At first I would like to thank Viako for sending a sample of their Mini Letter ML55 H61 WIFI PC for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Viako:

 

Viako is one of the known manufacturers in Asia which is specialized in ITX formats and not only produces cases in many shapes and sizes, but also ships fully equipped systems.

 

Product Specifications:

 

The small PC that we are going to look upon from Viako is shipped inside a cardboard box labeled "mini letter", with a small fake stamp on the frontal side:

 

 

 

Opening the box reveals the bundle and the computer itself is located in a sealed cardboard compartment:

 

 

 

The actual bundle is composed from the documentation that is shipped with the Intel motherboard inside the ML55 and contains the internal layout with all headers explained, along with the I/O connectors (this layout guide is made as a sticker so it can be put on the chassis, if necessary), an Intel Desktop Board Quick Reference guide, a yellow paper with warnings regarding motherboard processor compatibility, memory voltage limitations, power supply selection and so on, and, of course, the CD with drivers. The retail packaging should also contain one WiFi antenna:

 

 

 

The external power brick is made by Delta Electronics and is rated on the output 19V, 4.74A:

 

 

 

For extra protection, the Viako ML55 is wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

Thanks to the chassis made completely from aluminum, the computer has a very nice external appearance; Viako have decided not to include any USB ports in the front, but only the Power On button, surrounded by a transparent plastic ring, which has 3 LEDs under it, two for Power and one for HDD activity:

 

 

 

The top side comes with a ventilation grill and on each corner we can see a black screw; these screws need to be removed in order to access the internals:

 

 

 

On one if the laterals, we can find ventilation holes for the case exhaust fan:

 

 

 

The opposite side comes with the same appearance, but this time without the holes for the small fan:

 

 

 

On the back, we can locate the I/O shield with the respective connectors:

 

-19VDC

-2x USB 3.0

-DVI-I

-HDMI, eSATA

-RJ45

-2x USB 2.0

-Line Out

-Mic In

 

 

 

Some very useful ventilation holes can be also found on the bottom of the chassis:

 

 

 

Each rubber foot is surrounded by an aluminum ring, which makes an interesting contrast with the rest of the case:

 

 

 

The top side of the case comes with an indentation where we must place our nail in order to lift the top cover:

 

 

 

The insides of the computer are well organized, so the airflow is not blocked in certain places. The HDD is located inside a black metallic frame, and fixed on the chassis with two screws; next to it we can find the low profile CPU cooler and the SATA Data/Power cables are in the back. Opposite to the HDD mounting holes, we can see two identical ones, probably for installing a secondary HDD or SSD, but the metallic frame is not supplied:

 

 

 

Removing the HDD from its place reveals that it is made by CLOVERhitech Co., LTD, a 320GB model, 5400RPM with 8MB of cache:

 

 

 

The CPU cooler was made by Gelid, named Slim Silence iPlus and was specially designed to fit Intel's 775, 1156 or 1155 sockets. It is just 28mm high and can cool CPUs up to 82W TDP:

 

 

 

Next, the memory used was manufactured by MX Technology, model MXD3N13332GS SO-DIMM, rated at 1.5V, 1333MHz, CL9:

 

 

 

 

The STSTORE 40nm fan installed on the case is meant to evacuate the hot air which has accumulated inside:

 

 

 

One of the PCI-Express Card slots is populated by a combo Bluetooth/WiFi card which uses two antenna connectors; its model name is AW-NB037 and was manufactured by AzureWave:

 

 

 

Near the CR2032 CMOS battery, we can find the DC-IN connector:

 

 

 

The DC-IN connector wires travel to a special header on the motherboard:

 

 

 

To be able to access the memory modules on the board, we have to remove the HDD; the Intel DH61AG motherboard supports installation of an additional module and near the SODIMM slots we can also find the CIR header, one CPU PWM fan header, the SATA power connector and two SATA data connectors:

 

 

 

The frontal button along with its LEDs are located on a separate PCB and link with the motherboard Front Panel header through a special cable:

 

 

 

 

 

When the system is on, the frontal ring has a nice look along with the LEDs:

 

 

 

The Intel DH61AG motherboard is not equipped with UEFI, but with a normal BIOS; the main sections are split into multiple tabs, each having its own information. Inside the Main menu, we can see the currently installed BIOS version, the processor type and some details regarding the CPU and installed memory; here we can also set date/time and the HT feature can be enabled or disabled:

 

 

 

The Configuration tab comes with multiple sub-menus like Onboard Devices, SATA drives and so on:

 

 

 

The Onboard Devices menu allows us to disable or enable the interfaces like audio, LAN, USB or IR (in case we have an infrared device connected to the CIR header):

 

 

 

The SATA Drives menu lets us configure the detected storage devices, and here we can also enable or disable the eSATA port and the Hot Plug capabilities:

 

 

 

The Event Log menu lets us know of the system errors that have occurred in the past:

 

 

 

Inside the Video menu, we can configure Integrated Graphics related options and can allocate a custom quantity of system memory for the video interface:

 

 

 

Inside the Fan Control & Real-Time Monitoring menu we can see the current fan speeds, temperatures for different zones and current voltages; in the same menu we can also adjust the fan speeds:

 

 

 

In case we have something connected in the PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slot, we can see details about the device here:

 

 

The Performance menu, the BIOS warns us that if we modify the options inside wrong, this would translate into system instability or hardware damages:

 

 

 

Enabling the feature from the Performance menu, we will be able to see the current CPU and memory running settings:

 

 

 

The BIOS allows setting only some of the values inside the Processor Overrides menu, most of them being locked:

 

 

 

Inside the Memory Overrides menu, we can set the memory to run at either 1333Mhz or 1066Mhz; its best however to leave this setting on Auto:

 

 

 

The Security menu allows us to set passwords for the BIOS and storage drives; in the same menu we can also adjust some CPU related settings like XD bit or Intel Virtualization Technology:

 

 

 

The Power menu lets us adjust the Intel SpeedStep Technology, but also to modify some of the usual power management features:

 

 

 

Inside the Boot menu, we can adjust the priority of the boot devices, but we can also enable some optimizations for a faster boot time:

 

 

 

The Boot Display Options sub-menu lets us customize the BIOS splash screen options:

 

 

 

The last menu is Exit and allows to save or discard the changes we've made inside the BIOS.

The Viako ML55 comes with the Intel Core i3 2100 CPU preinstalled, which is known to be powerful and efficient regarding power consumption. With the latest version of CPU-Z we can extract some more information regarding the CPU and Motherboard and installed Memory:

 

CPU

 

 

Caches

 

 

Motherboard

 

 

Memory

 

 

SPD

 

 

Integrated Graphics

 

 

By firing up AIDA64 we can find even more detailed information about the hardware:

 

Intel Core i3-2100 CPU

 

 

Intel Apple Glen DH61AG Motherboard

 

 

Mach Xtreme 2GB SO-DIMM

 

 

CPU IMC

 

 

Intel H61 Chipset

 

 

Intel HD Graphics 2000

 

 

Here are some additional information about the CLOVERhitech UTANIA 5400RPM, 320GB HDD:

 

Synthetic Benchmarks

 

3DMark 2001

 

3DMark 2003

 

3DMark 2005

 

3DMark 2006

 

3DMark Vantage [Performance]

 

PCMark 2005

 

PCMark Vantage

 

PCMark 7

 

SuperPI XS 1MB

 

wPrime 32MB

 

CrystalMark

 

Productivity

 

Cinebench R10

 

Cinebench R11.5

 

x264 Encoding

 

 

Games

 

Counterstrike: Source

 

Crysis DX9 Medium Details

 

Far Cry 2 DX9 High Details

 

Street Fighter 4

 

World in Conflict Medium Details

 

Viako have succeeded to build a case which has good ventilation, has a clean, professional look and occupies very little space. Thanks to the new Intel i3 2100 CPU, the system does not need a big fan for getting rid of the accumulated heat, so the Gelid low profile cooler does it job like it should.

The ML55 has low power consumption in both full HD clips watching mode and while browsing, making it a very good secondary system near the gaming one:

The Viako system isn't doing bad in the noise generated department either: in the test room with ambient measured at 28.2dBA, the noise generated by the system 30cm away was 29.8dBA.

After stress testing the computer for a total of 30 minutes, with the help of the AIDA64 module, the temperatures are kept between reasonable limits:

Compared to the systems that were tested in the past, the offering from Viako can be used for browsing with many tabs, doing office work, video encoding, watching HD movies, but it falls short in the gaming department, because the Intel IGP is not very powerful and even the older games are far from playable.

 

The ML55 comes with a total of 2GB RAM SO-DIMM; this quantity may be enough for many activities, but if we are used to running many applications in the background, we would feel the need for an upgrade; inserting an additional 2GB module or even 4GB can make the product even more future proof.

Also, for boosting the performance even further, we can think of upgrading the 320GB HDD to a 7200RPM model or even replacing the HDD with a SSD; in the second case, we would need an additional metallic frame to install the HDD for storage or we could simply connect it externally on a spare USB port or eSATA.

 

ML55 offers network connectivity options like WiFi or wired networking; the preinstalled WiFi card is a combo model, with Bluetooth, so the secondary external antenna is used for sending and receiving BT signals too.

 

Viako have decided to leave in the front of the case only the Power button, along with the Power and HDD activity LEDs, but after connecting the USB keyboard and mouse in the back of the system, we would feel the need of additional ports; the solution of this problem is to connect an USB hub to the additional ports, but it would have been nice to see some extra USBs on the sides of the enclosure or in the front, for easy access.

 

The Viako Mini Letter ML55 H61 WIFI PC MSRP is $599, can be bought currently only from the Viako website, but distributors from other countries are preparing for the launch too.

UPDATE: Just got word from Viako that they also provide custom made variants, so SSDs, HDDs with 7200RPM or additional USB ports can be included if necessary (the CPU will be the same, i3 2100).

 

Viako Mini Letter ML55 H61 WIFI PC Review Recommended For:

 

I would like to thank again to Viako for making this review possible!