All-in-one PC by stefan @ 2011-10-04
Inside a solid case with efficient cooling, Arctic has found room for an Intel Atom D525 CPU, along with a Radeon HD 5430 GPU, which are good for performing daily tasks like browsing the Internet, checking the mail, editing documents or playing small old games. The MC001 is capable of playing full HD videos and can perform all activities while keeping the power consumption to a minimum.
At first I would like to thank ARCTIC for offering me their MC001-E Entertainment Center Barebone for testing and reviewing.
"ARCTIC is now a leading manufacturer of CPU coolers, GPU coolers and case fans. In recent years they acquired a far-ranging expertise in the field of consumer electronics. The company’s product range has been further enhanced by new lines unrelated to PC cooling which was the reason behind the 2010 change in their brand name and logo: ARCTIC COOLING became the ARCTIC brand umbrella."
Performance at Low Power Consumption
The 64 bit Dual Core CPU (Atom D525) and 80 cores from the DirectX 11 GPU (ATI 5430, 512 MB GDDR3) offer your applications the performance needed at the lowest possible power consumption. The ATI Stream Technology allows applications like Internet browsers or media players to use also the GPU and thus improves the performance significantly.
Moreover, the fact that it supports up to 2 x 4GB DDR3 memory allows it to fulfill the hardware requirements of the latest operating systems.
Passive Cooling – Inaudible Operation
The MC001 is passively cooled to enable silent operation while maintaining the hardware at optimal temperature. Even operating in the most noise-sensitive environments, either the living room or bedroom, it won't be heard.
Living Room Design
MC001 features a small form factor to fit in a 1.5L aluminum chassis with piano black finishing and brushed silver polish. With a thickness of merely 4 cm, the exquisite MC001 fits elegantly anywhere.
Multi-Port Interface
MC001 is equipped with a 4-in-1 memory card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, five USB 2.0 ports, an HDTV interface and 7.1 analog outputs to offer the utmost connectivity.
For a long time we knew Arctic as developers of cooling products; since some time they began expanding their product lineup and now we can see the new MC001 Entertainment Center PC from Arctic present on their website, which comes in different flavors:
-MC001-N, which is a barebone without optical drive
-MC001-E, a barebone with the DVD-RW 24x preinstalled
-MC001-DVD, a full system with 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and DVD-RW 24x
-MC001-DVDS, a full system with 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD and DVD-RW 24x
-MC001-BD, a full system with 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and Blu-ray Player 4x
The model we are going to review is the MC001-E; on the frontal side of the box we can see a photo of the product, along with the clear statement that inside we will find a barebone:
Also here we can find the Intel, AMD Radeon Graphics logos, also some icons of the supported standards and the logo of the included 4-in-1 card reader:
On one of the laterals, we can see listed the package contents, along with a product description, in different languages:
The main product features are explained on the back of the box:
The other box lateral comes with a photo from the back of the product, and the list of specifications:
After opening up the box, we can see a nice welcome message:
Inside we can find a cardboard enclosure where the computer is stored, along with another white cardboard box, which holds the accessories and documentation:
Here is what we can expect to find inside the cardboard box:
-WiFi antenna
-HDMI cable
-a Quick Installation Guide and a Barebone Guide
-a DVD with necessary drivers
-the power adapter and respective power lead
-the mounting system for the HDD/SSD
Inside the Installation Guide, we can find drawings with multiple steps we must follow for performing the installation:
The power brick that is supplied with the product is made by powCOOL and it is rated on the output 19VDC, 3.16A, 60W:
After opening up the enclosure where the MC001 is held, we can find inside a small document that lets us know how and where NOT TO place the mini computer:
To protect against scratches during transport, the MC001 is wrapped inside a soft foam bag:
The MC001 case is made from both aluminum and shiny plastic; the plastic parts are also protected with a transparent film to avoid scratches:
The side covered in aluminum acts as a heatsink, for a better heat dissipation:
On the top area, we can find some spaces left for air to circulate between the fins of the internal heatsink:
The opposite side has a similar design, but this time its made of shiny black plastic, which unfortunately is a fingerprint and dust magnet; the Arctic logo can be found in center:
On the top side we can find the ventilation holes for the same internal heatsink:
On the front, we can find the 4-in-1 card reader, headphone and microphone jacks, two USB 3.0 ports, the power button, the HDD activity LED, the optical drive and the IR sensor:
The bottom is made from aluminum and comes with rubber material to avoid scratches the product will sit on, but also to prevent it falling of the table; on the left side we can also see two holes where we must insert the screw driver for removing two screws (when performing maintenance inside):
The back side comes with a lot of connectors and additional ventilation holes; here we can find the ports for 7.1 audio, along with a SPDIF, optical out; for video output we can find VGA and HDMI and for data transfer there are available 5 USB 2.0 ports and a Gigabit LAN connector; on the right side there is the power connector and the antenna port; the product can also come with a TV tuner preinstalled so the barebone comes with a covered pre-drilled hole:
After removing the plastic side, we can see the place where the storage drive gets installed; on this lateral we can also see part of the pre-installed optical drive:
The wireless interface supports IEEE 802.11 b/g/n standards and the controller is a Ralink RT3870L:
Near the 2.5'' drive connector, two Samsung K4W1G1646G-BC11 GDDR3 64Mx16 memory chips can be found:
The plastic lateral comes with some aluminum tape glued onto it and some thermal pads, to help evacuate the excess heat from the storage drive:
After opening the other aluminum lateral, we can discover the large heatsink and a smaller one, which are covered with thermal pads with protective film on them:
On this side we can find the Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit Ethernet controller:
The barebone comes with two memory slots and we can install up to 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 SODIMM of memory:
The smaller heatsink is held with a metallic clip secure on the PCB:
Near it there is the CR2032 CMOS battery and a good addition is the CLR_CMOS jumper, which is not seen a lot on such types of systems:
The larger heatsink also comes with two copper heatpipes:
Here are some photos which show how this side looks with the transparent film removed:
The memory can be installed inside the slots like on any laptop, by sliding it inside at a certain angle and pushing it down until we hear a small “click”:
The metallic piece that is used to secure the storage drive comes with 4 screws:
The component must be installed first on the HDD/SSD with two of the screws:
With the top side downwards, we have to slide the drive into the plastic SATA connector:
With the remaining two screws, we can secure the drive to the case:
After powering up the system, we can see that the power and HDD activity LEDs are blue, but they do not light up excessively to attract our attention unnecesary:
When the system starts up, we are greeted with the Arctic splash screen:
The MC001 does not come with the more recent UEFI, but with the well known American Megatrends BIOS; the interface comes with the well known menus like Standard CMOS Setup, Advanced Setup, Advanced Chipset Setup and so on:
Inside the Standard CMOS Setup menu, we can adjust the system time and date and can also see the BIOS version listed:
Inside the Advanced Setup menu, we can enable/disable CPU features like Intel XD Bit, Intel HT Technology, or set the boot device priorities:
The Advanced Chipset Setup menu lets us allocate a custom memory quantity for DVMT:
The Integrated Peripherals menu permits us to select the SATA Configuration mode, but we can also enable/disable interfaces like LAN, audio, CIR, USB:
Inside the Power Management Setup menu, we can find some of the usual options like ACPI Suspend Type, or resume types:
In the PC Health Status menu, we can specify the Shutdown/Warning temperatures, but we can also see the current CPU/System and GPU temperatures:
The Frequency/Voltage Control menu has very little options to set; it would been very nice to see here adjustments for the memory timings, memory frequency, CPU frequency or voltages for the CPU/RAM. Since here are no options we can really set, the memory will always run at 800MHz, no matter the speed it is rated at:
For testing the performances of the Arctic MC001-E Entertainment Center, one Avexir DDR3 1333 SO-DIMM 4GB module was installed inside the barebone, along with a Hitachi Travelstar 5K250 250GB HDD. Some additional information regarding the components inside can be picked by using CPU-Z, GPU-Z or AIDA64.
CPU-Z CPU Information Tab
CPU-Z Caches Information Tab
CPU-Z Mainboard Information Tab
CPU-Z Memory Information Tab
GPU-Z Information Tab
AIDA64 Motherboard Information Tab
AIDA64 CPU Information Tab
AIDA64 IMC Information Tab
AIDA64 Chipset Information Tab
AIDA64 Graphics Information Tab
(ambient temperature: 24.2 degrees Celsius)
As it can be seen from the above table, the cooling system as a whole is really efficient and succeeds to keep the CPU and GPU at acceptable temperatures at any stress level. However, if we point a small fan (in this case the ARCTIC Breeze Pro USB Fan) towards the aluminum side of the case, we will see the temperatures drop considerably.
It took a while till we have seen the MC001 Entertainment Center released from Arctic; they have decided not to make another Intel Atom with Ion/Ion2 usual setup, but have integrated a more powerful GPU, the Radeon HD 5430, which succeeds to defeat the 3D performance of the Zacate systems without problems and leaves the Ion2 in the dust. However, in the performed tests, the Intel Atom D525 proved a little slower compared to the E-350 (maybe because of the low clocked memory too). Some of the previously reviewed systems had space only for installing one stick of memory and the MC001 comes with two slots, so we can use up to 8GB of DDR3 memory; this is useful because we can use a large quantity of the unused memory as a RAM drive for boosting up the system, migrating the temporary files there and for prolonging the SSD life, in case we are using such a storage media.
Inside the BIOS, we can see the usual options, but none of them are there for adjusting voltages, memory timings, or memory frequencies; because of that, no matter of the type of DDR3 SODIMM we will use, it will always run at 800Mhz. In the future BIOS versions this issue may be fixed and setting the memory at the nominal frequency (in this case 1333) may increase the overall system performance.
The system is built inside a solid chassis, with a well designed cooling system; because of that, we can see decent temperatures even in high load situations. Arctic uses thermal pads to make contact with the lateral sides; one of the side is made of aluminum and acts as a huge heatsink for a better heat dissipation. The heat transfer between the GPU/CPU and the lateral is very good because when setting up a small fan to blow onto this side, we can see very high temperature drops.
The other removable side along with the front are built from shiny black plastic, which is a dust and fingerprint magnet; on the front, the USB 3.0 ports are a little too close to the open button of the optical drive and we can find ourselves in the situation of pressing it too when removing the flash drive front the port.
The IR sensor inside the MC001 allows the usage of remotes like the MCR1; in case we want to use the Entertainment Center for office activities too like browsing the Internet, chatting, we can buy along with the system the K481, a slim wireless keyboard with multi-touch pad..
One issue that I have encountered was with the Ralink WiFi interface: sometimes, after a Windows restart, the WiFi interface was not showing at all in Device Manager. This is mostly a driver/application issue because it could be turned on from the Ralink software application by pressing the Radio On/Off button.
A nice addition would have been the inclusion of the TV tuner inside the E variant of the barebone by default.
The product can be found in stores for about 288 Euros, but in case we do not need an optical drive (we can stream the multimedia content from inside our local network or can copy the data onto the internal HDD), we can opt in for the variant without it, which is about 220 Euros.
I would like to thank again to Arctic for making this review possible!