When Shuttle announced its XS29F several months ago, we were told it would bring complete silence to desktop computing (along with its alternative applications, such as a file player for home theaters).
But it was the Mini-ITX fanatics and VIA faithful, rather than Shuttle, who made these claims, and the manufacturer itself provided only a short list of specs for this Nano U1700-powered “nettop” computer--the desktop equivalent of a netbook.
When you're talking about portable computing, the name “netbook” implies a simplified notebook designed expressly as an Internet terminal. Applying the same low-power, reduced-performance technology to desktops allows Shuttle to build its tiny XS29F without any fan whatsoever. Adding your choice of a solid-state drive (SSD), rather than a traditional notebook hard disk drive, can make the system a completely silent space-saving machine perfect for use in noise-sensitive areas like libraries, hospitals, and audio labs.

Today we’ll compare the completely silent XS29F to the virtually silent Intel Atom-powered X27D. We’re already extremely familiar with the Atom’s capabilities, but is the Nano U1700 in the same performance class? More importantly, is it fast enough for typical “office duty” workloads, such as document editing and the viewing of Web content?
maybe the performance delta would be the same but the usability would be more than "acceptable".
regarding the "benchmarking" stuff... i do not think that anybody sane would buy a nettop to use it for hardcore photo editiing or transcoding.
if i'd buy a nettop i'd be interested in several factors:
- to be powerfull enough for office work and maybe hd playback
- to use as little power as possible (which nano does nicely) as this kind of device would be rarely powered down
- to be silent (which nano is)
i think that performance per watt is irrelevant here as a system like this is not meant to be "performant". i think that the one that uses less watts, has more features is queter wins here.
my take on this is that via has a very nice platform and nano wins even if it's not the fastest.
No Point at all.
u guys problems are u doesn't even know what we want to read. You guys simply put up unprofessional article. Who would run vista in these types of platform? where is da video performance? Where is the noise test?
speechless... really speechless...
http://www.mostreviews.com/reviews/23357
http://www.mostreviews.com/reviews/23357
Though this may seem far fetched, if Tom's hardware wants to maintain their standards as professionals, there should be a sequel to this article with a proper suite of benchmarks, a proper OS and balanced HW configurations (at least a 1.6Ghz Via Nano).
After digging a little on the VIA's website, I think a better netbook would be build with the fastest Nano processor and the ULV version of the VX800 chipset. Just my two cents... again
I was thinking the same thing through most of this write-up. Come on Thomas, you can do better than that. Compare comparable equipment. Why not throw an entry level dual core Pentium in for good measure?