CPU & Case Temperature

I chose to look at each system's case and CPU temperatures while both idle and under full load. While the Asus P2-M2A690G comes in a much smaller case, it'll still be something to compare temperatures with.

As expected, the P2-M2A690G runs a little hotter than the micro-ATX ECS 6100SM-M system. The only fan in the system is the fan attached for the CPU's heatsink. I'm sure I could drop a dual-core processor in to this system and not worry about the heat.

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

Any time I think of a barebones system, memories of my Shuttle XPC and MSI iDeq come flooding to mind. Now, however, I think of Asus' latest AMD-based Pundit barebone. It provides performance and connectivity in a very small form factor.

The P2-M2A690G proved to be faster than my ECS 6100SM-M board with the same processor, RAM, and hard drive in both Linux and Windows. However, my benchmarks show that the P2-M2A690G's Radeon X1250 graphics lag slightly behind the 6100SM-M's in Linux. This is most likely due to ATI's proprietary driver.

The P2-M2A690G is meant for multimedia use, and the HDCP-compliant HDMI port is there to prove it. In combination with a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive, the unit would make a great home theater PC. However, we have another idea in mind for it, such as using it as a MythTV front end in a future article. With the unit's small form factor and single fan, it would have no trouble fitting in my living room.

Overall, the P2-M2A690G is a fantastic barebone. Expansion is a little sketchy, as many full-size PCI and PCI-Express x1 cards may not fit in the unit. However, the machine is certainly not meant for server or gaming use, so I see little reason that this takes away from the unit.

Pros

• Two expansion slots
• Radeon X1250 Graphics
• Support for Athlon 64 X2 CPUs
• HDCP / HDMI compliant for watching HD movies on HD displays
• Easy installation
• Well supported under Linux

Cons

• Limited expansion options due to size restrictions
• Where's our AMD 780G barebone?! (just kidding)

Rating

10/10