Excellent LAN Party Machine
Written: Aug 12 '03 (Updated Dec 13 '04)
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Pros: High-quality construction, ultra-compact, killer sound card, stylish, feature-packed, and highly reliable.
Cons: Supports up to AGP 4x (no 8x support).
The Bottom Line: I'd highly recommend this machine to anyone looking for a new computer. This is easily one of the best PCs I've ever owned.
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| moulding's Full Review: FIC ICE-Cube IC-VG61 PC Desktop |
The first thing that really caught my attention about the IC-VG61 (aka the ICE-Cube) were its looks: Very stylish. It seems like most PC manufacturers have, for years, tried unsuccessfully to design computers even half as cool looking as the computers that Apple builds. Finally, a PC manufacturer has succeeded. This is one hot looking little PC. My friends thought that it actually was an Apple when they first saw it. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, the design is functional as well -- the handle on top will come in handy when carrying the ICE-Cube to LAN parties. Most importantly, the quality of construction is top-notch.
The ICE-Cube comes with an ultra-compact chassis, a 220-watt power supply, and an incredibly awesome Intel 845GE chipset-based motherboard. Also included are Ultra ATA/100 ribbon cables, a floppy-drive cable, a CPU-fan and heatsink, a power cable, a user manual, and a software CD.
The motherboard is pre-installed into the chassis, which is nice because it will save you some work. Also, there are no jumpers that need to be fiddled with, which can save time that would otherwise be wasted looking up the correct jumper settings in the manual.
While I was installing all of the components into my ICE-Cube, I noticed that the power supply was rated at a mere 220 watts. Usually I look for at least 350 watts when buying computer power supplies, so naturally I was a bit concerned about whether 220 watts would be enough. However, it turned out to be plenty. Fully loaded, the ICE-Cube draws only 130 watts from my UPS.
What really makes this sweet little system shine are all of the features that have been packed into the motherboard: incredible 6-speaker integrated audio, four high-speed USB 2.0 ports, three FireWire ports, one built-in 10/100 Fast Ethernet port, and integrated 2D/3D video. Just add a CPU, RAM, a hard-drive, and a CD/DVD-ROM and you're all set.
Another great feature of this motherboard is that it supports Intel's latest Hyper-Threading technology when used with the 3.06GHz Pentium 4. If you're unfamiliar with Hyper-Threading, it basically makes the computer run almost as fast as if it had two Pentium 4 processors!
I was pleasantly surprised by the ICE-Cube's ALC650 integrated audio. I currently own at least three other sound cards: a SoundBlaster Audigy, a Hercules Fortissimo III, and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. In my opinion, the ALC650 beats all of the above three -- hands down. If you've ever owned a computer with integrated audio before, you may think I'm kidding. I'm not. This sound card simply blew me away. It has two digital optical jacks: one input and one output. Many of the analog input/output jacks are software configurable to best suit your speaker setup. For example, the software allows you to assign the rear-speaker output to a jack on the front panel, or to a jack on the rear panel. It also has fully configurable equalizer and environmental effect settings. The sound quality is every bit as good as, or even better than, any top-of-the-line consumer sound card. Another huge advantage of the ALC650 is that the drivers for it are WHQL certified.
As for the integrated video, I haven't actually tried it out, so I can't comment on it's capability. Instead I opted to install an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro, which I already owned, in the available AGP slot (the ICE-Cube supports up to AGP 4x). However, for the budget conscious, the integrated 3D video could be a major plus.
I've found the ICE-Cube to be the perfect LAN party machine, thanks to it's portability and impressive performance. With a 2.66GHz Pentium 4, 1GB of RAM (upgradeable to 3.06GHz and 2GB), and the Radeon 9500 video card, my ICE-Cube handles the most demanding games with incredible frame rates and unbelievably smooth gameplay.
As for value, I think the price is about right. I paid $300 retail for my ICE-Cube, which seemed like a little much at first, but now that I've used it I feel like I definitely got a fair deal.
If I were to buy this computer again (which I definitely would) I would immediately throw out the ATA ribbon cables that came with it and replace them with after-market cables. Occassionally the operating system would detect "controller errors" on the hard drive controller. After doing some troubleshooting I eventually determined that it was the ATA ribbon cable that came with the computer. At the factory, they split the large, flat cable into narrow pieces and then bundled them together to make a slimmer cable (which is good for airflow). However, this is a violation of the ATA specification and caused the "controller errors" that I was seeing. A proper "round" ribbon cable will have twisted pair wiring. These twisted pairs are critical if the cable is not flat. I replaced the factory cable with a high-quality "round" cable and it has run problem-free ever since.
UPDATE: This is still a very sweet system. However, FIC has released a newer version of the ICE-Cube -- the IC-VL67. If you're in the market for a Small Form Factor PC and are considering the IC-VG61, you should definitely take a look at the IC-VL67. It has newer components that can take advantage of some of the latest technologies (like AGP 8x). Otherwise, it is practically identical to the older IC-VG61.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300.00
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
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Epinions.com ID:
moulding
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Reviews written: 4
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