The terms
ATX
ATX is an industry-wide specification for desktop motherboards. The standard includes space for more full-length add-in cards and typically six to eight expansion slots. Double-height apertures are also provided at the rear of the chassis to allow further I/O arrangements.
MicroATX
The MicroATX case has a smaller footprint and fewer expansion slots—typically three or four. MicroATX cases require special MicroATX motherboards. These motherboards, however, are designed to also fit inside a regular ATX case.
NLX
NLX is specifically intended for use with low-profile PCs. NLX systems use a riser board that sits vertically in the case and is connected directly to the power supply. Each of its expansion cards connect directly to this riser board, as well as the HDD and FDD connectors.
FlexATX
FlexATX is known as a very small form factor (SFF) and most of these cases require specially designed motherboards. As a result, most of them come with motherboards pre-installed. The Emagen system we received is a prime example of this type of form factor.
Low-profile cards
Low-profile cards make it possible to design smaller desktops by defining shorter-height adaptor cards that offer the same attributes as full-height PCI and AGP cards. Low-profile cards also share the same electrical characteristics and software drivers as standard expansion cards.
CPUs
Most of the machines we tested featured Intel’s P4 processor. Speeds ranged from 2.0GHz to 2.53GHz. We also had a look at an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ machine and the new Apple iMac, which features a 700MHz G4 Power PC processor.
Generally speaking, all were fast and would be able to run everyday office applications without any problems. In fact, in some cases, the top-end processors seemed to be a bit of overkill. Depending on your specific needs, you could possibly get away with an Intel Celeron-based machine.
RAM
All the machines bar the Apple iMac shipped with DDR-RAM. The Apple featured SD-RAM, which is theoretically the slower of the two. All the machines came with 256MB of RAM, which is what we would consider to be the minimum for new PCs.
Graphics subsystem
Your graphics subsystem can dramatically increase the overall performance of your PC. Most of the machines we tested featured on-board graphics. This arrangement generally works extremely well in 2D but performance is often lacking in 3D. However, we don’t feel a 3D card would be a requirement in most corporate situations.
I/O ports
We are seeing more and more PCs sport additional USB ports and fewer legacy ports. FireWire ports also seemed to be popular with the mix of PCs that we looked at, but it’s hardly necessary in a corporate PC.
Central management software
There are many software suites that vendors provide that can help you manage your PCs and software images from a central location.
You could initiate all sorts of servicing like the upgrade of hardware components and software applications.
Management software can also keep an eye on what versions of software everyone is using. Software upgrades can also be implemented from a central location. Users would only have to re-start their PCs for the changes to take place.
There are many levels of management that a customer can take advantage of—it all depends on budget and requirements. But it should be noted that these management systems are becoming ever more powerful and extremely more vital when it comes to managing hundreds of PCs.
The Emagen Shuttle may not be the best, but it has the greatest potential. The barebones case and motherboard are manufactured by the Shuttle company (www.shuttle.com). It has great potential because there are already better models out that include an AGP 8x slot and support the new Pentium 3.0. In fact, you can buy a better model than the Emagen one (and one with an AGP slot) in Australia, from here: (www.auscorp.com.au).