AOpen XC Cube EX915

UT2004 surprisingly was playable with the onboard VGA.  The frame rates weren't something to get excited about but well over what is seen as a minimum playable speed.

Rounding us out is Code Creatures.  Code Creatures is well known to bring systems and VGA cards down to their knees.  Our suspicions as to the onboard video are confirmed once again here.

Conclusion

AOpen has done a nice job bringing the i915 to the SFF market.  We thrashed the EX915 for several weeks and never even got a whiff of any trouble.  AOpen is well known for stability and the EX915 continues this tradition.  Physically speaking, the construction and overall quality of the EX915 gets high marks.  The unit's design is a matter of taste but I believe you would be hard pressed to find someone not liking the looks of the i915 based XC-Cube.  Performance wise, AOpen brings us a nice showing.  While you won't be playing Doom3 with the onboard video, you can be doing most anything else.  The small size of the EX915 coupled with an add in video card make the XC-Cube a LAN box to drool over.

We did have some concerns about the AOpen in spite of our overall good feelings about it.  The first issue I see as stemming from the LGA775 processor - heat.  The increased ventilation on the EX915 is welcome and needed but with it comes dust and a need to clean out the XC-Cube more frequently.  AOpen really needs to consider using an active Northbridge cooler as my reddened fingers can attest to.  Let me say that we never ran into a problem here but the Northbridge ran so hot I fully expected trouble but I never did see any.  Our other two issues were within the BIOS.  A shutdown trip temperature given the hot nature of Intel's new P4 should have been a gimmie and been automatically included.  The absence of voltage adjustments isn't a big deal as overclocking the Prescott without some rather aggressive cooling would be a waste of time.

All things considered, the AOpen XC-Cube EX915 is a worthy product with a few shortcomings but nowhere near enough to overcome its strong points.  If you are in the market for a SFF machine, the AOpen EX915 will not disappoint you. 

Pros:

• Exceptionally clean looks

• Compact

• Good performance

• Stable as a rock

• Excellent ventilation

Cons:

• Increased venting means increased dust

• Passive Northbridge cooler seen as barely adequate

• No shutdown trip temp within BIOS

• Occasionally a bit noisy (cooling fan) if under load for long periods of time

• Priced a bit more than competition

BACK                    HOME

Pg 1 - Introduction
Pg 2 - The EX915's outsides
Pg 3 - The EX915's insides
Pg 4 - BIOS
Pg 5 - Testing ~ Office Productivity
Pg 6 - Testing ~ Office Productivity and Gaming
Pg 7 - Testing ~ Gaming  /  Conclusion