In the ever bloating world of mini barebones PCs there is a wide range of build quality and internal design to be witnessed. AOpen has been in the market for a while now, and the XC cube edition is one of the better designed systems in an area where quality can vary wildly from brand to brand.
While it lacks the flashy displays and other cosmetic bells and whistles of some other brands of mini barebones, the XC cube edition is based around the powerful i865G chipset and delivers a comprehensive feature set based around the Pentium 4.
The XC cube edition is targeted at first time system builders. This is carefully explained in the detailed manual, which goes through the construction of a system inside the XC cube edition in nice easy steps. Unfortunately this is let down by one of the loosest examples of English translations we have seen.
Internally this PC is easy to work in and relatively cable free. Care must be taken to mount the fan in the right direction to ensure clear airflow, but apart from that there is little to get confused about, perfect for the first time builder. It is easy to ensure that the optical drive mounts flush with the faceplate, the hard disk can be easily removed without disassembling the entire PC and the passively cooled Northbridge means that you don’t need to worry about cables getting minced by a fan.
Our only real concern with the design is that the CPU fan faces the side of the unit, relying on two perforated vents on either side for airflow within the chassis. This means that a certain degree of care must be taken to ensure that these vents are kept free from obstruction, which is not as much of a problem on chassis that vent air out the back.
AOpen has delivered a quality mini barebones system with the XC cube edition. Those with PC building experience will find construction intuitive and hassle free while, as long as newcomers are happy to decipher the manual, then the process is painless. Slick styling, high quality and great performance potential combine to make this a stellar example of a mini barebones system.