Advantages: Very cheap, intelligent electronics keep wasted disks to a minimum
Disadvantages: None so far. How long can something this cheap last?

...-RW and 24 speed read machine, was, as I’ve said, a good machine at the time of purchase, but it’s replacement, an AOpen CRW5224, is only costing me a shade over £30 (yes thirty!) from www.dabs.com, AND it’s got a maximum write speed to CD-R of 52x, making full CD copies possible in just a few minutes, and I do mean a few. AOpen may well be more familiar to you as the makers of motherboards. Even if this machine only lasts the 12-month guarantee period and no longer, it’ll only cost me 66p a week to own (as for the DVD player, the most that can cost me is 50p a week thanks to the 2-year warranty). Every month beyond the first year is a bonus for the AOpen, and if it lasts as long as the Yamaha, it’ll cost me about 22p a week. Anyway, that’s got the skinflint bits out of the way. What’s it like to install and use? A BIT OF THE OLD ‘IN OUT... Read review

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Advantages: Extremely quite, beautiful machine
Disadvantages: CPU Cooling fan & the floppy drive connector are placed

...The latest craze in the computer world is miniture computer systems first introduced to us as the 'Shuttle' system. Since then many have taken a stab at this market and the EZ18 is AOpens answer to the call. The EZ18 comes in two colours to my knowledge (pearl white, and slick black)so its possible to accessorise according to your personal preference. I myself went for the slick black (or piano black as my friend calls it) with the glowing blue power button. I bought mine from Microdirect for about £148. Unlike some of its counterparts (the shuttle system, BioStar system) the EZ18 is more of a cube rather than a single story tower and it comes with the bare essentials (partly why they have been called 'barebone' systems). It comes with the motherboard which holds the sound card aswell as the on board graphics(i think its nVidia n... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap and lots of features
Disadvantages: average overclocking ability

...The AOpen AK77-600 Max has a unique feature of having double bios chips, specially these days when virus attacks are common these days. With having twin bios, the second bios can store a good bios version that can be used when the first bios other one fails. It is also bundled with a Norton virus 2003, s very helpful software which can protect you from e-mail worms and viruses. This board has via kt600 chipset instead of an nforce 2. The motherboard has a little heat sink at the middle which helps to avoid overheating. All the headers of this motherboard are place on the near bottom of the motherboard. The USB 2.0 header s located at the second third PCI slots. A total of 6 USB ports are located at the back panel of this board. There is also a printer port and 2 ps/2 ports. Four mounting holes are located in CPU sockets, which free... Read review

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Advantages: Very silent, very stylish and very good at performing
Disadvantages: Not too many expansion possibilities, no DVI.

...Great little thing, this machine. I have always been a great fan of Shuttle computers - mainly for the thought that lays behind the systems and the designs. However two things have always been annoying about Shuttle: The price and the noise. AOpen has been pioneers when it comes to Pentium-M and this fact made me confident in buying a small form factor (SFF) system based on the Pentium-M. The system is brilliant and I use it for all my computing-tasks which are surfing on the Net, text- and powerpoint-handling as well as games every now and then and some audio recording and editing. My system is equipped with a 1.6 GHz Pentium-M (bought cheap from eBay), 1GB of Corsair RAM (two different types!), 533 MHz fsb. The system runs with Windows XP Home SP2 - and does so brilliantly. The good things about this machine: - Costs... Read review

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Advantages: Reads many formats, cheap
Disadvantages: TOO FAST!

...this a few days ago. It's a 52x CD ROm, and is pretty fast. The reason I got this, was because my previous one could not read many formats or types of CD ROMs. Now this AOpen 52x IDE CD ROM is perfect. It reads every thing. Including CD-RW! It is fairly silent running. It came at a very affordable price, and at great speeds. 7800k/s. Which is quite fast. I am pleased with this buy, and well what more can I say? That's probably as good as a CD-ROM can get nowadays! The only thing this CD ROM doesn't do, is write CDs, or play DVDs, which can be done with other drives that come at a higher price.... Read review

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Advantages: Tailor Made Spec, Robust Quality build. Nice looking, Good Value, Easy to upgrade
Disadvantages: Needs a high level of technical competance. One or two parts can be difficult to obtain.

...problem you will find is that the centrino CPU can be a bit tricky to find. The other problem is that, if like me, you choose a non-standard DVD-writer in place of the AOPEN reccomended model, then you will have to make up a small retaining bracket which isn't supplied with the case. Reasonably easy to do... but you do need some technical skills. Assembly took about 2 hours once I had realised the need to make a retaining clip for the DVD drive. There are no instructions supplied. But if you use common sense it is pretty obvious how it all comes apart and goes back. Just DONT force anything. If you have to strain it then you are trying the wrong way... ! You can also find hints on the web by via a google search (sorry but I cant recall the URLS) As far as performance and quality in use is concerned, the end result is excellent and I am... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap and reliable
Disadvantages: Cost me a lot of money by destroying my computer

...... Read review

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Advantages: Saves money, relatively easy, looks good
Disadvantages: no gurantee, no tech support

...remember those small things that you slot into the computer, they hold about as much data as the calculator on your phone but you need one. The only thing that could make life difficult for you is if you have a black or silver case it is quite difficult to find matching floppy drives, they are out there, and reasonably priced too, set aside around £8 for this, no more. o0o0o0o0o0o CD-Rom o0o0o0o0o0o You need to decide how many drives you will need, ideally you should have a DVD/CD drive, and a CD-rewriter drive, both cost around £25, if you don't think that you will need a DVD drive, then don't buy one!!! Like the floppy drives you will have a problem finding one to match your case, i do reccomend 'Aopen 52x32x52 Chameleon IDE DRIVE ' it has removable facsia's and includes a silver and black one, its plenty fast enough to read and write... Read review

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Advantages: It worked for a while; Recognised name on the cover
Disadvantages: Everything - slow, unreliable, doesn't work!

.... I have downloaded new drivers and upgrades to the software and have even tried a different type of re-writing software, in case it was that that was the problem. No luck. This wasn’t cheap – over £200 – and now I’m faced with the expense of replacing it. It certainly won’t be with a Yamaha. I would not recommend this product to anyone. I have decided to go for an Aopen. Dabs.com have the 32r 10rw Int IDE for £135 (inc VAT), which seems reasonable. Their CD-Rom drives are always winning awards for quality and reliability in PC magazine reviews – often coming out with the Gold award. I will do a review of it when I’ve checked it out.... Read review

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Advantages: Fast and stylish
Disadvantages: Region Coded. - not anymore!

...that can make this drive so that it is not region coded. It is out there, but it is hard to find. I've heard one case where someone tried it, but now they are unable to read DVDs, so proceed with caution. I will update should I ever find it. Finally, I bought this drive from Dabs.com (see below). It was the OEM version, because I don't really need the retail product. What you miss in the OEM version is a nice box (which you'll throw out anyway), 2 DVDs with a game and software on. However, the one at dabs comes with a differet drive, that is not as high class as this one, but still performs just as good. Another highly recommended product, epsecially for replacing CD-ROM drives that are too fast (read my short but important opinion on Aopen's 52x CDROM). ##Update## I have now made this drive completely region free. The drive version... Read review

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