Jadetec MicroPC XP-933

The concept of the tiny computer has been revived by new company, Jadetec, with its MicroPC range of desktop PCs, which it bills as "the smallest PC in the world".

Jadetec sees a market for the MicroPC in people who want a simple system unit upgrade and for business users who have limited space.

The MicroPC, which measures 157mm x 146mm x 45mm, is undoubtedly tiny: imagine something the size of a CD-ROM drive, cut one-third of it off, and you have a rough idea of its form factor.

As a byproduct of its small size, the MicroPC is also undeniably portable: weighing a shade under a kilo, it's small enough to fit in a briefcase without stretching your arms.

The unit comes complete with a keyboard and mouse, but a monitor and external floppy disk drive are optional extras.

A variety of operating systems can be pre-installed, including Linux, and the review sample came correctly configured with Windows Millennium.

Chip choice

The MicroPC is available as an 866Mhz Pentium III or an 800Mhz Celeron, which is about £60 cheaper. Both plug into a motherboard based on the Intel 815e chipset, with integrated video and sound.

The MicroPC achieves its ultra-compact form factor by borrowing heavily from the notebook parts bin. So, the CD-ROM drive with the non-motorised tray is identical to that found on many notebooks, while the motherboard uses SODIMM memory modules rather than common or garden DIMMs.

In fact, in many ways, the MicroPC can be viewed as a screen-less, keyboard-less notebook.

The grey plastic case is fairly attractive, with just a soft power switch, a pair of status LEDs and a circular vent gracing the top of the unit.

On side

All four sides are festooned with I/O ports of one sort or another. The front has an infrared port plus volume control thumbwheel, the right side features mouse and keyboard PS/2 ports and an S-Video port, while the left side hosts the 10/100 network port, microphone and speaker jacks and power supply sockets. You need to use the supplied transformer to power the unit.

Bringing up the rear are a clutch of legacy ports - VGA, serial and parallel, plus a pair of USB ports and the modem phone socket.

Although virtually no desktop PCs sport them, the infra-red port is a very useful feature as it greatly simplifies communication with PDAs and mobile phones.

Functionality: is it all there?

The MicroPC certainly manages to cram a lot of functionality into a tight space, but what's missing?

On the I/O front it's hard to fault, although it will be difficult to expand or upgrade.

On the removable media front, the floppy disk drive is an optional extra. Unfortunately, this is a parallel port job and not a USB device, which is a pity. We'd probably skip this and plump for a USB Zip drive or similar.

The CD-ROM drive clips into place, just like on a notebook, and so is upgradable. A DVD-ROM is available, priced at £111.63 inc VAT.

So then, what about SODIMM?

The MicroPC has one SODIMM slot which is filled with a 128Mb SODIMM, so if you harbour thoughts of fitting more memory, do this when you buy it as you won't be able to re-use the now redundant 128Mb module, unless you have a suitable notebook PC, that is.

The SODIMM slot is easily accessed - you simply unclip the CD-ROM drive and slide it out to expose the slot.

Upgrade options

The MicroPC isn't really intended to be opened up, but, if you remove a couple of screws, the top cover lifts off, giving you access to the CPU and hard disk. The CPU is mounted in a conventional Socket 370 socket and so is upgradable.

A 20Gb 2.5in EIDE hard disk is the standard fixed-storage option, but presumably this, too, could be swapped for something larger in due course.

Apart from the aforementioned SODIMM, these are the only two internal upgrades possible.

Contact
Jadetec 0113 281 7788 www.jadetec.co.uk