All-in-one PC by stefan @ 2013-06-11
The NANO LETTER NL-HM76T i5 Mini-PC from Viako is powered by an Intel i5-3317U CPU and a Giada motherboard, comes pre-equipped with 4GB of DDR3-1600 RAM and also a MX 64GB SSD. The performance of the system is really good for using it as a media center, a seedbox, browsing, word processing and more.
At first I would like to thank Viako for sending a sample of their NANO LETTER NL-HM76T Mini-PC for testing and reviewing.
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.
The NANO LETTER NL-HM76T i5 Mini-PC from Viako is shipped inside a cute and simple looking box which looks identical to the one we have found with their previous ML55:
After opening the box, we will find on the top layer some documentation along with the installation disk:
The documentation we have discussed about previously is about the Giada motherboard the computer comes with:
Each component is located in a separate compartment and wrapped in transparent bags to avoid damages:
So, besides the mini-PC we will get a dock, the power supply, some mounting screws and also a Wi-Fi antenna. Our sample did not ship with a power lead though, so we had to acquire one separately:
The power supply is rated on the output 12V, 5A and was manufactured by LiteOn:
The other end of the PSU wire ends up with a DC jack plug:
The dock sports the same finish as the mini-PC itself and attaches to the chassis with two screws:
The NANO LETTER is not a mini-PC for nothing since it measures only 140x130x30 (WxDxH) and comes in two different colors. Our sample has a golden finish and the product logo is printed on the lower right side:
On a first look, the frontal side looks like a cover for an optical drive, but it is not:
In fact, the optical drive cover look-alike is practically a large power button:
On the right side of the case, we will find a ventilation grill:
The opposite side holds the screw holes for mounting the dock, but also some additional ventilation spaces:
Let’s take a look on the back, where we’ll find an Audio-S/PDIF port, one Wi-Fi antenna port, two USB 3.0 ports, one RJ45, one VGA port and also a HDMI port. The last on the right is a DC-IN port:
On the bottom side of the enclosure we’ll find 4 rubber feet, but also the ventilation spaces left for the CPU cooler assembly:
The rubber feet can be easily removed in order to get access to the case internals:
Inside the mini-PC we will find the motherboard along with the rest of the components preinstalled; the central CPU cooler assembly is similar to what we have seen on low-end video cards:
The first mini PCI-Express port is populated with an AzureWave AW-NB087H combo card, which takes care of the Wireless 802.11 b/g/n interface, along with the 802.15 Bluetooth:
The second port is also populated with a Mach Xtreme Technology MXSSD3MMVF64G SSD:
The SSD comes with 29F16B08CCME 25nm MLC Intel NAND Flash:
As you remember, the chassis has only one external antenna port so the second one had to be placed internally:
A SATA III connector along with the HDD power header is located near the SSD:
The CMOS battery is located near the CPU:
Also on a very small area we will find the Power Switch button, the Clear CMOS switch, but also an USB&LED header:
Also here we have the Realtek ALC662 CODEC along with a Mic_IN header:
A SYS_FAN header will be found on the same PCB lateral:
With the help of two screws, we can install the dock in a snap. Here is a view of the mini-PC before connecting the necessary cables:
The Giada BIOS comes with a Phoenix SecureCore Tiano Setup interface, which is simple to use and does not feature plenty of options that we can set. Inside the Main tab, we will be able to set the system date/time, but also view the System Information:
The Advanced menu holds some sub-sections like HDD Configuration and Hardware Monitor and here we will be also able to adjust some miscellaneous options:
From the HDD Configuration sub-section, we can configure the SATA interfaces and turn on/off the controller:
The Hardware Monitor section lets us customize the fan profile and here we will also see the live temperatures/fan speeds for the system and CPU:
The Security tab allows setting passwords for the supervisor but also here we can adjust TPM-related options:
The Boot tab contains a large list from where we can choose the priority:
The final Exit tab allows us to save, discard or load factory defaults:
In order to find advanced information regarding the internal components, we have used well-known utilities like AIDA64:
CPU
Motherboard
Memory
CPU IMC
Integrated Graphics
HDMI Audio Interface & Audio CODEC
SSD
Wireless and Wired LAN Adapters
In order to record the IDLE and Full Load temperatures of the Viako NANO LETTER system, we have used the HWINFO64 utility, but also the AIDA64 System Stability Test. Before heating up the whole system, we left it in IDLE for about 15 minutes and then ran the utility for about 25 more minutes. During this time, the ambient temperature was kept at a steady 25.1 degrees Celsius.
Before measuring out the noise the video card was producing, we have first measured the noise inside the room the tests took place and we found out it was 26.8 dBA (with everything turned off).
At all times, the sound meter was placed 20cm away from the system, on the same side with the cooling fan.
The values that we have obtained were 30.9 dBA for IDLE and 41.2 dBA for Full Load.
For measuring the overall power consumption in both IDLE and Full Load, we have used a Kill-a-Watt-like device and have obtained 18.24W for IDLE and 43.89W for Full Load.
In order to obtain the preinstalled SSD speeds, we have used Anvil Storage Utilities:
The performance of the Viako NANO LETTER system that we have tested in this review is impressive thanks to the Intel Core i5-3317U Ivy Bridge CPU with a maximum TDP of 17W and to make the system even snappier, the OS runs straight from the included mSATA SSD, with a total storage space of 60GB. Only 60GB is not a lot of space, but the drive can be replaced with ease with a higher capacity SSD.
The video interface is integrated, featuring Intel HD Graphics 4000 and for output we have one HDMI port and also one VGA. The performance is not stellar in this department but it is enough for Full HD video or Adobe Flash acceleration.
The chassis comes in two flavors, black and golden and is all-aluminum. The system can be mounted in two modes, directly on its rubber feet or by attaching the supplied dock; a VESA mount can be also purchased separately in case we want to save even more space.
Regarding connectivity, we can enumerate the Gigabit LAN, but also the included Wi-Fi + Bluetooth combo card with two antennas (one external and one intenal). The system features only two USB 3.0 ports so if we use more peripherals at once, we will be forced to include an USB hub into the mix.
The Viako NANO LETTER i5 can be found online for about 440 Euros, which is quite good compared to other similar systems on the market.
We would like to thank again to Viako for making this review possible!