The AMD rating system, compares Athlon to Pentium 4, and
Sempron to Celeron. So they are saying it has the same performance
as a Celeron 3300. My guess would be, if you subtracted a
few hundred from it, then you could compare it to your Athlon.
I cannot see a Biostar part number in the Maplin advert, so I'm
not sure this review is appropriate. But anyway, this will
give you some idea what it looks like inside (what the design
concept looks like).
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2039&page=4
The thing is, you could be getting a "proprietary" motherboard
form factor. That means, if the motherboard fails at some point
in the future, it might not be so easy to find a replacement.
(It doesn't look like a standard microATX, the board is too long
for that.)
Similarly, the power supply is some kind of smaller form factor,
and while there may be exact equivalents for some of the smaller
ones, the PCStat article mentions what looks like a custom
cabling solution (two 12V cables get connected).
So if there is hardware trouble in the future, it may be difficult
to service the unit. At the £99 price, maybe you don't care about
that, but at least you should be aware of the "appliance" (throwaway)
nature of what you're buying. This is why I try to steer people in
the direction of devices with standard parts, for easier repair.
Also, the claims of performing miracles with the 220W power supply,
should be taken with a grain of salt. If the life of the power supply
is shortened, by running it in a high power state all the time, then
the "appliance" may not last very long. I know, in your proposed
application,
you won't be running a high power video card, so this is not likely
to affect you at all. (You'll be well under the limit.) But if you
were considering slapping an 8800GTX in there for gaming, the Enhance
power supply might not last forever with a load like that.
Another natural reaction, would be to contemplate putting a high
powered processor in there, in place of the 3300. The PCStat review
shows a proprietary mounting system for the cooler. If the mounting
holes for the bracket were standard spacing, maybe some third party
cooler could be fitted. But again, space inside the case would be
limited, total power is limited, so doing this kind of upgrade
could take a good deal of forethought. If Biostar has a compatibility
table, showing processor types that would fit, and that there would
be enough 12V current to run an upgrade, that would reduce the amount
of thinking required.
Tiny appliances are fun, but working with them can be a learning
experience. At least £99 won't set you back too far.
Paul
