2004-02-04 - Bit-Tech: "Bit-Tech Highly Recommended Award"
 (...) The only possible noise source is the single fan at the heart of the ICE system, this is a super silent 80mm fan which through the BIOS is self adjusting, remaining as slow possible until required...
(...) The only possible noise source is the single fan at the heart of the ICE system, this is a super silent 80mm fan which through the BIOS is self adjusting, remaining as slow possible until required. The result of this it absolutely amazing — of all the PCs I have worked with, including some passively cooled CPU server boxes, this is by far the most quiet. I would love to have given you a decibel reading but the needle on my Sound Level Meter didn’t even move on it’s lowest setting. (...)
I ran a set of standard benchmarking applications: Pifast, PCMark04, SiSoft Sandra and Seti. The results proved to me that the performance of the little Zen was more than just respectable. None of the main subsystems proved to be lacking in power in any of our tests.(...)
Conclusion:
(...) If you want a system that offers an outstanding combination of looks, subtlety, performance and absolute silence look no further (...). Make no mistakes, a system that can silence a P4 2.4c to the point of needing a glance at the LED on the front to tell if it’s on, deserves praise. What remains to be seen is if the Zen can manage the same with Intel’s Prescott core (...).
I am going to give it a bit-tech Highly Recommended award. Well done Shuttle! |