Why's it called "barebone"? I would say it is a "body"!
Written: Mar 18 '03
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Pros: Compact; ALLLL-in-one; Stylish; Thoughful design; Good materials used; Advanced fan speed control; Relatively cheap
Cons: Noisy cpu fans (3 nos.!); Sharp edges of interior housing; Slow graphics benchmarks
The Bottom Line: A characterised unit with much potential.
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| ricehigh's Full Review: MSI Hermes 845GL (MS-6243-010) PC Desktop |
I first saw this unit about 3 months ago. I was much impressed with its compactness and functionality. I bought the unit (model MS-6243P, the version with PCMCIA and Memory Stick reader) when I found a discounted price two days ago.
It almost contains all the functions with the latest computer technology. Namely,
1. analog stereo audio;
2. digital 5.1 audio with optical out!;
3. 100/10 Ethernet LAN port (Intel chipset);
4. analogy VGA, S-video and Composite out;
5. Digital DVI out!;
6. 6 USB port, 4 at front;
7. IEEE 1394 firewire port!;
7. PCMCIA slot;
8. Memory stick reader;
9. 2 PCI expansion slot!;
10. and other standard computer ports such as line-ins, mic-ins, line-in/out, com and lpt ports, etc.
I ve plugged in a stereo TV tuner and MPEG1/2 capture car into one of the PCI slot. Fortunately, the card is small enough to be put into it as I selected the card at the shop. After installing ram, cpu, harddisk and rom drive, this unit becomes fully functional. I bought a Celeron 2G CPU (US$86 only!) and 256M Kingston 266DDR ram ($35 only) to be used with it. The delicated slim floppy drive saves even more space for the room above the cpu heatsink for better cooling and its appearance is better than ordinary one. The ROM drive was covered by a door of the Barebone but its tray still can move in and out smoothly. After all, the front panel is neat and tidy with stylish look.
It is a very thoughful designed unit indeed. Everything is minimised and optimised to save space but yet installation by the end-user is still easy to carry out. So, it has the quality and advantages of brand-name PC but also has the flexibility of DIY PCs. The materials used are also with high quality, e.g. the provided CPU heatsink is made of pure copper (I think, maybe wrong) and delicated CPU air duct is provided for better air-flow (this can be only seen in brand-named PCs in the past).
The unit has an advanced fan speed control function. Actually, it has four fans in the units. One bigger fan for the power supply, this one is of constant speed and is very silent as I observed. The other two are for heat exhaust for CPU heat directly out of the casing and the remaining one is the CPU heatsink cooling fan. These 3 fans are very noisy at full speed. Unfortunately, when the speed is reduced, the noise level is significantly reduced but high frequency sound is generated (though low level) and the sound is somehow similar to the "standby" rotating sound of some high-speed ROM drives.
Last but not least, considering having all the above, it's really a very cheap unit. Just imagine if one need to buy add-on cards for some particular functions offered in this unit..
The other disadvantages of this unit is about the sharp edges inside the casing which indeed has make cuts onto my tuner card and some of the internal wires. I wonder why MSI don't find some workers in the factory to make them "smooth" b4 put them out of the factory? (to save cost, of coz I know, but the sharp edges cause damages to devices!).
Finally, if you re a guy who cares about benchmarks and need to put bundles of devices into the PC housing, this unit is not the one for you. (I do have a "monster" unit at my home, though).
I am now planning to buy a Samsung 152T 15" LCD mon (with DVI output) to be used with this unit. Just imagine a slim mon be put on the top of this slim case... wow :-)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 186.38
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
ricehigh
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Reviews written: 22
Trusted by: 2 members
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