While the nettop space is currently dominated by small, low power desktop computers with Intel Atom processors, Atom isn’t the only game in town. There are a handful of small form factor desktops with AMD chips, and earlier this year VIA introduced the ARTigo A1100 PC with a  low power VIA Nano processor.

SlashGear has posted a review of the ARTiGO A1100, and it sounds like the nettop holds some promise… but what is doesn’t really hold right now is candle to competing systems already on the market.

The best thing about the A1100 is probably the low price. You can pick one up for about $230. But that price doesn’t include the memory, hard drive, operating system, or optional WiFi. If you’re the DIY type, or if you have those components lying around, then I suppose this is still a good price. if not, you might find it cheaper to go with a prebuilt system with a different chipset.

According to SlashGear the computer was able to handle 720p HD video playback, but struggled with 1080p video. It also only supports hardware acceleration for Windows Media Player, not VLC or other media software. It also had a hard time multitasking, and a bug prevented it from using the HDMI output as the default, which means you’ll need to have a VGA monitor or TV handy if you want to boot the computer — even if you then plan to switch over to an HDMI connection manually.

You can find more details at SlashGear.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,543 other subscribers