Conclusion
I find myself using this system more and more instead of my regular rig. It never ceases to amaze me how such a low powered system can perform. I spend most of my evenings on email, word processing and web browsing and it responds very well. There are countless applications for such a system considering the cost / performance ratio. Office rig, firewall, printer server, file server to name a few. This could be a PC for that teenager's room used for homework, no need to worry about the temptation to play video games.
You cannot game on this system ... period. Some may think it's better to pickup a used rig or refurbished from an online retailer. You would be hard pressed to find something in such a small package. Another consideration would be 4 USB2 ports; if you added an optional bracket you could have 8 ports total. There are two Firewire headers on the motherboard so an optional bracket could be added and the S-video option is there as well. SATA is supported along with RAID 0 and 1 … this is the 110$ barebones that just keeps on giving.
The negatives are few but mostly concerning horsepower or lack of it. You could watch a movie on this system but it's gets a little choppy sometimes. I would not choose this system to watch DVD's as a HTPC. Overclocking to 933 Mhz did not result in better playback and AsusDVD that is included with the DVD-Rom performed better than JetAudio for this task. However, the DVD playback was a little better with 512mb of ram. The system cannot be upgraded since the CPU is soldered on the motherboard. The Asus TriOpix proprietary design also prevents this case accepting any other type of motherboard and I haven't seen any replacement boards for sale separately. There was the odd issue installing XP and some drivers but these were minor.
I am very pleased the way this system is performing. It's small, quiet, cute, rock solid, does the job and is affordable. Hmm … might make a good test bed for a car PC but that, is another story. I recommend this PC to anyone looking for a basic system.
Here is a quote from Asus on this system:
"Instead of meaninglessly looking for high frequency processor, ASUS Terminator C3 brings you into a new world - it is strong enough to do your office/school job as well as fulfill your multimedia needs. ASUS Terminator C3 is built to be silent, space-saving, and cost effective."
Completed ASUS Terminator C3
