fujitsu, your options are more limited.

If, however, you’re sourcing business-grade hardware for your home office or small business, there are definite disadvantages to business PCs of this sort. The E5646 is horrendously underpowered for its £750 price. The processor – a six-core AMD Phenom II X6 1035T – is lodged firmly at the bottom of AMD’s hexacore processor range, with a clock speed of just 2.6GHz. This is visible in our benchmark test results, with an overall score of just 105. That would be fine if this was a £500 PC with a bundled monitor, but most £750 PCs are far more powerful and have many more features.

Fujitsu Esprimo E5646 inside

The E5646 comes with a 4GB of RAM and a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional to take full advantage of it. There’s room to expand that to a maximum of 16GB of memory and it also has a 1TB hard disk, plus room for one more. There are two PCI-E x16 slots – which you can use for any PCI-E card – and two PCI slots, but the case is only big enough to take low-profile expansion cards. The integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 is good enough display your awe-inspiring presentation video in Full HD, but if you want to kill some time, it’s strictly casual gaming with this graphics processor.

There are just two USB ports on the front and another six at the back. You can connect a monitor via either DVI or DisplayPort and there’s a serial port, just in case you ever need one, which you probably won’t. Finally, there’s a pair of PS/2 ports. You can use one of these to connect the supplied Fujitsu keyboard, which is actually rather pleasant to use. It feels slightly spongy but the positioning of the flat keys was conducive to fast, comfortable typing. The USB optical mouse is small, basic and does the job.

Fujitsu Esprimo E5646

Even if you’re equipping a small or home office, there’s nothing that makes this PC worth buying instead of a good consumer desktop like the OP3 Mars, which without a monitor costs around half the price.

Basic Specifications

Rating **
Processor AMD Phenom II X6 1035T
Processor external bus 200MHz (2GHz HyperTransport)
Processor multiplier x13
Processor clock speed 2.6GHz
Processor socket AM3
Memory 4
Memory type PC3-10600
Maximum memory 16GB
Motherboard Fujitsu D2984-A1
Motherboard chipset AMD 785G

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 2/6
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/0
eSATA ports (front/rear) 0/0
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support none

Internal Expansion

Case desktop
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 0 (0)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 2 (2)
Free Serial ATA ports 2
Free memory slots 2
Free 3.5in drive bays 1

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Seagate ST31000528AS
Interface SATA II
Total storage capacity 998GB

Graphics

Graphics card(s) ATI Radeon HD 4200
Graphics/video ports DisplayPort, DVI

Sound

Sound Realtek ALC663
Sound outputs 3.5mm stereo line out, 3.5mm mic in
Speakers none

Removable Drives

Supported memory cards none
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Screen model N/A
Native resolution N/A
Screen inputs N/A

Other Hardware

Keyboard Fujitsu KB400
Mouse Fujitsu Optical Mouse

Software

Software included Nero 9 Essentials XL
Operating system Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty one year onsite
Price £761
Supplier http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop
Details www.fujitsu.com

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