Verdict: THIS CUBE PROVES IT'S HIP TO BE SQUARE
Asmall form factor PC isn't just for Christmas. You can use it for all kinds of things. But the most popular use is as a PVR and media centre. This is exactly what AOpen's new XC Cube variation is directly aimed at, taking its place alongside MSI's increasingly capable Mega PC and numerous less accomplished SFFs from other manufacturers.
As with other AOpen SFFs we've seen, the EA65 has obviously had some thought put into its design - it's not just a gimmicky me-too product rushed out to get press coverage. It has an LCD screen on the front panel, but it's much more subdued than MSI's bar graph. When the EA65's powered off, the LCD just tells the time. It then confirms the function you've invoked when you turn it on. Overall, the EA65's looks are stylish but understated - exactly what many people want for their living rooms.
The EA65's main killer feature, compared with other XC Cubes, is its AV functionality. This comes courtesy of a software suite from InterVideo and an remote control. Home Theater is supplied for accessing couch-potato entertainment from within Windows. It's a Windows XP Media Center Edition look-alike that can be fully controlled using the IR remote or buttons on the front panel. It provides DVD and VCD playback, TV viewing and time shifting, FM radio, picture slideshows, and audio CD and MP3 playback. You can also watch downloaded and recorded video files. For TV and radio, you'll need AOpen's own TV Tuner LR6609, which is a separate purchase but came pre-installed in our test system. There's a built-in Electronic Programme Guide, but as this uses the US-only Titan TV, it won't work in the UK. Other than that, Home Theater is a very good attempt at the 'ten-foot interface', and easy to use from a distance with the remote control.
You can also operate the EA65 without booting into Windows at all, using InterVideo Instant ON. This isn't just an app, but an entire Linux-based OS that gives you almost immediate access to many AV features. You need to read the instructions carefully prior to use, however. The Instant ON software must be installed before you install any other operating system, as it needs to be in the first primary partition on your main hard disk. It doesn't take up much space, though, as only 100MB is required.
Although Instant ON isn't a brand new idea, it's feature-rich and well implemented by AOpen. Some SFFs with an instant-AV mode merely offer one or two features - just FM radio and CD audio. The EA65, on the other hand, is a fully functional media centre PC. However, none of your add-in peripherals will be operational within Instant ON, including your AGP graphics card. You'll have to use the on-board graphics instead.
Like Home Theater, Instant ON works with the IR remote and front controls. Simply by hitting one of the application buttons, the PC will run through the BIOS boot, then load the chosen feature, which takes just a few seconds. We tested the EA65's DVD performance and found it to be free from skips and artefacts. CD playback was similarly good, and it can also play MP3 CDs. In Instant ON mode, TV is limited to viewing only - you don't get any PVR functionality. There's no still-image slideshow viewing, either. We'd also have liked to see the ability to play back movies, such as DivX files, from within the Instant ON mode. However, there are already enough features to make it a useful system for the media centre PC enthusiast.
That said, there's one major gotcha with Instant ON. The EA65 has no TV output as standard. Although there's an optional AGP card that adds TV-out to the on-board Intel Extreme 2 graphics chipset, it's not supported by the Instant ON operating system either. However, AOpen told us that a future version of the XC Cube AV, to be released in August, would have TV-out. Until then, though, this is the biggest problem for the EA65 concept. You'll have to use it with a D-SUB-attached monitor, rather than a much cheaper large-screen TV.
The EA65 can be booted into Windows XP using just the remote, and once in you'll see that everything about the EA65 is fairly standard. In fact, it's essentially the same design as the CPC Elite EZ65 XC Cube, which puts it in good company. The motherboard is based around the Intel 865G chipset, with support for dual-channel PC3200 memory and Socket 478 Pentium 4s. There are two S-ATA ports, but no RAID support. The chassis has two 3.5in bays, but a memory card reader supporting SD/MMC, SmartMedia, CompactFlash and MemoryStick takes up most of one of these. The other bay is fitted into a cage that simply slides out once a single thumbscrew has been undone. The single 5.25in bay sits behind a flap, and its eject mechanism worked adequately with our test DVD-ROM. A further flap hides the two USB 2, microphone and line-in audio connections, plus 4-pin and 6-pin FireWire.
Internally, the EA65 is pretty much identical to the EZ65. The AGP slot is next to the chassis wall, so you can't install a dual-slot card. However, there are still plenty of powerful single-slot cards, and there's a vent on the side to allow air to directly cool the GPU. The DIMM sockets are at the front but you can remove the drive-bay enclosure by undoing two screws, which makes the memory a lot easier to get to. The CPU socket is towards the back, and the HSF is also fairly simple to remove. You simply unhook the four corner clips using your fingers - no screwdriver leverage or excessive force is required. The 80mm HSF is part of AOpen's SilentTek technology range, and so is very quiet. We found the HSF very efficient, keeping the CPU well under 40ûC when idle.
PERFORMANCE
For testing, we used our standard 2.6GHz Pentium 4c and added 1GB of Corsair XMS 4000 memory. At the stock clocks, the benchmark results were about par for the course for the specification - nothing to write home about, but nothing to worry about either. The on-board Intel Extreme 2 graphics wouldn't run Unreal II at 1,280 x 1,024 with 4x AA and 8x AF, but you could always add an AGP card if you wanted gaming as well as AV. You'd have to leave the on-board video on and use a dual-input monitor, though, if you still wanted to use Instant ON mode.
Despite being based on the 865G chipset instead of 875P, we still found the EA65 ripe for overclocking. We managed to up the FSB to 225MHz (effectively 900MHz) with ease. Our Media Benchmarks ran faultlessly at this setting with a speed increase of 14 per cent. There are options to vary CPU, DDR, and AGP voltages, and separate clocks for all three, as well as the PCI bus.
CONCLUSION
There's an air of thoughtful execution about the EA65 at every level. It's quiet, good-looking, and the AV functions are about the best implementation we've seen. Even the driver CD loads everything in one go with very little user input. We'd still like to see PVR functions and DivX playback in Instant ON mode, but with TV and DVD available outside Windows, you might find yourself not bothering with Windows half the time. It's a shame that you can't use a TV as a monitor in this mode, but the Instant ON TV mode will turn your monitor into one anyway. It's the only really major flaw in an otherwise excellent media centre SFF, especially at £235, including the TV tuner. A small form factor PC may not be just for Christmas, but we'll still be putting this one on our gift list.
