AOpen XC Cube EY65 & EX65 Review

VR-Zone have tested another two models, the EY65 and EX65 which have different designs from the EZ65 to suit different consumer preferences. EY65 as described on AOpen website is targeted at Youthful, cosmopolitan, professional consumers while EX65 is targeted at Speedy, streamlined, dynamic consumers.

Introduction

The trend of owning a SFF PC is clearly getting more dominant
nowadays where consumers are opting for smaller and cool looking PCs to replace
their current desktop PCs. SFF PCs are truly the “In” thing now and are making
their ways into homes and offices therefore the overall market potential for SFF
PCs is massive. Motherboard manufacturers like Shuttle, ABIT and AOpen are
actively promoting their SFF solutions to the masses and have been involved in
many international gaming competitions to attract gamers and more importantly,
the huge audience out there. In a recent

DigiTimes report, AOpen will provide 800 fully-equipped XC Cube PCs for
China E-Sport Gaming (CEG) which is expected to attract over 50,000 players and
an audience of around 200 million. No doubt, ABIT too has gotten themselves
involved in organizing the ACON4,  held in 21 countries by sponsoring
fully-equipped DigiDice PCs for the competition. Shuttle, which is currently the
leader in SFF has actively participate in numerous Counterstrike competitions as
well as sponsoring gaming clans with their very popular XPCs.

AOpen can be considered a newcomer in the SFF arena where they
entered the market only late last year. Other motherboard manufacturers like
Shuttle, ECS, MSI, Gigabyte Soltek, ABIT have earlier head start. However, the
history of AOpen in casing and motherboard business has been long. The strength
of AOpen is actually in making casings and their constant dedication in
producing high quality motherboards will allow them to excel well in the SFF
segment which is the combination of strong ID and quality components. Check out
the tour of AOpen HQ
where VR-Zone has paid a visit last year. AOpen
launched their first XC Cube series of SFF PCs late last year and so far has 4
different designs today. The first release from AOpen is the XC Cube EZ65 which is we
have reviewed before
here which is available in 5
different colors. AOpen also has  a XC Cube EA65 for Digital Home
Entertainment concept which is what Microsoft and Intel are pushing hard for.
Right now we have tested another two models,  the EY65 and EX65 which have
different designs from the EZ65 to suit different consumer preferences. EY65 as
described on AOpen website is targeted at Youthful, cosmopolitan, professional
consumers while EX65 is targeted at Speedy, streamlined, dynamic consumers. In
this article, we will take a close look at EY65 and EX65 in various aspects; ID,
Components, Motherboard, Installation ease, Overclockability and Performance.

Specifications

Package Content

• XC Cube Chassis / Drives Cage

• UX4SG-1394 Motherboard

• CPU Cooler

• Fixed Screws

• IDE Cable x 2 (HDD, DVD-RW)

• Floppy Cable x 1

• User Manuals & Quick Installation Guides (Different languages)

• Power Supply cables x 2

• Serial ATA cable x 1

• Molex-to-SATA power converter

• Support
  Stand for EY65