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Nathaniel B.

Nathaniel B.

Joined on 04/06/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Low Power Server

MSI 6676-001BUS Intel NM10 Barebone
MSI 6676-001BUS Intel NM10 Barebone

Pros: Low power consumption, pretty quiet, "just works". The 4GB memory limit is a big step up from the previous model.

Cons: plastic front of case sometimes a little fiddly to install.

Overall Review: I also have two of the predecessor model (which was based on the Atom 330). This 510 plus one of those run under 60W total under load (measured by my UPS).

Small, Cheap, Works!

IOGEAR GCS24U 4-Port USB VGA KVM Cable Switch
IOGEAR GCS24U 4-Port USB VGA KVM Cable Switch

Pros: Small device, comes with nice cables. Works well, and the tiny remote is very helpful while I thought I'd ignore it.

Cons: Small size means that you've got cables coming out of each end (not a problem for me, but think about where you're going to put it)

Overall Review: I've just been using it to run a couple of consoles, so I can't speak as to graphic image quality or even mouse use (only monitor and keyboard).

Nice!

MSI Wind Nettop 100 Intel 945GC Mini / Booksize Barebone System
MSI Wind Nettop 100 Intel 945GC Mini / Booksize Barebone System

Pros: Works out of box (well, after installing the drives), easy! Nice and solid. Note: came with two SATA cables (already connected at motherboard end) long enough to reach the two provided drive bays and color coded. Solid construction, more metal parts than I expected.

Cons: drive bays in a piece of case connected to mb by a cable- it's a little bit annoying opening it up and fitting things in while not tensioning the cable connecting the two pieces together, but then how often do you need to open a case with only two bays?

Overall Review: Pegging both cores at 100% utilization (dummy processes running pointless loops) for 15 min does nothing the fan can't easily handle at normal room temp (cyclical though, CPU temp runs up to about 58C then the fan cycles up and the temp drops). The HD I used (WD 1TB green) doesn't seem to have much of an effect on heat (if any) even when copying steadily for an hour or more. For these tests, unit was horizontal with plenty of breathing room for the vents but other gear sitting below and above.