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Summary

This is a basic preview of this product intended for readers who just want the quick look at the new product.  If you are interested in the full review, with all the technical data and benchmarks that you are used to seeing on PC Perspective, please click on this link to get to that article.

While our previous DFI 855GME-MGF motherboard review was the first to bring the Pentium M platform to the desktop user, the AOpen EY855-II SFF bare bones system attempts to the do the same in a new look. 

The Pentium M processor is the same CPU that you may have seen in numerous notebook computers labeled with "Centrino technology."  The processor core is much different than that of the Penitum 4 processor, but the differences are more detailed than we can get into on a single page.  Check out the expert review of this product for all the information on the architectural changes on the P-M. 

The AOpen EY855-II External View

The AOpen EY855-II SFF is a barebones system that consists of a case, motherboard and power supply all in one unit.  You simply need to add the processor, memory, hard drive and optical drive to be up and running with one of these.

EY855-II Internal View

The AOpen unit uses the Intel 855GME chipset that provides some basic features including DDR memory, on-board Intel Extreme Graphics, a 4x AGP slot, a single PCI slot and more.  AC'97 5.1 channel audio is included on the board, as is support for USB 2.0 and Firewire peripherals.  You can get a complete feature list by reading our detailed review. 

Let's take a look at how this unit performed compared to the DFI solution:

As you can see, the two solutions for the Pentium M processor performed identically, leaving the decision between the two left up to form factor and price.  This is but a small subset of all the benchmarks I ran on these systems, so to get the full line up of tests check out my full, detailed review of this product.

The performance numbers for the Pentium M processor, especially when overclocked, show a nice gain over the current Intel desktop processor lineup.  Our WorldBench 5 test, which shows real-world performance and applications, also shows a fantastic score for the Pentium M platform.  The DivX encoding tests shows where the processor falls a little short without the latest processor feature sets such as SSE3 and HyperThreading. 

All of this performance does come with a slightly hefty price tag: the AOpen EY855-II system at about $320 and the processor at about $440. 

Overall, I see the Pentium M as a fantastic alternative to the current line up from either AMD or Intel, that just needs to find a new niche in the enthusiast market; or in this case in the SFF market, to which there is still some overlap.  There are a few issues such as compatibility with future technologies and other upcoming products that may also hold this option back for some users.

You can read all about those issues, as well as see the technology information and remainder of the benchmarks (quite a bit!) by reading the full and detailed review of this product.

Be sure to use our price checking engine to find the best prices on the AOpen EY855-II SFF, and anything else you may want to buy!

Be sure to use our price checking engine to find the best prices on the Pentium M 755, or any other Pentium M processor!

Click here for the Detailed Review