We see plenty of cheap PCs in the PC Pro Labs, but the majority that manage to creep beneath the £300 barrier do so by using low-powered Atom processors. That’s fine for a basic nettop, but if your needs extend to more processor-intensive applications what you really want is a full-fat, dual-core alternative packing Windows 7. Step forward the Advent Firefly FP9004.
Its £278 exc VAT price puts it firmly in ultra-low budget territory, but you wouldn’t know it from using it. The glossy black chassis is big enough to house the necessary cooling for a proper processor, and Advent has opted for Intel’s 2.6GHz Pentium Dual-Core E5300. It’s at the low end of the scale, but it still performs around three times faster than a dual-core Atom 330 in our application benchmarks.
The Firefly partners this CPU with 2GB of DDR2 memory and a 320GB Western Digital Caviar Blue hard disk, and its overall score of 1.11 shows it’s more than capable of coping with the daily needs of a family or home office. The trade-off for this is that it’s nowhere near as compact as some other cheap systems we’ve seen – the redesigned Asus Eee Box, for example.
It is flexible, though. It can stand upright or lie on a desk, and the top edge forms the main air vent grille. The sleek front panel, split down the centre by a white LED, makes it look more expensive than it is, and we’d almost go so far as to call it mildly stylish. It isn’t too large – around 300mm tall and 320mm deep – so it will tuck away on the corner of a desk where a full desktop chassis might stick out. It isn’t exactly built like a Lenovo but the finish feels sturdy enough, with only the flimsy DVD drive flap posing a potential weakness.
Open it up and you’ll see everything is rather snug inside; Advent has used every inch of the available space. The 250W power supply sits at the foot of the chassis, beneath a microATX Foxconn motherboard, while a stock Intel cooler sits atop the CPU. No expansion cards are installed as standard, but there are PCI Express x16 and x1 slots free should you want to add a graphics card or TV tuner. However, the single RAM slot is filled, so there isn’t much scope for boosting performance.
Warranty | |
---|---|
Warranty | 1 yr return to base |
Basic specifications | |
Total hard disk capacity | 320 |
RAM capacity | 2.00GB |
Screen size | N/A |
Processor | |
CPU family | Intel Pentium |
CPU nominal frequency | 2.60GHz |
CPU overclocked frequency | N/A |
Processor socket | LGA 775 |
Motherboard | |
Motherboard | Foxconn G31S |
Motherboard chipset | Intel G31 |
Conventional PCI slots free | 0 |
Conventional PCI slots total | 0 |
PCI-E x16 slots free | 1 |
PCI-E x16 slots total | 1 |
PCI-E x8 slots free | 0 |
PCI-E x8 slots total | 0 |
PCI-E x4 slots free | 0 |
PCI-E x4 slots total | 0 |
PCI-E x1 slots free | 1 |
PCI-E x1 slots total | 1 |
Internal SATA connectors | 2 |
Internal SAS connectors | 0 |
Internal PATA connectors | 0 |
Internal floppy connectors | 0 |
Wired adapter speed | 100Mbits/sec |
Memory | |
Memory type | DDR2 |
Memory sockets free | 0 |
Memory sockets total | 1 |
Graphics card | |
Graphics card | N/A |
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards? | no |
Graphics chipset | Intel GMA X3100 |
DVI-I outputs | 0 |
HDMI outputs | 0 |
VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 1 |
DisplayPort outputs | 0 |
Number of graphics cards | 0 |
Hard disk | |
Hard disk | Western Digital Caviar Blue |
Capacity | 320GB |
Internal disk interface | SATA/300 |
Spindle speed | 7,200RPM |
Cache size | 8MB |
Hard disk 2 make and model | N/A |
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity | N/A |
Hard disk 2 formatted capacity | N/A |
Hard disk 2 spindle speed | N/A |
Hard disk 2 cache size | N/A |
Hard disk 3 make and model | N/A |
Hard disk 3 nominal capacity | N/A |
Hard disk 4 make and model | N/A |
Hard disk 4 nominal capacity | N/A |
Drives | |
Optical drive | HT-DT-ST GH40F |
Optical disc technology | DVD writer |
Optical disk 2 make and model | N/A |
Optical disk 3 make and model | N/A |
Monitor | |
Monitor make and model | None |
Resolution screen horizontal | N/A |
Resolution screen vertical | N/A |
Resolution | N/A x N/A |
Pixel response time | N/A |
Contrast ratio | N/A |
Screen brightness | N/A |
DVI inputs | N/A |
HDMI inputs | N/A |
VGA inputs | N/A |
DisplayPort inputs | N/A |
Additional Peripherals | |
Speakers | N/A |
Speaker type | N/A |
Sound card | Realtek HD Audio |
Peripherals | None |
Case | |
Case format | Desktop |
Dimensions | 93 x 320 x 300mm (WDH) |
Power supply | |
Power supply rating | 250W |
Free drive bays | |
Free front panel 5.25in bays | 0 |
Rear ports | |
USB ports (downstream) | 6 |
PS/2 mouse port | yes |
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 1 |
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 0 |
Modem | no |
3.5mm audio jacks | 3 |
Front ports | |
Front panel USB ports | 2 |
Front panel memory card reader | yes |
Mouse & Keyboard | |
Mouse and keyboard | Advent mouse & keyboard |
Operating system and software | |
OS family | Windows 7 |
Recovery method | Recovery partition, burn own recovery discs |
Noise and power | |
Idle power consumption | 40W |
Peak power consumption | 65W |
Performance tests | |
Overall application benchmark score | 1.11 |
Office application benchmark score | 0.88 |
2D graphics application benchmark score | 1.40 |
Encoding application benchmark score | 1.15 |
Multitasking application benchmark score | 0.98 |
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