World's smallest Ultra Mini ION2 PC Giada Slim-N20 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Pros:
- VERY quiet operation.
- Excellent build quality.
- Built in Bluetooth.
- Flawless operation with USB audio 2.0 DAC.
- Nvidia ION 2.
Cons:
- Box is not factory sealed. (*)
- Only two USB ports in the back.
- Very minimal documentation.
This is a very nice nettop. I've tried Lenovo, Viewsonic, Shuttle, and Foxconn Atom based nettops with A330 and D510 processors for the music server. Giada and Foxconn have the best build quality. Unfortunately Foxconn has problem with USB 2.0 audio DAC. Also Foxconn has noticeably louder fan, and may not be suitable use in all rooms and situations. Giada is virtually silent. There is very low swooshing from the fan barely audible more than 2 ft away. It also comes with built-in Bluetooth which is rare in this class. ION GPU is sufficient for watching youtube video in full screen. However Hulu videos are jerky in full screen. The problem with Hulu is not unique to Giada, as most people with ION GPU seem to have that problem. When the videos are played in a window, it's very smooth regardless of the resolution and bitrate.
One star taken off because the box was not factory sealed. I've exchanged emails with Giada about that, and their explanation is they cut off the seal to install the OS. I understand the explanation, but still unacceptable. Otherwise this machine would have been five star all the way. I've bought model that came with Ubuntu Linux, but replaced the built in hard disk with SSD and installed Windows 7 on it. All the devices are recognized in Windows and work fine.
Overall Giada is a very good buy. Somewhat pricier than the competitor, but its small size, build quality, and the near silent operation makes it worth the premium.


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