Product Reviews

Inspired, stunning and made in England. The Cubit - manufactured in Gloucestershire by Netbox - combines a VIA EPIA-M mini-ITX motherboard with 256MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM, a 60GB 7,200rpm Seagate hard disk, a slimline DVD-ROM and CD-RW combo drive and integrated S3 AGP 8x graphics. It's one of the most original and interesting PCs we've ever seen at PC Pro, and has all the ingredients for a truly exciting yet compact computer.

The case is hand-engineered by Netbox, and it's beautiful, strong and also reassuringly heavy. Our review samples came in red and gold, although silver, black and electric blue Cubits can also be built at no extra cost. A minimalist front fascia features a slimline optical drive slot and two USB ports, along with a minute power button.

However, once you turn the Cubit around you'll notice the incredible attention to detail: the side panels have a spiralling Cubit logo cut right through the aluminium. In a double-whammy of cool, this not only looks great, but also helps to ventilate the PC. You can even have your own designs cut into the case for £75 per panel if you provide the artwork, and you only need to add on a further £50 if you want Netbox to design a logo from a sketch.

The rear panel has enough port flexibility to satisfy most users: two USB 2 ports, 10/100BaseTX Ethernet, two PS/2 ports, audio jacks, parallel and serial ports, an S-Video output and a CompactFlash slot.

By the time you read this, however, Netbox will be introducing the Cubit 2, which has the same innards but with a slightly different chassis. This will feature a front-mounted 6-in-1 card reader instead of the CompactFlash slot, as well as two FireWire ports. The card reader will use one of the USB ports so only three (one front and two rear) will be available for

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use. The power supply will also be replaced with a much quieter model, and the modem will be removed. This is because Netbox is replacing the micro PCI slot with a horizontal full-height PCI slot, and has decided to leave the end user to populate it as they choose. We'll be looking at the new chassis very soon, so watch this space.

Looks, however stunning, aren't everything though - there's power and performance to take into account too, and that's where the integrated VIA C3/933 processor starts to strain. However, while the overall 2D benchmark result of 0.41 was disappointing compared to the 1.22 from the Aries SpaceCube 2200XP (see p107), the Cubit actually performs remarkably well considering its size and processor. There's certainly enough power for watching DVD movies in full screen, and general office applications run at a fast enough pace too.

Expandability is also another inevitable casualty of the miniaturisation process, but if you have the dexterity of an octopus you can open the case to get at the RAM and hard disk. The full-length, horizontally mounted PCI slot will add flexibility to the retail unit, but re-assembling the chassis can be a little fiddly. It would be more practical to ensure that the unit is correctly specified before it leaves Netbox.

As well as being the best-looking, smallest and strongest mini-PC we've seen, the Cubit is also the most environmentally friendly. The packaging is claimed to be the first in the UK to be 100 per cent biodegradable (no polystyrene or foam, just starch). Netbox will even take the Cubit back at the end of its life and recycle all the materials where possible, and safely dispose of the rest.

Okay, so the Cubit doesn't have the speed of a Ferrari, but it has the build quality and sheer elegant desirability of a Rolls Royce, and the 'cut' branding into the case buys you individuality and a theft deterrent in one go. The Cubit is the first PC I've seen with the same 'wow' factor as an Apple iMac, and if you want strength in a small package then look no further. The £759 price tag is already quite reasonable, but Netbox is also selling a lower specified Cubit for £200 less, and may also introduce a case-only kit for around £250. The ultimate question a reviewer can ask is 'would I buy one?' - and my answer is an unreserved yes. Heck, Netbox had to send the heavies round to get this one back.