ECS EZ-Buddie

Nestling behind a flap at the bottom of the fascia is a multiformat memory card reader, with slots for CompactFlash, SmartMedia, SD/MMC and Memory Stick. A second vertical flap to its right hides a single USB port and analog audio in/out jacks.

The EZ-Buddie is a great idea, but one that's been marred a little in its execution. The main problem is the clock resetting itself to the default system speed every time you switch on or reboot the machine. This is good if you're worried about your processor's longevity, but winding up the clock again every time you want to get maximum speed is a pain; inadvertently go one or two clicks too far and you'll find yourself staring at the BIOS startup screen as the system reboots itself. I'd like to have seen a couple of car radio-style preset buttons to store maximum and minimum clock settings once the overclocking envelope has been fully probed.

Although the EZ-Buddie is fun to play with, Shuttle still has the market for mini-PCs cornered. That said, ECS is to be commended for coming up with such a novel system, and it bodes well for the geeks among us who are short on time or patience.

Author: David Fearon