AOpen XC Cube MZ855-II review

For testing, we installed a 1.6GHz Pentium M with 512MB of PC2700 DDR, and a 120GB Western Digital Caviar hard disk. As we suspected, the performance in our application benchmarks was no different from AOpen's own i855GMEm-LFS, scoring a healthy 1.59. The Pentium M yet again showed that in mainstream apps it could keep up with Pentium 4s clocked 1GHz faster, and even give the Athlon 64 a run for its money. Best of all, we found we could run a 533MHz FSB Pentium M at full speed in the motherboard, although it had to be set manually in the BIOS to the correct frequency and multiplier configuration. This was entirely stable, operating for hours without a hitch. So if you're willing to go beyond official processor support then you're not limited to 400MHz CPUs.

As with many small-form-factor PCs, it's horses for courses. The MZ855-II isn't going to appeal to the serious entertainment user, except as a basic media centre. But the Pentium M processor will make short work of mainstream business applications. If you want a tiny, quiet system with plenty of everyday processing power, this black beauty is a potential race winner.

Author: James Morris