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To see how the EY65 performed in games, as I’m sure many of you would want one of these as a LAN party weapon, I fitted a Radeon 9800Pro graphics card and ran some 3D tests. The EY65 coped well with everything I threw at it. It did however get quite hot inside the small case, but as there are no extra fans apart from the CPU cooler and the one in the PSU this is understandable.

The excellent manual contains a step by step guide with colour pictures on how to build the EY65. It shouldn’t be a problem for anyone that has previous PC building experience to put it together, but according to the manual AOpen is targeting this product at the first time PC builder, thus the step by step guide is important.

A few things made me laugh though such as the first line on the page called Preliminary Tools, which reads “A workman must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well”. I wouldn’t use any sharp tools inside the EY65 as you might damage it beyond repair if you do. But the best one has to be “You’ll thank God with a pliers on hand” which refers to it being handy to have pliers at hand for changing jumpers over. At least the manual interjects some entertainment into the construction process.

So, to sum the EY65 up, it has a great looking chassis and a lot of time and effort has gone into designing and manufacturing it. Sadly the inside is a little messy in terms of cable routing and the CPU cooler blows the air in the wrong direction. Performance however is top notch and far beyond my expectations even without the bus speed hitting 800MHz. At £200.00 inc VAT the EY65 isn’t overpriced but there are cheaper options out there.

Verdict

The EY65 is a small and stylish bare bones system that packs a punch both in terms of performance and features. The price is reasonable, but the internal design could do with a little tidying up.

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