Benchmark Analysis

The 865G based systems are all bunched very closely together. The EZ65 is marginally faster than the Condor across the board and the Condor is slightly faster than the Soltek Qbic. The SiS chipset that the CA2 uses has its work cut out for it. It lags significantly behind the 865 rivals with framerates taking roughly a 20% hit. The performance of the 865 systems are close enough together that in reality I would have a difficult time recommending one over another strictly from a performance standpoint.

EZ65,Condor,3401a,CA2

Noise

I sleep in the same room as my PC so noise is definitely a concern. There are quite a few folk that are eyeing SFFs as a possible HTPC and in the A/V world, hardware needs to be quiet. I remember a few years ago when I had a Delta fan running at 7200 RPMs in my PC and my dad bursts in at 6 in the morning asking wtf that noise was. Luckily I came to my senses and the days of ultra loud fans are behind me.

Measuring the noise of the SFF boxes was a bit on the difficult side. The ambient noise in the room was for the most part louder than that of the SFFs at idle which is a testament to the effectiveness of the noise reduction techniques employed by all the manufacturers. The room in which the noise measurements took place had ambient noise of roughly 38DB. The main source of noise in the room was an office air vent. The setting was comparable to that of a library.

At idle, from quietest to loudest EZ65, Qbic, CA2, Condor. The EZ65 and Qbic are near silent at idle but I think the EZ65 takes a slight edge here.

Under load, the landscape changes as the CA2 and EZ65 use dynamic fan systems. The Qbic is the quietest under load, the Condor slips into second comfortably while the EZ65 drops to third and the CA2 heads up the rear of the pack. The Qbic is especially impressive under load while the Condor remains very quiet despite being louder by default than competing solutions. A dynamic fan system could help the Condor in this area and would be something that we would like to see in the future as just another small touch. Both the EZ65 and CA2 get significantly louder under load. Despite running Prime95 for over an hour neither fan hit its maximum speed in an office environment around 80 F. The CA2 had a tendency to do short fan spurts at a higher rotational rate and that managed to drop it into the last place position.

3401a,Condor,EZ65,CA2