Sapphire EDGE-HD Mini PC Review – the smallest PC in the world

1. Introduction2. The Sapphire EDGE-HD Mini PC3. The Bios and Hardware Overview4. Testing Methodology5. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra6. Synthetic: PCMark Vantage7. Synthetic: Aida 648. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.5 64 bit9. Synthetic: HDTach & CrystalMark10. Real World: BluRay Playback with Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 Ultra11. Real World: Flash HD Performance12. Real World: Media Encoding with Cyberlink Media Espresso13. Real World: File Copying with Kingston HyperX Max 3.014. Image Quality: HQV Benchmark 2.015. Gaming: Left4Dead 216. Technical: Acoustics Performance17. Technical: Thermal Dynamics18. Technical: Power Consumption19. Closing Thoughts20. View All Pages

If, like us, you have a passion for miniature computing, then today's review is going to get you moist. AMD's biggest partner Sapphire have decided to branch out into the ‘system building' enthusiast sector and have created the new EDGE-HD Mini PC with the shock revelation that the internal hardware is based around Intel and Nvidia components.

The Sapphire Edge-HD Mini PC is released as the world's smallest PC measuring just 193mm x 148 mm x 22mm (WxDxH) and weighing in at 575g.

These diminutive dimensions means that some compromises have to be made, with some connectivity getting the axe.

Underneath the matt plastic casing resides a dual core, quad threaded Intel Atom D510 processor which is supported by 2GB of DDR3 memory. Graphics duties are handled by the nVidia Ion 2 which supports Direct X 10.1, and is commonly found in a plethora of netbooks on the market today. Sapphire have also included a generous 250GB 2.5 inch hard drive for all the storage demands.

Specification
CPU	Intel® Atom™ D510 1.66GHz 1024 KB CPU Cache
Memory	2048 MB DDR2-800 So-DIMM
Storage	250 GB SATA 2.5” Hard Driver
Graphics	512 MB NVIDIA® ION™ 2
LAN	10/100/1000 Mbps Built-in Etherent
Wireless	802.11b/g/n Built-in Wireless Network
I / O	1 x VGA(D-sub) Port 1 x HDMI Port 1 x RJ-45 Gigabit Lan 4 x USB 2.0 Port 1 x Audio-in 1 x Line-out
Power	65 W AC 100~240V 50/60Hz, 19v~3.42A
Dimensions	19.3 x 14.8 x 2.2 cm (L / W / H)
Weight	530 g net weight
Operation System	Pre-installed Free DOS Support Windows® 7 / Vista / XP
Accessory	1 x USB Sticker 1G (Pre-load driver, Manual) 1 x HDMI cable 1 x HDMI to DVI adapter 1 x Quick Install guide (QIG) 1 x Chassis Stand 1 x Power cord 1 x Power Adapter

The Sapphire EDGE-HD Mini PC arrives in a small box with the product specifications and image highlighted on the front.

Inside, the bundle is comprehensive with an HDMI cable, HDMI to DVI converter cable, power adapter, case stickers and literature. Sapphire also supply a USB pen drive with drivers for various operating systems.

The EDGE-HD Mini PC can be used either vertically or horizontally depending on your preference. There is a supplied stand which screws into the underside of the chassis.

The costs are reduced as Sapphire don't bundle a Windows Operating system for the £250 asking price. You do however get the FreeDOS operating system which is targeted at the education and small business segments. We will also assume that many enthusiast users will fancy one of these machines for a living room or bedroom, as a tiny HD capable media player.

Sapphire include all the drivers for Windows XP, Vista and 7 on the little USB key chain and we had no problems installing Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate from a Corsair Voyager USB flash drive.

Connectivity isn't the most thorough we have seen in the KitGuru labs, however there is more than enough for the target market. There is an HDMI port (with DVI adapter supplied), two USB 2.0 ports, a 10/100/1000 lan and a microphone and headphone connector. 802.11n Wifi is also included via the AzureWave chip.

There are two lights on the side of the chassis – one for power on (blue), and the other for hard drive activity (red).

The bios with the Sapphire EDGE-HD Mini PC is rather basic, much as we would expect from an ATOM powered system. There are various settings for everyday settings, however it is worth mentioning that to install a new operating system the boot settings have to be changed to the USB drive device. This is detailed in the instructions however, so Sapphire haven't left inexperienced users wondering what to do.

Above, the specifications of the Sapphire EDGE-HD Mini PC as shown with CPUz and GPUz. The Atom processor is a 2 physical + 2 logical design which runs at 1.66ghz. The nVidia ION graphics runs at 535mhz on the core and the 512mb of GDDR3 memory is clocked at 790mhz, this is connected to a 64 bit memory interface.

The Windows Experience index registers a final score of 3.4, which is directly tied to the worst performing component in the system, the Intel ATOM processor.

To test the Sapphire EDGE-HD System today, we are using a wide selection of real world and synthetic tests, clearly labelled. If you are only interested in video quality and hardware performance we advise you to shift forward in the review to the real world and image quality sections.

We also felt it would be interesting to compare some of our findings against other low power systems we have reviewed before. We have therefore included results from a previous generation AMD Turion 64 X2 L510 clocked at 1.6ghz.

Supplemental Hardware:
Solid State: Kingston Hyper Max 3.0 x 2
Optical: Asus USB 2.0 BluRay Drive
Monitors: Sharp 50 inch 1080p Aquos LCD TV, LaCie 730 (IQ testing) and Dell U2410

Comparison processors:
AMD Zacate APU – E350 (HD6310 graphics) @ 1.88ghz
AMD Zacate APU – E350 (HD6310 graphics) @ 1.60ghz
Atom D525 @ 1.8ghz
Turion X64 X2 L510 @ 1.6ghz

Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit
Aida 64
SiSoft Sandra
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cyberlink Media Espresso
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra V10
PCMark Vantage
HQV Benchmark V 2.0
Left4Dead
Resident Evil 5

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Kill A Watt Meter

All results are gained from multiple test runs to ensure any abnormalities are removed before publication.

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Native ports for all major operating systems are available:

• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
• Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
• Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
• Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)

All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:

• SMP – Multi-Processor
• MC – Multi-Core
• SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
• MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
• GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
• NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
• AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
• IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit

The Intel Atom D510 can't really compete against the latest AMD E350 Fusion chip, falling a considerable performance distance behind.

PCMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed for Windows Vista offering one-click simplicity for casual users and detailed, professional grade testing for industry, press and enthusiasts.

A PCMark score is a measure of your computer’s performance across a variety of common tasks such as viewing and editing photos, video, music and other media, gaming, communications, productivity and security.

From desktops and laptops to workstations and gaming rigs, by comparing your PCMark Vantage score with other similar systems you can find the hardware and software bottlenecks that stop you getting more from your PC.

The overall results are pretty much in line with a 2+2 core Atom Processor, scoring just over 2,000 points in PCMark Vantage.

AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The Atom D510 scores well in the Aida 64 test, delivering some good results for the low power sector.

CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.

The Intel Atom D510 is certainly no rendering powerhouse, falling significantly behind the E350 processor from AMD. To be fair, these machines won't be used for this kind of duty anyway, but its interesting to note.

A very important part of overall system responsiveness is down to hard drive performance so we used two of our favourite benchmark utilities Crystalmark X64 Edition and HD Tach to rate the internal 2.5 inch hard drive.

The hard drive is certainly not a performance unit, but it delivers reasonable results, especially when you factor in the demands of this specific PC design.

Our good friends at Cyberlink kindly supplied the software for our BluRay and conversion tests.

Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 is one of the finest solutions for the BluRay experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the new Extended Bluray Disc of Avatar, one of our favourite sci-fi films in recent years.

The AMD E350 systems score very well, with CPU utilisation around 5 percent less than the Intel Atom configurations.

Quite positive results with the CPU generally below the 30% threshold even during intensive sections.

Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online.

The Sapphire EDGE-HD PC has no problems with high definition Flash content, averaging only 23 percent cpu time with our test file.

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.

Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.

New and Improved Features

• Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
• Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
• Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
• Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
• Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
• Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.

For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2h:12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power. We are focusing on the CPU efficiency with this test.

The Intel Atom D510 inside the Sapphire EDGE-PC has a hard time competiting with AMD's E350 APU, falling 17 minutes behind with our encoding task.

We are now going to test the USB 3.0 and 2.0 speed, so we used two of the fastest drives we have, the Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 128GB, which is an Toshiba based SSD product within a USB 3.0 capable enclosure.

USB 2.0 performance is pretty much as good as it gets, averaging around 32-33 MB/s.

HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evaluate motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.

There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on BluRay. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content, so will we.

This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.

Read our initial analysis over here.

	Sapphire EDGE HD PC
Dial	4
Dial with static pattern	5
Gray Bars	5
Violin	5
Stadium 2:2	5
Stadium 3:2	5
Horizontal Text Scroll	5
Vertical Text Scroll	5
Transition to 3:2 Lock	5
Transition to 2:2 Lock	0
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video	5
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video	5
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed	5
5:5 FPS Animation	5
6:4 12 FPS Animation	5
8:7 8 FPS Animation	5
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)	5
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)	5
Random Noise: Sailboat	5
Random Noise: Flower	5
Random Noise: Sunrise	5
Random Noise: Harbour Night	5
Scrolling Text	3
Roller Coaster	3
Ferris Wheel	3
Bridge Traffic	3
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text	3
Roller Coaster	3
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Luminance Frequency Bands	5
Chrominance Frequency Bands	5
Vanishing Text	5
Resolution Enhancement	15
Theme Park	5
Driftwood	2
Ferris Wheel	3
Skin Tones	5
Total	177

The image quality of the Sapphire EDGE-PC with nVidia ION graphics is actually very good indeed, only falling a couple of points behind our recent testing of the AMD Fusion platform.

Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation’s award-winning Left 4 Dead.

Like the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, and focuses on four survivors fighting against hordes of the infected. The survivors must fight their way through levels, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign’s finale. The gameplay is procedurally altered by an artificial intelligence engine dubbed the “Director” that monitors the players’ performance and adjust the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge. Several new features have been introduced: new types of infected, melee weapons, and a story-arc that connects the game’s five campaigns together.

We are tesing at 720p with settings on high/medium.

A pretty good set of results for onboard graphics and a low powered Atom processor. Less demanding games are playable if you lower the settings and keep the resolution sensible.

We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground with our Extech digital sound level meter to mirror a real world situation.

The Asus E35M1-I is completely silent, so this will be a rating of the Thermaltake Armor A60 chassis.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet take off/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The system is silent, even at load. The single fan will be inaudible in real world conditions, even with the system reasonably close to the user.

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.

Load measurements were acquired by running Furmark and Cinebench together. We included results from a diode which we placed beside the motherboard and the exhaust fans.

Considering the incredibly small size of the chassis we were surprised how well the temperatures held at around 70c under extended load. Sapphire have clearly spent considerable time with the design of this diminutive PC.

To test power consumption today we are using a Kill A Watt power meter. We loaded the system with some games and measured results at both full load and idle.

The system consumes less than some of our NAS systems. We recorded 21 watts at idle and up to 36 watts under load.

The Sapphire EDGE-HD Mini PC made quite an impression in the KitGuru labs as it was being tested over the last couple of weeks. A PC barely bigger than a compact disc case is certainly an eye catching piece of technology to get people talking.

On a performance level, the Intel Atom D510 is never going to set the performance charts on fire, in fact it is already beginning to look dated after the latest release of the AMD E350 which outpowers it in all the key areas. To be fair however, the Sapphire EDGE-HD PC is perfectly capable of playing 1080p content, watching high definition flash movies and handling even bare bones gaming duties. Additionally, the Nvidia Ion graphics can assist the Intel Atom processor with encoding and other demanding duties, granting more CPU cycles to the user.

Build quality is stellar and we still can't get over the fact that Sapphire have managed to push noise emissions to around 27dBa under load. This is certainly a system that can be left on 24/7, even in a bedroom environment without disturbing the occupants. Power consumption is also class leading, drawing just over 20 watts at idle, around the same power as a Synology NAS system. You can be sure that the electricity bill won't take a pounding if this is left on for a large portion of the day or night.

Connectivity is passable, although the omission of USB 3.0 and eSATA might concern a small portion of the prospective audience. With onboard wireless and gigabit lan support however, the networking capabilities are not to be overlooked. The inclusion of a substantial 250GB hard drive deserves a mention, even if it is relatively slow.

The pricing right now is around £250 inc vat in the UK which means this is extremely good value for money. You just need to factor in the potential costs for the operating system and you are ready to rock.

KitGuru says: A fantastic media system, or low powered PC for the house. Its silent, demands very little power. You won't even know its there!

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