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We’ve been given two of these by our distributor (Jactron) to test out.

I’ve installed Ubuntu on one and just run a Bonnie++ test with the following results:

Sequential Character Output: 10.847

Block Output: 54.399

Rewrite: 33.776

Sequential Character Input: 12.489

Block Input: 167.83

Random Seeks Per Second: 3677

A lot of applications can only use two cores and so it’s better to have 2 fast cores (2 x 3.0GHz) than the four slower cores of our energy efficient H2 (4 x 2.33GHz). For the H3, we’re using a new AMD processor (AM3 socket) as it offers better performance than the Pentium and Core 2 Duo processors. AMD is like Avis – they’re number two, so they try harder.

Specifically, it’s a Athlon II X2 250 (2 x 3.0GHz CPU). Unlike an Intel Atom 330 this is a real processor and more than capable for gaming or HD Flash playback.

We’d love to passively cool this but it’s not possible in such a small case so we are shipping it with a large heatsink and single, slow fan (speed can be set in BIOS) that will be extra quiet. Drive options will be 40GB hard drive (7200RPM, quiet, and cheap) or 32GB SSD. 4GB of 1066MHz RAM (our fastest yet!) as standard.

We have been working on a Single Core AMD Sempron 140 solution as this is a 45W CPU and not a 65W CPU. And it’s a beast (not your mother’s Sempron!) but again it’s too hard too passively cool as the video above shows. As soon as you remove the fan, temp jumps to 70 and then 80 C.

Our only hope is to use something like the Scythe Ninja, which is huge: 5 inches (or 120mm) cubed. So for now the spec is:

• Onboard Nvidia Geforce 8200 (1080p is no problem)
• H1/H2 Case
• AMD Athlon II X2 250 CPU
• 2 x 2GB 1066 MHz Kingston RAM
• 12V DC Input (PicoPSU)
• 102W External AC Adapter
• 40GB or 250GB 7200RPM SATA-II Drive or 32GB KingSpec or 64GB Kingston SSD

Amazon UK will be listing the 64GB Kingston Spec which will retail for £449 ex VAT or £516.35 with VAT and shipping in the UK.

We really, really prefer SSDs here at Aleutia HQ but occasionally some excitement comes into the “moving parts” end of the storage business.

I was a big fan of Samsung’s F2 Eco Drives: silent and just 4.5 Watts. But they were only 5400RPM. The F3 is 7200RPM and offers outstanding performance.

If you want to compare to your own drive, then open a terminal in Ubuntu and type:

sudo apt-get install bonnie++

Then (make sure you are NOT root):

bonnie++

Needs a few gigabytes of free space and takes about 15 minutes. I have a screenshot of the whole process here.

Results (all in MB/sec):

Sequential Character Output: 71.295

Block Output: 137.215

Rewrite: 39.671

Sequential Character Input: 54.493

Block Input: 154.679

Random Seeks Per Second: 173.0

As you can see it’s 3-5 times faster than a 7200RPM Laptop drive like the Fujitsu we benchmarked recently.

I knew desktop drives were faster but since the industry only markets spindle speed and cache (and 7200RPM laptop drives have 16MB cache as well) I had no idea how much faster they were!

The MHW2080BJ became available in the UK about 6 weeks ago and we’ve sold several since,  primarily in our fanless T1 PC. Though we prefer solid state drives, hard drives still hold their own in some areas (moving files across the disc) and of course are much cheaper. This goes for about £21 wholesale, versus £134 for the 80GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive.

I ran a Bonnie++ test on it. Results are here and are all in MB/sec, except Random Seeks which is just per second.

Sequential Character Output: 8.402

Block Output: 40.053

Rewrite: 18.533

Sequential Character Input: 9.965

Block Input: 45.955

Random Seeks: 132.5

We prepared these recently for a client taking them down to Zamia.

We love the Samsung U70 and Nanovision Mimo Monitors. USB powered monitors mean less cabling and are much, much cheaper than 12V DC monitors. The problem is Samsung and Nanovision really think of these as peripheral monitors and it’s not obvious how to set it up as your sole and primary monitor.

If you use Windows this is easier and for Windows 7 users there’s a beta driver (which was alpha last week). Download it here:

http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?p=121#post121

Installing the driver is easy (save to desktop, double-click to open, agree to their terms and conditions, and it wil linstall).

If you have your USB monitor attached and it’s on, it will come on as a screen and you can drag and drop to it.

However, to make it your primary monitor, go:

Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Display > Adjust Resolution

You’ll see both your desktops (in my case an Lenovo L1940p at 1440×900 and a Mimo 740 Touchscreen at 800×480):

Now  select your USB monitor (Display 2) with the cursor and change the Multiple Displays option from ‘Extend these Displays” to “Show Desktop Only on 2″ as I’ve shown below. Feel free to email me (michael at aleutia dot com) if you have any questions:

I’m blogging right now from said bad boy and it’s an outstanding experience, if completely underchallenging for the H2. Power consumption is holding steady at 36 Watts and running Windows 7 32-bit even though this only lets me use 3 of my 4GB of RAM.

We’ve combined an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200S processor (65W at peak) with a super quiet low profile heatsink and 1200rpm fan and managed to fit it into a case that is just 2.47 liters. Smaller footprint than a piece of A4 paper and just 6.5 mm tall.

Watched Dragon’s Den in HD on BBC iPlayer and CPU utilization was around 30%.

Noise level: 33dB though that’s measure with a (probably crappy) iPhone app. Soho is pretty noisy so it’s effectively silent for us but if you’re in a soundproofed study in the Highlands, you’re still just going to hear a single, quiet fan.

No case fans needed since the chassis is so ventilated and we’ve gone with an Intel X25-M 80GB Solid State Drive wth an absurd 230MB/s read speed, 70MB/s write speed.

Antec’s customer base is extremely different from Aleutia’s:  individuals building top-end gaming and performance rigs, rather than our bread and butter of schools in Africa running on solar power.  However, as Aleutia starts to offer more powerful systems such as our new U6, which connects to 6 x 15″ (or greater) VGA monitors and so can be shared by 12 students,  I’ve started to track ATX motherboards, quad core processors, massive heatsinks, silent case fans, terrabyte drives, and even ATX cases.  I had come across Antec’s somewhat revolutionary open air case and now they have an awesome, though rather expensive, mini-itx version out.

Check out the kickass review above – takes 4 x 2.5″ drives as well as offering space for a PCI-E card. Really thinking this could combine well with the Zotac 9300 mini-itx board (Nvidia 9300 with Hybrid SLI) which we use on our B2 and D2. This way you could add a top end graphics card and either a very cheap DVD-RW drive or a BluRay player, perhaps an SSD.  Have ordered one in so will let you – my enormous readership – know how we get on.

The H1 has quickly become our best selling product – offering a reasonable Atom processor and powerful Nvidia Ion chipset (the Nvidia 9400 GPU) in a small, fanless package. The dual core version requires a small though extremly quiet fan and we’re going to start offering it in the D1 chassis, which had just shipped with Intel’s Dual Core board (D945GCLF2) and a crappy Intel chipset.

This is ideal because the PSU is internal (rather than an external brick on the H1) and it permits the use of a) better performing desktop drives b) an optical drive.

That board upgrade will also permit a possible 4GB of RAM (great for users who care more about RAM than CPU power) and (best of all) an optional slimline Blu-ray recorder.

Goes on sale tomorrow (July 23rd).