Two-Story Row House
To open the small form-factor PC all you have to do is remove three thumbscrews. Then, its uncommon insides reveal themselves. The hardware area is divided into two clearly distinct levels. The bottom part houses the integrated power supply and enough room for a 5.25" and two 3.5" drive bays. Separating the two "floors" is the motherboard and a nearly continuous aluminum plate. The upper area is reserved for the motherboard and its components. Besides the processor, the KL-I915a still requires DDR memory. The memory can be expanded up to 2 GB with the two DIMM slots. The integrated graphics of the i915 chipset can handle all Office apps. If more graphics performance is called for you can install a suitable PCI Express graphics card. The motherboard also has a 32 bit PCI slot for installing additional hardware such as a TV tuner card.
Also in the package is a supersize CPU fan featuring three heatpipes. The correct installation method is explained in the article 5 Cool P4 Coolers Protect Your P4 From Heatstroke . We use two CPUs for our battery of tests. The first is a Pentium 4 550 with 3.6 GHz, which gives off an awful lot of heat with a maximum 115W . The second CPU doesn't have quite as much power under the hood and is clocked at a mere 3.2 GHz.
We decided to refrain from installing a graphics card, since the motherboard already comes equipped with an integrated graphics engine and is designed primarily for users with no extraordinary expectations in terms of graphics.
Besides installing a CPU and two memory sticks we also had to mount the two drives in the "cellar" of the case. Installation proved a snap, but we had to study the manual first. The hard drive features four special screws and is mounted to the case with a retaining bracket. A retaining clip has to be screwed onto the DVD drive before it can be installed in the case. It sounds complicated but it's a breeze if you read the manual.
We made a deliberate decision not to install a floppy drive - after all, only very few people still use such media. The interfaces for Serial ATA and IDE are located on the side of the motherboard and are easily combined with the drives.
Further highlights of the Kloss KL-I915a include its plethora of control buttons and various displays on the front. After you turn it on the motherboard runs through what's called a POST cycle - short for 'Power On Self Test.' This involves the motherboard BIOS checking each installed hardware element in sequence. Normally the motherboard gives off a quick beep when this test is finished. Not so in the case of our test candidates, however: using various icons, the KLI915a shows you what is being initialized at any given moment. Each piece of hardware has its own intuitively designed symbol, allowing you to see what the BIOS is working on. Only once this process is complete do you hear the obligatory beep signaling that the operating system is ready to boot.
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