Aleutia Relia Industrial PC Review: Ivy Bridge & Q77 in a Fanless Chassis
by Ganesh T S on December 4, 2012 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Industrial PC
- HTPC
- Ivy Bridge
- Aleutia
Introduction:
Industrial PCs come with stringent requirements that are not satisfied by generic PCs. It is customary for builders to use active cooling in order to ensure that the components are in proper working order. Ventilation slots are also provided to keep airflow up. Chassis size is also not always a concern. However, these flexibilities are not always possible in industrial PCs. Operating environments for such systems usually call for passive cooling, dust resistance, rugged nature and minimal size (read, mini-ITX).
We have already covered the launch of a few industrial PCs including that of the Aleutia Relia which is being reviewed today. The specifications of the Aleutia Relia also make it attractive to users who are picky about having a completely silent machine in their media center.
The Aleutia Relia is a fanless mini-ITX system based on the Q77 desktop chipset. The Q77 chipset enables business / enterprise oriented features such as dual GbE LAN ports, Intel Active Management Technology (for remote troubleshooting and recovery), PXE network boot and auto-boot after power loss. A point to note about the Q77 Express chipset is that it comes with a long life cycle (with assured support at least through 2017).
Before proceeding with the rest of the review, let us take a look at the configuration of the review system.
| Aleutia Relia Industrial PC Specifications | |
| Processor |
Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770T (4 x 2.50 GHz (3.70 GHz Turbo), 22nm, 8MB L2, 45W) |
| Chipset | Intel Q77 Express |
| Memory | 2 x 4GB DDR3-1333 |
| Graphics |
Intel HD Graphics 4000 650 MHz / 1.15 GHz (Turbo) |
| Disk Drive(s) | 128 GB mSATA SSD + 2 x 500 GB 7200 rpm 2.5" HDDs |
| Networking |
2 x Gigabit Ethernet 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz 1T2R) |
| Audio |
Microphone and headphone/speaker jacks Capable of 5.1/7.1 digital output with HD audio bitstreaming (HDMI / DP) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (Retail unit has choice of OSes including barebones option) |
| Pricing (As configured) | $1458 (cheapest configuration is $638) |
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jcm722 - Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - link
Unlike the Mac mini, getting to the HDDs looks really easy. Same goes for the RAM. I can't find the mSATA for sure. Is it under the RAM sockets?Guspaz - Thursday, December 6, 2012 - link
Similar fanless cases seem to go for about $100. What's so special about this one that makes the case cost $600 instead?8steve8 - Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - link
I was under the impression that this motherboard/chipset doesn't do dhcp over hdmi/dp... making its use as an HTCP a bit questionable.am i wrong here?
ganeshts - Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - link
It does support HDCP over HDMI. Quite OK as a HTPChardwickj - Wednesday, December 5, 2012 - link
I hope you are right Ganesh :) I'm contemplating ordering the mobo in this thing for my long overdue HTPC update. Or I may go for the slightly more practical Intel DH77DF.http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Desktop-Motherboard-LG...
Guspaz - Thursday, December 6, 2012 - link
A minor correction:DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Used by networks to auto-assign IP addresses and other information. It's how your laptop knows what IP, gateway, DNS to use when it connects to a wifi network, for example.
HDCP: High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. DRM for your AV signal. Tries (and fails) to prevent anybody from intercepting the digital signal for recording purposes.
If one of these were obscure, the confusion wouldn't be important. But both are ubiquitous technologies that are very likely operating in your home right now.
DerPuppy - Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - link
seeing as your reviewed this as an HTPC...I don't see why anand doesn't have an MPC-HC setup guide or a link for review methodology or just general knowledge purposes.ForeverAlone - Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - link
Awesome stuff. Pretty cheap too, in the scheme of things.Bullwinkle J Moose - Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - link
I just played CounterStrike for a 2 hours from a 500GB USB 2.0 5400RPM Windows to Go Boot DriveIt peaked at 55 watts loading maps
gamerate was fine
audio fine
Internet Fine
Graphics Fine
All booting from an external USB 2 drive with Windows 8 - Windows to Go Installed
VERY Fast O.S. from a slow portable Hard Drive
Idles at 25 - 26 watts at desktop
35 watt core i3 / 2.66Ghz
4GB Crucial1.35 Volt DDR1600
Gigabyte H61N-USB3
60 watt Pico Power Supply
Mini-Box M350 Case
DLink Wireless N Dongle
Total Cost Less than $350 and FAST ENOUGH for portable Windows (2 Go)
dishayu - Wednesday, December 5, 2012 - link
"A passively cooled solution with no moving parts meant that we had a virtually silent PC"Why virtually silent? Shouldn't it literally be silent? Like 0 dB?