When You Want A Little Gaming: The AVADirect Nano Gaming Cube
by Dustin Sklavos on September 16, 2010 10:55 PM ESTConclusion: Good Things in a Small Package?
Having gone through the review you've probably already figured out whether or not you're interested in something like the AVADirect Nano Gaming Cube. So we'll cut the crap now: the Cube is a curio. You know it, I know it. It is a cute, woefully impractical idea, and it works. Some people are probably going to be horribly offended by it, mystified as to why anyone would buy anything like it. That's fine, the Cube isn't for them. But other people—and you know who you are—are going to be endlessly fascinated and amused by it. This conclusion is for you.
The three major issues with the Cube (or at least, our review unit) are thus: the DFI LANparty board is feature light and frankly bad compared to what's available (and it's no longer an option in the AVADirect configurator); the overclock is a lazy one and not remotely ideal for the situation; and finally, the Cube can be a bit noisy.
The first has already been taken care of: superior boards are available in the custom configuration, and the cheapest is still a high quality Gigabyte board. The second, we would just advise that you order it without an overclock instead of tempting fate, because you're not going to get the kind of tuned overclock a system like this really demands. The third, I don't know what to tell you. It isn't even a foot long on any side and it has a Radeon HD 5870 in it. There's only so much alchemy that can occur when a gaming machine this small is put together.
I think the only major issue I had with it was that the overclock was so poorly done and so wasteful, because the system is such a cool idea (regardless of practicality) that it needs more attention and care. The cube could probably do a lot better if it were properly tuned.
So with all that said, the cube is an incredibly amusing curio and it is indeed a fully functional, perfectly stable machine. With an incredibly tiny footprint. It will get attention, at least from the geek set. Whether you're willing to pay for the novelty is a decision you'll have to make on your own, but there are few better ways to do a little gaming than the AVADirect Nano Gaming Cube.
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MeTechE - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Perhaps you would be interested in my current computer as a powerful Mini-ITX setup done right. I have a OC'd i7 785K with 2x4GB of ~1400MHz DDR3 on a H55N-USB3. The ATI Radeon 5770 is perhaps underpowered compared to the rest of the build but it fit the budget.Most surprising was the 16K/14K/19K Read/Write/Copy performance I got from the RAM http://imgur.com/fEjj3.png . That bandwidth along with the CPU OC allows my rig to bench competitively with my friends 4Ghz i7 920.
Don't let one bad configuration spoil the Mini-ITX fun.
mados123 - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link
What case is that in?Huacanacha - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link
I'm planning to build a very similar mini-ITX gaming machine for about the same budget:- Lian-Li PC-Q08 case
- Core i5-760
- Gigabyte or Zotac MB (GB has USB 3.0, Zotac USB 3.0 + wifi)
- Intel 160GB SSD + 1TB green HD
- ATI 5850/5770 (actually waiting to see if 6770 comes out this year)
- 4GB DDR3
- Slim DVD (may drop as don't need)
- 500W modular PSU
- Windows 7 Home Premium
Total is about $1500. The case is much nicer looking than the Sugo and should be better for noise & heat, but then again it's also a fair chunk larger I believe. I think I'll take my proposed build over the AVADirect one, but it's nice to see custom built SFF gaming PC's starting to appear... I'm all for the bang-for-cm^3 concept!
This will be hooked up my living room TV, and probably mainly used for playing Civ 5 :)
anactoraaron - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
"Meanwhile the pair of GTX 470's in the iBuyPower Paladin XLC blows everything away, much like the leafblower it sounds like under this kind of load." Looking at graphs makes some forget this 'noise' produced by the first fermi. The noise reminds me of a case fan I had on a heavily oc'd P4 that went by the name of 'tornado'. At the time I lived in an apartment and that fan was so loud the downstairs neighbor complained about the noise LOL! Noise yes, but man that thing could move some air (which one needed to do sometimes with stock P4's).Von Matrices - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
I have a GTX 470 SLI system, and while the cards are definitely louder than any previous cards I have had, I wouldn't exactly compare their sound to a leaf blower. Granted I'm using the proper spacing of the cards (2 empty slots between them), but they only make a low-pitched rumble when at load. I'd much rather have the noise of two 470's than the whine of the 60mm fan on the Radeon 9800 Pro I had a few systems ago. That fan was just plain annoying.Kibbles - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
I have almost the same setup except with a 5770 and I run 160blk with no voltage increases and with turbo and c-states still enabled. It wasn't even much work.I just went
166 -> unstable
165 -> stable-ish
164-> runs fine
back off a couple just to be safe -> 160
Probably took me but a whole 30mins.
I expect more from a system that's $1.5k+, since mine was under $700.
I guess you do get a 750S vs regular 750.
What kind of core temperatures where you getting?
vol7ron - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
I agree, price looks high for what you get.I think your OCing is a bit discouraged, though. Even though there are failsafes these days, it's still advised to go from what works to what doesn't, when figuring out the proper setting; rather than going from what doesn't work, to what does.
Kibbles - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
TrueIf I was starting from scratch, I'd go up 5mhz at a time, and then ease back for longterm stability. But in my case I knew from reading around, the ballpark where the OC should be at. So I skipped that first step. Plus, I wasn't altering any of the voltages. For a builder that's going to be making a bunch of these, I would think they could do that too.
sprockkets - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
They took this case and modded it:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Sad. They took out the 300w 80PLUS FSP power supply and put in an junky Athena.
And btw, the new SFF Shuttles can be upgraded with mini itx boards, such as this one:
http://global.shuttle.com/product_detail.jsp?PLLI=...
JarredWalton - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
Which is why I said the "old Shuttle SFFs". That said, my experience over the past five years is such that I would never buy anything with a Shuttle mobo. Every one of the test Shuttle SFFs died within three years of the review. :-\