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Under The Hood

Even the structural design of the Pundit hints at an unusual interior, which is indeed confirmed when the case cover is opened. It is very compact, yet everything that is important is found on the ATI 9100 chipset-based motherboard. For a possible expansion, there is one PCI slot that is expanded into two by a Raiser card. However, no AGP slot can be found on the Pundit. A clever system provides better dissipation of the heat generated from the CPU. The CPU fan has been extended by a plastic funnel that blows the heat directly through the holes in the cover of the case. That way, not very much heat enters the small interior. However, the CPU fan has many disadvantages at the same time. Firstly, it makes noise and secondly, the distance to the next memory slot is very small. Double-sided RAM modules can only be used conditionally since the brackets of the CPU fan could easily cause a short circuit.

The motherboard works with the IGP 9100 chipset from ATI, which provides very good onboard and 2D graphics performance. The ATI chipset in the Pundit also provides video output via S-Video and composite, which allow a connection to a television. Besides the VGA output, the small ASUS also has a DVI connector for TFT devices. Behind the front cover, there is a PC card slot in addition to the usual USB, sound and FireWire connectors, which should be well known to notebook owners.

Only a small amount of space for possible expansions

Heat generated by the CPU is dissipated directly through the case cover.