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1 2 3 4 5 6 NextLenovo IdeaCentre Q100 Atom Nettop
October 29, 2009 by Lawrence Lee
| Product |
Lenovo IdeaCentre Q100
Mini PC/Nettop |
| Manufacturer |
Lenovo |
| MSRP |
US$299 |
Lenovo has been making serious inroads into consumer computing all through 2009. Its IdeaCentre line of desktop computers no w boasts three separate lines: The
"K" series of typical tower systems, the "A" all-in-one PCs similar to Apple's iMac, and the "Q" series of energy efficient,
small form factor machines. Aside from a few quibbles, we had an pleasant experience with the A600.
Now we tackle the Q100, which may be the A600's polar opposite in the three big
categories: Performance, size, and price. Lenovo is marketing it as the world's
thinnest Atom nettop.
|
The Q100 and box.
|
The Q100 is impressively small with overall dimensions of 6.0" x 6.8"
x 0.8". In practical terms, it's about the size of a slim external
optical drive or a very slim CD wallet. The Lenovo website lists the Q100's
at $299, while its ION-powered brother, the Q110, costs $399. The slightly larger Q700, meant for the role of a HD HTPC, sports a dual core Pentium E5200 processor and GMA X4500
graphics for $499-$599 depending on the configuration.
|
Accessories include a recovery CD and stand, but no VESA mounting kit.
|
The Q100 is equipped with hardware similar to basic netbooks: a single-core
nettop processor, the 4W Atom 230 (1.6 GHz, 533 MHz front side bus, 512KB L2
cache), 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. The mainboard is powered by the
SiS 307DV chipset which has Mirage 3 graphics, a stripped down GPU like Intel's
GMA 950. It's as basic as it gets, lacking digital outputs and WiFi.
|
Atom System Comparisons
|
|
Product
|
Intel D945GSEJT + Morex T1610
|
Asus Eee Box B202
|
Acer AspireRevo AR1600-U910H
|
Lenovo IdeaCentre Q100
|
|
CPU
|
Atom 270
|
Atom 230
|
Atom 230
|
Atom 230
|
|
Chipset
|
Intel 945GSE
|
Intel 945GSE
|
nVidia ION
|
SiS 307DV
|
|
RAM
|
512GB
|
1GB
|
1GB
|
1GB
|
|
HDD
|
160GB
|
80GB
|
160GB
|
160GB
|
|
USB
|
3
|
4
|
6
|
6
|
|
Card Reader
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Video Outputs
|
VGA, DVI
|
DVI
|
VGA, HDMI
|
VGA
|
|
WiFi
|
no
|
802.11 b/g/n
|
no
|
no
|
|
Operating System
|
no
|
XP Home
|
XP Home
|
XP Home
|
|
Passive cooling
|
yes
|
no, but quiet
|
no, said to be quiet
|
yes
|
|
Market $
Oct 09
|
$261*
|
$262~299
|
$199~210
|
$230~299
|
|
|
All in all, the Q100's small size doesn't command a heavy price premium
compared to the Eee Box
or the recent DIY
SFF PC we built using an Intel D945GSEJT mini-ITX Atom board and Morex T1610
case. Like the Morex build, the Q100 is fanless — as long as the hard drive
isn't substandard acoustically, it should be one of the quietest system you
can get without a SSD. The Acer Aspire Revo seems like a bargain by
comparison with a $200 price-tag and ION graphics, but we don't really know about its acoustics.
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