Updated: AOpen MiniPC – Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Installation and Setup

The installation and setup process for the MiniPC is really a tale of two extremes. AOpen shipped us a pre-built unit, so all I had to do was plug it in, connect an appropriate keyboard and mouse, and it was ready for use. That's how every one of these systems should be sold, because frankly, stuffing the necessary parts into a case this small is going to be a difficult task for most people. Popping open the unit shows just how much room you have to work with, and we would much rather leave the task of putting the computer together to the people on the assembly line. If you have really large hands, if could be difficult, though really having the right tools is the most important part of working with the case.

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Four screws underneath the non-slip pad secure the case, and removing them is pretty simple. Once that's done, opening the case still requires some effort, as the top and bottom snap together. After you (carefully) pry it open, you can see the internals, which are packed with all of the required parts. The process of pulling the top and bottom apart is definitely not easy, and given the presence of four screws to hold the two halves together, we would prefer to use less force. All the little metal "teeth" around the sides appear to add a lot of pressure so that even without the screws the top and bottom are in no danger of separating. The metal prongs can also scratch the sides if you're not careful when pulling the case apart or putting it back together.

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The motherboard has a single DDR2 SO-DIMM slot, a Mini-PCI slot that is filled with a wireless networking device in some configurations (our unit didn't have WiFi), and a heat sink and fan unit that covers both the CPU and the chipset. It would have been nice to get a second SO-DIMM slot for memory expansion, and most laptops have memory access panels underneath a small hatch to make RAM upgrades easy and quick. That's something for Aopen or their competitors to consider for future designs.

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While the HSF is quite small and would certainly be inadequate for cooling higher power CPUs, the 22W TDP Pentium M does perfectly well, and the case under full load was only slightly warm - just like a typical laptop.

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The top of the unit has a plastic cage that holds the 2.5" HDD and the slim optical drive. Removing four more screws and a bit more prying gets that out of the way, at which point you can install the HDD and optical drive. Note that the optical drive is a standard laptop form factor, but a slot-loader drive is required. AOpen makes such drives in either a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo unit or a standard DVD+/-RW drive. A proprietary PCB converts the IDE interface into a connection that slots into the motherboard (which incidentally also helps to hold the top and bottom of the case together). The card then plugs into the connections on the optical drive and HDD - think of it as a solid, compact replacement for the typical ribbon cable.

In the above images, you can also see that there is a built-in speaker that functions as a mono audio output. It isn't very loud and the quality is what you would expect from the size, not to mention that it's concealed behind a metal cover. It will be sufficient for hearing the Windows sound events and listening to audio files where high fidelity isn't a requirement - basically enough for a business environment.