When You Want A Little Gaming: The AVADirect Nano Gaming Cube
by Dustin Sklavos on September 16, 2010 10:55 PM ESTPlaying Some Small Games
At this point, we really almost want to be impressed that a computer this small plays games at all. Remember, though, this thing has a Radeon HD 5870 inside—a Radeon that didn't overheat once during testing, either.
The cube may be sitting at the bottom of each of the charts, but look at the numbers. There isn't a single game here that isn't playable with plenty of breathing room. At the same time, we have to wonder if leaving the unit running at stock and allowing Turbo Boost to take the i5 to 3.2GHz on two cores might not have improved the standings a bit. StarCraft II, for example, doesn't scale past two cores at all. Seeing that benchmark GPU-limited is actually a rarity. It's academic, though: 57.8 frames per second is still extremely fluid.
Once greater stress is applied to the graphics subsystem, the cube starts to acquit itself better as the 5870 gets to stretch its legs. Framerates are still beyond playable across the board with the exception of STALKER, which hovers precariously close to the 30-frames-per-second mark. In most cases, the cube with its slower processor and 5870 is able to hang extremely close to the heavily overclocked CyberPower unit with its eVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTS 450's in SLI. Meanwhile the pair of GTX 470's in the iBuyPower Paladin XLC blows everything away, much like the leafblower it sounds like under this kind of load.
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Mr Perfect - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
Or even just next to the systems it's compared to. Sure, the full ATX systems with SLI where faster, but they'd also look like a piece of furniture compared to the Sugo 6.Shadowmaster625 - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
That's just stupid in this day and age.grimJester - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
The SG-07(http://silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?...
has a 600W PSU, front mounted, with much better space for a CPU cooler and a 180mm fan blowing down from the top. It just looks so much better than the SG-06 for this kind of machine.
JarredWalton - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
Keep in mind that this system was made before a few updates came to the AVADirect configurator, which is why our price is only approximate. Anyway, the SG07 *is* an option at AVADirect. It's a longer chassis and costs $100 more, but there may be other benefits.acooke - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
Will this travel as hand baggage on planes? Does anyone have experience of this?I am planning on building something similar (but for dev work, with the 95W 6 core AMD) while visiting the USA, but need to be able to bring it back home. I think it should be possible to carry this on as hand luggage, but would love confirmation (it would be with Delta, and I would also be carrying a laptop).
Thanks! Andrew
vol7ron - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
More than likely.... not post 9/11JarredWalton - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
I don't know about international flights, but my brother recently carried a larger desktop on a plane trip from WA to AZ. You'd probably want to ask Delta in advance. Best-case, be prepared to have to open the case, plug the system in, etc. to demonstrate it's a working PC with nothing funny going on.strikeback03 - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
I would guess the same, they obviously allow laptops onboard, so as long as there are no liquids involved and it runs I doubt it would be a problem. But if you call ahead, or even better get something in writing, it might help.atmartens - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
I carried a PC within a Sugo SG-06 from the US to France, by airplane, in hand luggage and encountered no issues.acooke - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
Thanks for all the answers. I'll check with them, but it's good to hear soeone has done something similar.