Thread: Gigabyte GOPC CA2: Good Things Small Packages

Gigabyte GOPC CA2: Good Things Come in Small Packages

Gigabyte Technology, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of motherboards, lately included to their series of miniature PCs. One of their latest products, the CA2, and dubbed the GOPC for 'Gigabyte Optimal Performance Computer', it is the smallest computer. Created to be a desktop replacement, it has the ability to do mare than the desktop, but only for those PCs that have been towers or full-size desktops.

Specifications

• Dimensions: 275(D) x 184(W) x 160(H) mm
• Power Supply: 220W
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8S661FXS
• Chipset: SiS 661FX / 963
• Processor support: Any 800 MHz FSB Socket 478 Intel Pentium 4
• Memory support: Up to 2GB of DDR400 in 2 memory banks
• Video: Integrated SiS 661, 1 AGP 8X slot
• USB: 4 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front, 2 in rear)
• Audio: Integrated Realtek ALC850 AC'97 compliant 6 channel audio
• LAN: Integrated Realtek adapter
• Removable media: Bay for one optical drive and 3 1/2” Floppy drive
• Ports: PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard
• SPDIF in and out
• Microphone jack on front
• IEEE 1394 (FireWire) jack on front
• Extras: 6-in-1 card reader
• Bundled USB optical mouse

For a box smaller than a cubic foot, it seems like it can keep a number of hardware. One thing that should be noted with these types of PCs is that a tradeoff is made here by including nearly everything one can imagine, Gigabyte skipped on a PCI expansion socket and held inside an AGP socket. This can create an issue for those having PCI cards that they wish to use. For instance, the only method to hook the GOPC to the net for a wireless network is by using a different PC and using net connection sharing or getting a USB wireless card. On the other hand, this PC and a lot of small form factor PCs allow the expansion of graphics capacity. Go for the GOPC according to the upgrade path.

The chipset on the motherboard is the SiS 661FX Northbridge and the SiS964 Southbridge, which have great set of features. Though, according to SiS, the 964 runs features like 2 ports Serial ATA RAID. As there is no space inside the PC to add 2 HDD without missing the optical drive, it appears such an interesting option for this PC. On the other hand, it can be that the 661FX/961 mixture is a great performer,. Website didn’t say that the chipsets runs dual channel memory.

The six in one card reader is an very good concept to include in this PC. With digital cameras being ordinary and a wide range of media that cameras use, having ability to connect the media to a PC is very important. A lot of cameras do have USB or IEEE 1394 connectors, but earlier cameras, like the Olympus D-360L didn’t and being capable to show images was an added bonus. In Windows XP SP1, the card reader acts like two removable USB drives.

Though, this is a small PC, it still has a floppy drive on it. The floppy will occupies significant amount of space in the GOPC and for a lot of PC users nowadays, the sole use of a floppy drive is to set up a RAID with multiple HDDs. Some may consider to skipping the floppy drive over having extra space or better airflow. It is possible Gigabyte include it to improve its capacity to support multiple forms of media.

While the Realtek ALC850 runs six channel audio, it has only three audio outputs on the back and a microphone jack and another speaker port on the front. From appearance it, three of the channels are wasted.

There are several USB ports on the rear of the GOPC, and on the right, the AGP sockets. PS/2 ports for mice and keyboards are still present, though there the choice of using USB devices in its place, and Gigabyte supplied a USB mouse.
The supplied heatsink seems like it is made mainly of copper. It's fairly heavy as well, and the fan helps to move air around. Considering the space available in GOPC, therefore, Gigabyte opted for an active cooling solution.

Cooling is a matter of concern if doing any heavy computation. As it does not have space for additional case fans and it is small, one can’t enhance the cooling. The amount of air generated form the power supply is very hot. As there aren't many fans and moving components, the GOPC is very silent. It is big competition to ThinkPad X31 in quietness, and while desktop have Vantec Aeroflow and couple of Vantec Stealth 80mm fans is neither fast nor, quite.