Joined on 10/14/05
Cool little box
Pros: Nice little box. I had F6 BIOS version with no problems installing Win10 from USB. I used a 500GB 5400RPM SSHD from Seagate and 8GB memory stick. It cold boots in about 20-25sec. I can stream smoothly Netflix from either Wifi or Gigabit ethernet port without dropping any frames or audio glitching. BlueTooth is only 4.0 but it worked without any problems. During install Win10 had enough smarts to connect via WiFi to my network and pull all of the drivers. Audio worked fine via 3.5mm headphone jack or through the HDMI port.
Cons: It would be really, really nice if it had an eSATA port and two more USB ports. Max supported graphics resolution is little poor.
Overall Review: From my research on the Web; Win10 runs better than Win7/8 on these type of boxes. I was little worried when I saw it was quad core Celerion but it runs continuously at 2.4GHz. After couple of boots for the SSHD to adapt it works well. By all means, buy max support memory (8GB) on this box. I'm pleased with the purchase.
Garbage
Cons: worthless shovel ware
Overall Review: Don't waste your time.
Wouldn't spin up
Pros: none
Cons: failed to work Has a dent in the HD enclosure
Overall Review: nice paper weight failed to work as a HD
Graphics Card is Fine, Game Rebates Bad
Pros: Runs faster than my 970
Cons: Be warned of time limited game rebates. I've received a Game Key for Destiny 2 but didn't read the fine print that the key was only good for about 16 days. Unlike Humble Bundle which gives real game keys this one requires logging in to Nivdia Experience which then issues some other key for Blizzard.
Good, Quite and Challenging
Pros: Very quite. It comes with a WD 1TB Blue drive I have not had any memory issues going to dual 4GB sticks. Win10 Home 64-bit was included. Pairing this with a 256G SSD and using the 1TB as a spare makes this a nice speedy system.
Cons: BIOS updates are the biggest pain. Q-bios is not supported and you must use a bootable USB flash drive that boots into DOS !! None of the Gigabyte Win based BIOS update utilities worked for my. There a setting, Me FW Image Re-Flash which must be enabled to flash a new bios but it resets to disable after every reboot. Look for a PDF instructions in the F6 update for more info. I really wished Gigabyte or NEWEGG would have specified the memory card. My had N82E16820239696, Kingston 4GB DDR3L 1600. Asus web site claims support of 1600MHz / 1866MHz / 2133MHz memory so I bought dual channel 2133 but it won't clock the memory at that speed. http://www.gigabyte.us/Mini-PcSystem/GB-BSi3H-6100-B2-IWUS-rev-10#sp In fact their supported memory list doesn't include any modules above DDR3L-1600.
Overall Review: There are multiple partitions for system restore. The drive is configured as GPT
Works but orphaned by Samsung see Cons and Comments.
Pros: Works, seems snappy.
Cons: Samsung Magician 4.x doesn't allow me to set OP on this drive. Samsung Magician 5.0 doesn't allow any settings of OP. Both Magician versions authenticated the drive as genuine. Samsung Data Migration software tool would let me transfer my bootable HD to this 850 EVO M.2 Now I'm wondering how long this SSD will last with no OP. There is no data from Samsung if there is internally reserved storage for OP.
Overall Review: I've tried multiple USB interfaces to SATA using an M.2 passive adapter. I've tried attaching the M.2 to my internal SATA using an M.2 passive adapter. In all cases, I can partition, read and write to the drive just fine but none of the Samsung utilities will let me configure it.
Super old ink cartriges
The HP ink box was beat up and marked 2019. Ink is in in box but old and probably dried out.
Late
I received the thermal paste two weeks after the system was built. It took nearly three weeks to receive it. It wasn't until after the order was processed that I didn't order it from Newegg direct but from a 3rd party.