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Follow UsThe ePC is an ultra-small machine aimed at corporates. Its size makes it easy to maintain and set
up.
Design
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The e-PC’s design is simple. It’s about 1/5th the size of a conventional desktop and is only 3.5” thick. This has been done by removing certain components such as the floppy drive, and integrating others–10/100 Mbps Ethernet controller for network connectivity, AGP for display, and audio for sound requirements–on the motherboard. There’s no provision for adding PCI or ISA cards, nor any extra bays to add devices like a DVD or CD-Writer. For these you’ll have to use external USB devices.
You can either lay the PC flat, or keep it upright on its small plastic stand to save space. The vertical position, however, makes it difficult to operate the CD drive.
The PC’s body is divided into two parts. One holds the motherboard, processor, and RAM, while the other contains the hard drive. A thin metal sheet separates the two so that the hard drive can be upgraded without disturbing the other components.
An external power supply saves the space of an internal SMPS. A security feature called the port-control system
a plastic cover for the PC’s I/O ports prevents anyone from removing VGA, USB, serial, parallel, or PS/2 devices attached to your system.It also locks the hard-drive chamber. Each ePC comes with a unique key for the port-control system.You can also opt for a master key for the entire lot of ePCs that you buy
a boon for system administrators.
| HP ePC |
|
Features: Compact, port-control lock system, built-in LAN, sound, and video Pros: Good performance, can be placed vertically or flat, good security features Cons: No floppy drive Price: Start at Rs 56,615 with a Celeron 600 MHz, 64 MB RAM, and Windows 98 Contact: Hewlett-Packard. Tel: 011-6826000—14 Fax: 6826059. Chandiwala Estate Maa Anandmai Marg, Kalkaji New Delhi 110019. E-mail: subin_ joseph@hp.com |
All the PC’s ports–two USB, one serial, one parallel, two PS/2, and jacks for mic, line-in and line-out–are placed on its rear panel and color-coded for easy identification. Having at least the frequently used ports–USBs, jacks for mic, and speakers–on the front panel would’ve been convenient.
The model we reviewed had a PIII/733 MHz processor with 128 MB SDRAM, and Windows 2000 Professional. ePCs are also available in other configurations–you can choose processor, RAM, hard drive, and monitor. Options available are a Celeron or PIII at different speeds, memory capacities of 64, 128, and 256 MB, and hard drive capacities of either 10 or 20 GB. All ePC models have an Intel 810e chipset motherboard. The PC we got had an attractive 15” HP LCD color monitor. However, you need to shell out an additional Rs 40,000 for this. Otherwise, an ordinary 15” monitor will cost Rs 9,500.
Performance
The PC gave good scores in our benchmarks, scoring 26.2 in Business Winstone 2001 and 28.1 in Content Creation Winstone 2001–indicating that it can run most productivity applications.
Overall, it’s a good choice if you’re looking for small and manageable PCs provided you don’t intend to add extra devices to them.
Sachin Makhija