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With all of the
buzz surrounding Shuttle's popular XPC line of small form
factor systems, you'd think they were the only company
producing these diminutive machines, which obviously is not
the case. Over the past year or so, virtually every
major player in PC hardware has brought their version of the
mini-PC to the market. Some of them have been viable
alternatives to the XPC product line-up, while others simply
can't hold a candle to Shuttle's SFF systems. Today on
HotHardware.Com, we're going to take a close look at two
relatively new small form factor systems that directly
challenge Shuttle's products, the Biostar iDEQ 200T and the
AOpen EZ65 XC cube. Both of these machines are based
on motherboards powered by Intel's i865 "Springdale"
chipset, and as such they support any Northwood based
Pentium 4 or Celeron processor, all the way up to the
current flagship 3.2GHz P4. Each machine has a similar
feature set, but offers its own unique style and feel.
Biostar's iDEQ 200T has a more muscular-looking, silver case
while AOpen's EZ65 XC Cube is more reserved, with its glossy
white enclosure (incidentally the EZ65 is also available in
grey, black, blue or red). What do you say, we crack
open the boxes, get these machines built and take them for a
spin? Follow me...
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Specifications & Features of the AOpen EZ65 &
Biostar iDEQ 200T |
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Shuttle's Got Competition |
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CLICK ANY
IMAGE FOR AN ENLARGED VIEW
SPECIFICATIONS TAKEN FROM
BIOSTAR.COM.TW &
AOPEN.COM
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AOPen
EZ65
SIZE WDH (mm)
CHIPSET
MEMORY
CPU
VIDEO
SLOTS
AUDIO
LAN
IDE
SERIAL ATA
USB
2.0
-
2 X
Front Ports
-
2 X
Rear Ports
IEEE1394
-
1 X
Rear
-
2 X
Front (6/4 Pins)
DRIVE
BAYS
-
1 X
5.25"
-
1 X
3.5"
-
1 X
Internal 3.5"
POWER
SUPPLY
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Biostar iDEQ 200T
PROCESSOR
- Intel Pentium 4
- 800MHz Front Side
Bus
- Intel
Hyper-Threading technology
CHIPSET
MEMORY
- Two DDR400 slots
- Dual Channel
Memory architecture
- Up to 2GB in total
system memory
EXPANSION SLOTS
IO
PORTS
-
Front
-
2 x USB
2.0
- 1 x S/PDIF input,
1 x Microphone, 1 x Headphone
- 1 x IEEE 1394A
-
Rear
- 2 x USB 2.0
- 1 x IEEE 1394A
- 1 x LAN
- 1 x VGA
- 1 x Serial
- 2 x PS/2
- 1 x S/PDIF output,
1 x Line-in, 1 x Line-out, 1 x Mic
IDE
- Accommodates up to
2 EIDE devices
- Ultra DMA
33/66/100/133 Bus Master Mode
SERIAL ATA
VIDEO
AUDIO
- C-Media CMI9739A
6-Channel AC'97 CODEC
1394A
LAN
- Realtek RTL8100B
10/100mbps LAN
SIZE
- 210mm x 323mm x
187mm (W x D x H)
POWER
SUPPLY
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The Bundles:
AOpen packed the EZ65's box
with a healthy compliment of accessories. Inside the
package, we found a total of 4 complete User's Manuals (each
one in a different language), a Quick Installation Guide,
and a utilities CD that contained Acrobat Reader, drivers
for the system and AOpen's proprietary Silent Tek hardware
monitoring application. AOpen also included three
power cables for different regions of the world, SATA, SATA
Power, IDE and floppy cables, and lastly a baggie with
screws, thermal paste, wire ties and even a cloth for wiping
the system clean. A copper / aluminum hybrid CPU
cooler, with a hefty base and vertically mounted 70MM fan,
is bundled with the system as well.
The Biostar iDEQ
200T also shipped with a very complete accessory bundle.
A User's Manual, Quick Installation Guide, Driver CD and
Studio-Fun CD accompanied the system, along with Serial ATA
power and data cables, a power cord, drive bay covers, some
thermal grease and a pack of screws. A copper
heat-pipe heatsink, with vertically and horizontally
situated fins, and a vertically mounted 60MM fan was also
included with the iDEQ 200T. But where are all of the
other drive cables? How will we connect all of our
drives? Be patient grasshopper. As the old Ragu
commercials used to say, "It's in there..."
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