Performance

Before we dive into the performance benchmarks, I had to come up with a reasonable set of tests to highlight the main selling points of such a system. Due to the growing variation of ITX systems, it is interesting to see how each of them performs in regards to power consumption, CPU utilization, gaming and noise level.

Power Consumption

Standby power draw is alright, but a tad bit higher than some other nettops. This is mostly due to the PSU used. In idle the unit draws just above 17 Watts, which is slightly more than the Foxconn NT-A3500, but still excellent, considering that this is basically a DIY system.


During heavy processing, the Viako ML-55 with the Gaida mainboard draws just as much power as most other ION platforms out there. This is simply due to the fact that you are still using traditional components (PSU, converter board, ITX mainboard) instead of an all in one solution like the Nettops from Foxconn or Sapphire. When watching a movie, the Fusion architecture can flex its muscles again, resulting in a very low power draw.

CPU Utilizaton & Temperatures

CPU utilization is exactly where you would expect to see it with the Fusion chipset and CPU. This means that you should still be able to do some light multi-tasking while watching a full HD movie.


Temperatures are fine, the fan spins up quite quickly, but considering the little change in noise level, the supplied fan from the Gaida board simply does not have a steep ramping curve. Instead it is already quite fast and thus fairly noisy even at idle levels. This results in a temperature which is quite alright for an integrated system. Fact is that using a little blower on top of a traditional heatsink works, but is by no means the most efficient way of cooling the system.

3DMark06

Interestingly enough, the 3DMark06 score is considerably lower on the Gaida mainboard than the Foxconn NT-A3500 even though both system utilize the same IGP. The only difference I could find is that the Gaida board reports 256MB graphics memory while the NT-A3500 clocks in at 384MB.

PCMark 7

Noise Level

Well this is a double edged sword. The included case fan is fairly quiet, so that is certainly a good thing, but the mainboard fan is a loud one. The thing is, that is the work of the Gaida engineers and has nothing to do with Viako. At most, a poor choice of a board is what Viako can be accounted for. Fact is, the mainboard fan is simply too loud. I unplugged the fan for some time and the heatsink did get rather hot, but the system still worked. Luckily you can easily replace the fan with something quieter and those small units do not tend to cost more than a few bucks.