With two fans, the dc7800 was the noisiest of our three small computers, but it was still reasonably quiet. We compared it to two Dell Dimension desktops and subjectively found the dc7800 a bit louder than one and a bit quieter than the other.
In operation, the biggest drawback was that booting this computer was like watching paint dry; after pressing the power button, it took about three and a half minutes before the dc7800 was ready to use.
The dc7800 is pricey -- low-end units start at US$729 including mouse and keyboard. Our test unit, costing US$1,247, had a 2.66-GHz Core Duo CPU with 2MB of L2 cache and 1GB of RAM. A dizzying array of options are available, such as more RAM, that can drive the price even higher than that of our test unit.
However, IT managers know that the initial purchase price is typically not the most costly part of owning and managing a PC. With that in mind, the dc7800's strong built-in management and security capabilities make it a dependable choice for larger organizations with a scarcity of space.
Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e Ultrasmall Form Factor
The Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e is roughly an inch wider and higher than the HP unit. However, it's an inch less deep, so it's still tiny enough to easily tuck away out of sight. Beyond its slightly larger size, though, this eight-pound computer has a lot to offer and is quite inexpensive. The Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e. The Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e. Courtesy of Lenovo.
This ThinkCentre sports standard desktop-size DVD-RW and hard drives, which explain why it has both a slighter larger footprint and a lower price than the HP dc7800. Its single-fan design made it significantly quieter than the HP dc7800, although it's not as silent as the Mac Mini. It also received an EPEAT gold rating while the HP and Apple units got silver ratings.
The front of the A61e has two USB ports and plug-ins for a headphone and microphone, just like the HP dc7800. The A61's backplane is sparser than the HP unit's, however, with a Gigabit Ethernet port and only four USB ports. Nor are there PS/2 plug-ins for a mouse and keyboard -- you'll have to use two of the USB ports for those. Perhaps the most glaring omission is the lack of a DVI port, which is frequently used for LCD monitors. Instead, this ThinkCentre has only a traditional VGA port.
Our test unit came with a 2.1-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. Unlike the seemingly endless boot sequence of the HP dc7800, the ThinkCentre A61e booted in about 1 minute, 25 seconds, a typical time for Windows Vista machines.
As with other small computers, there are no expansion slots in this ThinkCentre. But opening it up to add memory or replace components requires only pulling back a small slider button on the side of the box; the computer then opens like a book. As with the HP, replacing most components can be done without tools.
This ThinkCentre doesn't have a TPM security chip set and, because it uses an AMD processor, it doesn't support Intel's Active Management Technology. Still, IT shops will appreciate Lenovo's standard suite of security and management software -- roughly the same suite of software found on its ThinkPad laptops.
While larger than the HP and Apple units, the Lenovo A61e's solid, silent performance and strong environmental credentials make it an excellent fit in small and home offices. And, with prices starting at US$399 for a Windows XP machine with a low-end AMD Sempron LE 1150 processor (our test unit's configuration costs US$659), it's a strong value.