AVADirect Nano Cube review

Also, we see the appeal of super small gaming PCs, but AVADirect could have done more with the Nano Cube to see the concept through. The appeal of small cases for LAN gamers is clear. They make sense for space-constrained setups like dorm rooms, bedrooms, and small apartments. They are also easy to install in the living room for TV-based PC gaming, as well as serving up PC-based digital media. We'd give AVADirect more credit in the living room if it had included more digital media-oriented features.

There's no Blu-ray drive (nor does AVADirect provide an option for an internal Blu-ray drive on its Web site), and the graphics card AVADirect chose has no HDMI output, instead requiring a DVI-to-HDMI adapter, which wasn't included in the box.

We're also struck by what you have to give up for the Nano Cube and its small chassis. You could stay in the same price ballpark and configure a Maingear X-Cube that has not only the same graphics card and solid-state drive, but that also comes with a faster Core i7 CPU. The X-Cube (8.3 inches high, 10.6 inches wide, 15.5 inches deep) isn't quite as small as the Nano Cube, but it's not that much larger, and the added space gives you much needed room for a second hard-drive bay.

Juice box

AVADirect Nano Cube
Off (watts)	5.56
Sleep (watts)	6.95
Idle (watts)	126.56
Load (watts)	278.15
Raw (annual kWh)	606.09126
Energy Star compliant	No
Annual operating cost (@$0.1135/kWh)	$68.79

Given the fast, dual-chip GeForce GTX 295, we're not surprised to see the Nano Cube on higher end of the power consumption scale for this price range. We thought at first that the power-efficient Intel Core 2 Quad 9550S chip in this system suggested that AVADirect was making a power efficiency move, especially because that's the same CPU in the Maingear Pulse. But with only a 400-watt power supply and a tight, air-flow-restricted case interior, AVADirect likely had to make a sacrifice in the power load because of the high-end 3D card. Even though it's not particularly power efficient in the grand scheme of upper midrange PCs, the Nano Cube won't put too much of a tax on your power bill.

Finally, one of our consistent criticisms of AVADirect over the year or two that we've reviewed its systems has been that it offers too many configuration options for us to feel confident that it knows the ins-and-outs of every component it sells. The options are reduced for this system because of the motherboard and size restrictions, but it still has an unnecessarily wide selection of component options, and no configuration error correction built into its online configurator. Thus, we cannot recommend this vendor for nonexpert shoppers. Its standard warranty is above average, covering you for three years, but its Web site support is limited to fielding e-mail queries, and its phone support operates on an extremely limited schedule, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT on weekdays.

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System configurations:

AVADirect Nano Cube
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; 2.83GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550s; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 1792MB Nvidia GeForce GTX 295; 120GB OCZ Vertex solid state hard drive

Asus Essentio CG5290-BP007
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit; 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 920 (over clocked); 9GB 1,066 DDR3 SDRAM; 896MB GeForce GTX 260 (216 core); 1TB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive.

Maingear Pulse
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit; 2.83GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550s; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 1GB Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT Eco graphics card; 320GB 7,200rpm Western Digital Scorpio hard drive.

Shuttle XPC H7 5800
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit; 2.93GHz Intel Core i7 940; 6GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 285; 500GB, 7,200rpm Seagate hard drive

Velocity Micro Edge Z30
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 3.22GHz Intel Core i7-860 (overclocked); 8GB 1,330MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 896MB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 (216 core); 1TB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive