CompuLab IPC2 Value Barebone

I have owned this thing since mid June and have decided to replace it after a couple of months.Bare bones meaning you need to add Low Voltage SO-DIM RAM and a hard drive bringing the cost up significantly. So do the math when comparing with more `complete' solutions.The design while cool looking in pictures is not so practical. It does not stand on it's end and you can't put something on top of it like you could with a mini PC.They make a $12 bracket that lets you mount it on the back of a monitor where the power switch is hard to find or you can attach it to the side of your desk like I did. I feel it is a little chintzy to not just include the cheap piece of metal and plastic in the package or to have designed the enclosure to be wall mountable without it.The thing has lots of ports which is a plus the 3 serial ports use some kind of proprietary dongle one of which is included.You need an optional HDMI dongle to enable the graphics properly if you intend to use this thing `headless' and connect by RDP. Not an issue if you have a monitor connected.I have Windows 8.1 installed and the performance is pretty good thanks to the 4th gen Celeron which seems somewhat faster than any of the Atom series and uses very little power.I had a number of issues right out of the box:The analog audio never worked it doesn't detect any of the headphones or external speakers I have connected to it no matter what I do with the drivers and configuration. I can get sound out of the HDMI port just not the 3.5mm audio jack.There were persistent issues with drivers not loading correctly (according to Windows device manager) Once again updates and configuration did not help. Restarting the computer once or twice did.Also issues with booting where it would hang during POST fixed by switching it off then on again (IT crowd style) and the thing locking up when running.I tried changing the SSD to no effect and also installed Ubuntu on it instead of windows and continued to have the boot and freezing issues so it is most likely to be a hardware problem of some sort or another. It's not overheating as far as I can tell using a thermometer that never reads much over 125 F which is within the acceptable range for the CPU.I really wanted to like it but ended up replacing it with an apple refurbished Mac Mini for not much more than the total cost for this thing and the mini is a much nicer product and the fan can't be heard unless you stick you ear on the thing when it's going.Pro's:it is silent and quite small (although there is a substantial external power brick)Almost completely silentCons.Inconvenient design.External Power brickCrappy mounting bracket is an optional extra not includedStability issues

Updated version of the original intense pc value barebone. Now equipped with a faster haswell celeron processor, 2 extra usb 3.0 ports, 1 additional HDMI port. Gotten rid of the 2 eSATA ports on the intense pc. It also seems to have fixed the power circuit noise (sounded like a laptop hard drive seek noise) from the original intense pc. So it feels more quiet than the intense pc. I use Crucial RAM and mSATA SSD without problem.Pros: Quiet, very compact, less work to install parts, supports 16GB total RAM, built with linux support in mind, great warranty and seems built to lastCons: I still have complaint of the mSATA mounting clip, it's plastic and doesn't hold mSATA SSD very well. Could certainly get loose in a vibration environment like vehicles. Workaround is to use a good mSATA to 2.5" SATA adapter in such situation. I like the clip used in Addonics AD25MSD mSATA to 2.5" SATA adapter a lot better.

We use these as embedded computers inside an industrial appliance. The original Intense PC was great and this one is better in almost every way. Once they are up, they don't go down. Pretty small footprint and no fan is very nice. It's expensive but it's not intended for a desktop PC.There are some cons. First, the IPC2 has 2 fewer USB ports than the original. 6 total. Our machine has multiple USB components and with the IPC2 we had to use a USB hub. Didn't have to before. Wish they didn't do that.We've also had 2 of the 10 IPCs we've bought over the past year be DOA. No matter what, they wouldn't work. They are good about returns though. And the ones that do work, work flawlessly.Overall the best fit for us and I'm happy. In a perfect world it would have more USB ports and be a bit smaller.