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FIC Condor Small Form Factor Reviewed
VL writes "A gamer's best friend? That's FIC's catch phrase, and we take them to task in our latest review. 'FIC put together a nice little barebone PC, but missed on some important features that enthusiasts have come to expect. While it's no slouch in gaming, it does not stand out in the performance department which is a shame as the design itself was well thought out.'"
These speciality pc's are technicians worst nightmare!
looks to me like a humidifier
All the torrents you could want.
200W powersupply, average looks and average expansion slots.
Now I guess ok for a living room PC, but for small form facter lan party box, I'd pass. Been looking at the Frag box, now thats a nice looking PC.
Pros: Good performance, easy to assemble a system, better than average expansion options. Quiet.
Cons: No BIOS tweaks possible. Mere 200W PSU. Poor onboard audio.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
ive had a tiny computer like that for a while, and its a heating nightmare... ive had it overheat so much i had to pull out the ol' dremmel and saw a hole in the side, to add a fan. but now its all noisy, and still is quite hot.
my question is, with one of those new 3.6 pentiums (the heat kings), and a new radeon or geforce, can this thing sustain long gaming parties without melting down? especially when it has so little fans and such a cramped case?
Doesn't it seem odd that a small form factor PC is named after a very large bird?
It looks like some sort of modernist toaster to me.
That's nasty.
I needed to find out how much memory (and what kind) a Brio BA300 would take...the .pdfs on the HP website are about as useful as braincells or scruples to a /. editor, so I decided to e-mail the company...the reply from the South East Asia Tech Support?
Thank you for contacting HP Customer Care Center.
We sincerely apologize for the delayed response.
With reference to your e-mail regarding Memory upgrade.
We would like to inform you that the maximum memory upgrade in your system is up to 512MB.
The various memory modules with there part number available is as mentioned below:
> 355924-001--------128MB, 333MHz, 200-pin, PC2700 Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Module (SODIMM)
> 355925-001--------256MB, 333MHz, 200-pin, PC2700 Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Module (SODIMM)
> 355926-001--------512MB, 333MHz, 200-pin, PC2700 Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Module (SODIMM)
Further we cannot assure the performance of any third party spare part, so we suggest you to purchase a genuine HP spare part and check the performance.
The spare part can be purchased from the nearest HP Service Center.
The BA300 is a desktop system. It will in fact accept up to 512MB of SDRAM.
When I pointed out that trivial fact, they blamed me for providing insufficient information, such as model number and serial, even though I'd provided that twice already.
Just gotta love those Indian techs...
computer's small and so are the screenshots. bastard
You know what to do? The most ghetto but effective thing once ur setup at the lan, open it up. Having it opened/layed out still takes less space and less hassle than a whole tower, without the heating issue.
I prefer beige pearl, myself.
I have a mini system I put together from parts. It's a nice enough case (an off-brand minitower I got from computer geeks) but it - like just about every single mini system I've seen - has these damn doors over the ports on the front. The cdr door isn't too bad (except that it also means you have to remove the front of the drawer on the drive thus leaving the noiseproofing gasket out of the picture, which means going back four years to listening to jet engine takeoffs every time you use a DVD or CD) but the doors on the connectors mean your stuck with two choices:
1) never use the front panel jacks
2) use the front panel jacks and risk damage to the cheap plastic doors thus ensuring your nice looking system eventually looks like ass.
Of course, 1) isn't foolproof either, since it's incredibly easy to break on of these things off at the hinges just by laying it in the car seat wrong.
I can't stand those cubes with the jacks sticking out the front like some afterthought, either - but would it really be so hard to stick all those jacks in a nice even row at the bottom of the case behind a black rubber or felt gasket? Maybe use those black nylon fibers like at the end of vacuum cleaner dust attachments. It would look nice, be unbreakable, and only slightly more cumbersome to connect (Where's the hole? I know it's here somewhere...")
Anything other than flimsy plastic doors would be an improvement... especially at 650 fucking dollars! Yeesh!
Im tired of these mfg. pandering to the "gamer" crowd. (obviously there is lotsa money in this market). However, I tend to prefer the big power-hogging flashy-lights boxen. I think the sleek metal toasters would more appeal to the office, asthetics people. And if you're really looking for power for the money you'd build it yourself. This is the most impressive to me- ones determination to create a unique machine. If you're into gaming, you're also likely to be sitting on your butt, thus undercutting the small form factor (which tacks on lotsa parts costs) which are more suited to portable/embedded applications.
Now if you just like spending money on trivial things.... well I'll be quiet then
I hate to be cynical, but all these review sites "like"/"don't like" products based on:
...and a zillion other things unrelated to actual product quality or suitability. Meanwhile, of course, they're all getting played by the companies, who reward good reviews by bumping those sites up on the list of who gets Hot Product A in what order.
Which is why this has no business being on the front page. Put it in games.slashdot.org and make it a non-frontpage for slashdot.org....or something...
You can damn well bet that if they wanted to 'like' the unit, the PSU figures would not have been mentioned, the onboard audio problems dismissed as moot because "we all install soundblaster audigy boards anyway", so on etc. You get the idea. The review remains technically accurate, but the bias clearly swings.
Please help metamoderate.
Condom small form factor??? WTF??? Where'd I put my penis enlarger and viagra!?!?!
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
When the first SFF (small form factor) machines came out, I was interested, but they were very limited with low-rent technology. That's not the case anymore. You want a PCI Express, or the latest Athlon-64, or maybe you want a steady-as-a-rock Intel 865 chipset and matching P4? There are well built SFF machines that fit the bill, and all you give up are PCI slots.
My latest gaming machine is a Soltek 3401 (review at http://www.sfftech.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=464) with what was at the time the highest-end stuff, a P4 at 3 Ghz, a Radeon 9800XT, and to get a real gameport, a SB Audigy in the only PCI slot, along with two optical drives. The resulting machine is rock-steady, even overclocked and running 24/7 and playing all the latest games. Plus, it is a snap to travel to conventions with - it came with its own backback and I can check it in as a carry on. Bringing it to clients' is no problem either.
This computer is the quietest I've ever had (save for the fanless, hard driveless Apple //e) and extremely reliable. When at conventions, it stays just as fast and delivers gameplay just as good as any of those modded, neon-lit monsters other folks bring, but at 1/3 the size.
Though this FIC board doesn't seem to be very overclockable, most Shuttles and Solteks are. And don't worry about SFF power supplies - they are designed to be efficient and work well despite their low wattage ratings. Just try some high-end cards and be prepared to see them work fine.
If the idea of an SFF machine interests you, check out the reviews and ask around at the forums of http://www.sfftech.com/. I'm glad I did.
"That said: if the manufacturer put openings with fans at suitable places in the case to exhaust all the produced heat quickly, and uses a beefy power supply, nothing prevents it from running a Presshot with a GF6800. It might be a tad loud though since the fans certainly will be on the very fast spinning side. Most SFF PCs out there are very loud if performance parts are used: manufacturers mostly use small 40 and 60mm fans which spin at ridiculous 5000rpm and more. Often using low quality fans to boot, making the PCs sound like sirens."
_ 6000.htm/
http://www.atechfabrication.com/products/heatsync
Using the above should eliminate that problem. Using the 2.5 drives with fluid bearings should also help.
"Im tired of these mfg. pandering to the "gamer" crowd. (obviously there is lotsa money in this market). However, I tend to prefer the big power-hogging flashy-lights boxen."
Does yours come with mudflaps and a roll bar?
The biggest benefit was that this case really is very quiet! It only ever revs up when the CPU is really cranking, and even then it's still not bad. Otherwise, it's far quieter than any Shuttle box I've ever had, even the ones that trumpeted their heat pipe design.
I do miss not having firewire though. I needed to buy a USB2 cable for my iPod..
I got through two pages when I gave up looking. Shouldn't a review have the price of the product being reviewed? Knowing the price is central to determining whether a product is a good value or not, or at least that's what I thought. Perhaps the reviewers know better than I.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
The parent post is currently modded as "Troll". I must respectfully differ, owning to the fact that the Condor, indeed, looks like a toaster.
I first saw one of these things sitting on an end-cap in Fry's. The very first thought that ran through my head was, "It looks like a toaster." While I was poking at it to see what features it had, a person from behind me remarked, "What is that, a toaster?"
So, just for my own personal amusement, I stood there for a few minutes watching passers-by react to the Condor. I didn't approach or prompt anyone; I just stood idly by watching people. Of those who said anything, the overwhelming majority of them noted a resemblence to a toaster.
So, it looks like a toaster. And, personally, I think that's kinda cool. I think FIC should run with it.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
- It's small
- Extremely quiet (I can hear my roomate's 24" floor-standing fan over this case - and that's 10feet down the hall and behind a closed door)
- Inexpensive (as far as the small form factors go)
Sure it's unique cooling design means I can't stack things on top of my computer (the main exhaust is the PSU and a vent on top of the case). It may be a little bit taller than most SFFs, but it's a little bit skinnier too. The pictures on that page really don't do the little bugger justice: it's quite handsom. The audio and USB jacks on the front? Yeah, they're a little odd - and I don't use the optical audio out, because I have an older vacuum tube audio system. I do, however, absolutely love> the front headphone jack. Another nifty thing about this case is something really odd about the power supply - it has a switched power output. Yeah, like OLD cases used to have, so you could plug your monitor into it and have it come on when you turn your computer on (and off when you turn it off). Being that I never turn my computer off, it's not that big of a deal - but it's a nifty feature nonetheless. I really don't see being unable to tweak clock settings as a bad thing. I don't like overclocking my hardware anyway. As a basis for a mid-range mid-price gaming machine, it just kicks butt. The fans monitor the temperature (Yeah, I wish I could too - but I don't have to) and turn the speed up if it gets too hot. Running at their normal idle speed, they are close to silent. It's a build it and forget it machine. Yeah, you can go in and upgrade things if you like, but I don't foresee the need to upgrade for another four years (I was running a p3-800mhz / kyro (and then geforce3) system up until 3 months ago, played everything fine.. and then I wanted to play doom3). I'm running a p4 3ghz (ht) with 512mb ram and a radeon 9600. Maybe I can't play doom3 at 1600x1200, but really.. I don't care. I like my little machineThis is "news article" slashvertisement. Don't be fooled.
Speak truth to power.
I've used FIC motherboards twice (I think they were a VA503 and an SD11 - can't remember which order I had them in) and both ended up being 'problem computers' (hardware wise) so I'm a bit wary of FIC now.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
If noise is a concern and a Shuttle is being considered, I recommend seeing that model in person before buying. The Shuttles I have seen in person were louder than most desktops that I have seen, despite the heat pipe, because the fan they attached to it was loud. Of course, the simplest thing to do is find a quieter fan that delivers a similar flow rate and static pressure, I thin Shuttle really cheaped out on that.
I'm not bothered by the limited or lack of overclocking, generally it voids the warranty anyway. I'm not going to assemble a $1k+ box and run out to void the warranties of all the parts inside. I know some people don't have a problem with that and don't have a problem misrepresenting it to the person they bought the parts from though, but I think it is a valid concern.
"I'm not advocating this trend, but it's obviously the choice of the bulk of consumers. You are going to be fighting a losing battle if you try to stop this."
Is this a "losing battle" before, or after we all have a landfill for a next door neighbour?
I have played with so many SFFPCs, our office now buys nothing but SFFPC. My experience is, when it comes to SFFPC, get the Shuttles. Don't even think of getting anything else.
The review seems to assume that to be a 'gamer' you'll naturally be going for the highest-end components, wanting to get the absolute maximum from your PC, overclocking it and tweaking it to get that extra 2.5% performance increase.
Well, I've got news for you, folks. Some of us gamers just want to go for the mid-range, most bang-for-the-buck parts that'll run modern games at a reasonable resolution at a reasonable framerate at a reasonable graphical quality setting.
Sure, if they'd called themselves "The PC Ricer's Best Friend", I could see a reason to grumble, but from what I read in the review, it seemed like a nice little system.
You could check out the reviews at sfftech. They always have a some noise measurements and comparisons in the benchmark section of their reviews. While there are terribly loud Shuttles, they have some quiet ones too. Especially the SN45 Zen is rather quiet and has an external PSU. The other nice thing is that this mainboards allows undervolting and clocking by software (8rdavcore), which makes this box even quieter if you don't need full performance. Fan regulation by software (speedfan) is possible as well. When an Athlon is enough for you, this box is a rather good way to built a cheap, nice and quiet box.
Shuttle has IIRC the third PSU generation in their boxes now. They are much better (=quieter) than the first models.
Bye egghat.
-- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel