Low cost ion nettop. Review and showdown

I do not know about you, but I, at school, in biology class, could not reproach frogs. Apparently, therefore, the process of opening hardware devices gives me so much pleasure. Practically by chance and on parole, the Wexler VisION already described earlier , which BTK brought to the market, came into my hands.

Below is a small overview. Attention, traffic .
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Introduction

It all started with the fact that at the press briefing of the company nVidia, there was a product manager of BTK, Vadim Bashkurov, who promoted Wexler VisION to the masses. He described the advantages of the device so beautifully and enthusiastically that I could not restrain myself and said jokingly, “Will you give a chance to“ drive ”? Let's see how magical he is. ”
Surprisingly, after a while I was really given a nettop for testing. As you know, arrogance is the second happiness, so I requested permission to “open” the device, and received it (again, surprisingly).

Apparently, I was hit by a low-end version of a nettop, which is sold at retail for 9990r and is packaged with FreeDOS alone. It's funny, but after turning on the device, I received a standard message like invalid system disk. I have never come across FreeDOS before, so either the pre-installed FreeDOS has disappeared somewhere, or it should be so, let the more knowledgeable comrades correct me.

Characteristics from the manufacturer's website:

Equipment

In the box with the proud inscription Wexler VisION you can find:

• Nettop himself
• VESA mount
• Stand
• External power supply
• Instructions for use

There was also some kind of DVD-R disc, probably with drivers, but he flatly refused to be read in my drive. Yes, and they would not be useful, as it turned out later.

Usability test

As a test OS, the latest official Windows 7 Enterprise was chosen, despite the attempts of colleagues to knock me out on XP. By the way, the main difference between ION LE and simple ION is the lack of support for DirectX 10, so by installing it on an XP system, we simply turn the full-fledged ION into a LE variation.



The system got up perfectly, there were no unknown devices left, and all the drivers were updated via Windows Update. I did not see any difference in the performance check built into the 7-ku between the updated drivers and the default ones. The AERO interface worked just fine (probably, thanks to the additional optimization of 7 for using the GPU), and I did not feel any discomfort with the nettop.



It would be strange if the device could not cope with the tasks of the workstation, then you need to check how it plays HD content. Having rummaged through the pockets, I still could not find the movies in 1080p, so I had to download trailers from open sources. Trailers were played surprisingly quickly, and did not cause any discomfort when viewing. The processor load jumped from 20% to 70%, and the temperature jumped up to 90 degrees with a jerk, from the default 70. Unfortunately, the hdmi-cord with the adapter was not at hand, so I could not display the image on a large corporate TV. I had to look at the working resolution in 1440x900.

Benchmarks

After the movie, it would be reasonable to go to performance benchmarks, which I took as PCMark06, PCMark Vantage, 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage, HDTune Pro. To begin with - cpu-z and gpu-z, so as not to mislead anyone.



Not everything went as smoothly as I would have liked. For example - PCMark06 issued a message stating that there are almost no systems similar to the one being tested, in principle, so there is simply no result. Sorry for the time spent. 3DMark06 during the test CPU tightly killed the system, so that the whole screen was artifacts ... after a five-minute meditation, among the artifacts, I saw a puzzle of my own desktop and rebooted.





With fresh PCMark Vantage and 3DMark Vantage, everything went relatively calm, except that 3DMark on Performance type settings died after the second graphical test. On the settings like Entry everything went fine and even the rating was considered.





Measuring hard disk performance is unlikely to surprise anyone. This is not an SSD, but an ordinary low-end 2.5 ”drive, but I still feel a little disappointed.



Well, these temperatures before and after all tests. There are no hardcore values ​​like 110 degrees, which scare potential buyers of matplat on ION-e ... although maybe my tests were not load-intensive, but I don't know what to do with the processor in order to heat it to such temperatures.

Installation

The kit also includes a VESA mount, which allows you to attach a cute white nettop to an unsympathetic black monitor, in order to create a combination of a moderate degree of harmony.



I modeled a standard workstation, taking a truly female monitor (with incomprehensible garbage glued on top) and a set of USB mouse and USB keyboard. The bundled VESA mount initially clings to the monitor on the supplied bolts. After this, the VisION is clicked onto the mount and fixed onto a large mounting bolt. Installation of two actions, everything is simple and convenient.



After connecting all the laces, I tried to place them compactly behind the monitor. Anyway, there are too many wires and they are too long. Why not also supply a 30cm DVI-D cord with the VESA mount? It would be ten times more convenient. By the way, there are no air vents on the bottom of the nettop, so that attached to the monitor, it heats the same way as standalone.



Nettop practically does not get out because of the monitor and the wires almost do not interfere with the user. Aesthetics, of course, had to be sacrificed, the benefit of the color of the devices is not much combined and there is nowhere to put the wires, but on the whole - not bad. As a workstation, it is very convenient, especially in case of moving ...





If you at least once participated in the relocation of the enterprise's IT infrastructure, then you were very likely to observe, following the relocation, the standard division of peripherals and the identification of monitors by stickers, followed by the selection of "their" system unit. And here everything is simple - he took it and carried it. =)

Autopsy

Of course, the most delicious I left for the final. Carefully remove the top cover, which is held by 6 screws, and our eyes are presented with a picture of the visions' visions. Inside - a Toshiba 2.5 "SATA hard disk for 160GB, a single cooler for the chipset and processor, as well as



Once again I remind you that, together with the manual from Wexler, opening the case leads to loss of warranty.



The first thing that catches your eye is the empty SO-DIMM memory slot. There should be a RAM? The engineers made it tougher ... they decoupled 8 ELPIDA chips of 128 MB each on the board, and the SO-DIMM slot is used only in the case of expanding the basic functionality. As for me, the second SO-DIMM slot will fit into the half-liter nettop volume quite well. On the right you can see the brown power button.



To remove the hard drive, I had to completely remove the motherboard from the case, but I found what I was looking for. Could not resist the stinging pictures. ;)



The main chips are soldered on the “back” part of the motherboard, now we will look at them in more detail.



Here, for example, 5.1 realtekny sound on the alc662 chip. The chip is located next to the console connector CON1 unidentified by me, can anyone know what it is?



But this is a gigabit network controller, also from Realtek. Next to it, a mysterious chip labeled F71858 is soldered , which on closer inspection turns out to be a controller for a ps / 2 keyboard. Apparently, in order for the nettop to be loaded without a keyboard (I checked, it is loaded). I could not find the purpose of the thick chip with Delta engraving.

Results

Behind

• Compactness
• HD Video
• VESA mount
• Chill
• 6 USB ports
• Noiselessness
• Price

Vs

• No short DVI-D lace included
• Lack of cable organizer included
• No Wi-Fi
• Lack of drivers in the kit (or is this a test copy so lucky)
• Impossibility of upgrade (without loss of warranty)
• No color variations

In fact, I would have purchased such a device, only in black color or if there is an Apple monitor in the kit. As soon as I finally hang the LCD TV on my wall, the nettop will happily take a place on its back wall. Most of all I liked the fact that only a hard disk makes noise in a nettop and that, with a serious load.

Now I gathered the nettop back, threw out the extra details and went back to work. (PS Vadim, there were no extra details, everything is fine and the nettop works. =))

I still had some thoughts in the course of testing, but the pleasure of opening me distracted a little from them. I hope that you got the same pleasure from reading the review as I did from writing it.