Introduction

The launch of DiGiDice marks yet another bold move by ABIT towards a wider market in the rather competitive industry of selling motherboards. Shuttle have long been popular with their XPC Small Form Factor (SFF) platform. And with yet another competitor, MSI, also jumping onto the SFF bandwagon with their MEGA series, ABIT just could not just sit back and rely on their motherboard sales, even if it's very popular amongst PC hardware enthusiasts.

The ABIT DiGiDice

So, would ABIT's first attempt into the SFF platform (or barebone system if you prefer) be as popular with hardware enthusiasts as their pioneering SoftMenu or will it be YET-another-SFF? Here are its features as layed out by ABIT...

- Provide a TN LCD display for H/W monitor information, system status and Clock (System off)
- Provide 5 Gear Easy Overclocking function for Over Clock entry users
- Provide ABIT SoftMenu™ BIOS Over-clocking Technology for professional
- Provide four user-friendly Hot-key functions for one-step enable Video, Music, Photo browser and CD copy application.
- Provide a wireless entertainment remote controller
- Provide Mini-OTES thermal solution to meet Low Acoustic and high performance heat exhausting request
- Thermal energy recycle design for essential oil diffusion

... Will DiGiDice live up to its own tagline - "Engineered for a Digital Lifestyle"? Let's take a look at what they have to offer.

The ABIT DiGiDice

A Quick Look

The DiGiDice is an Intel Pentium 4 SFF system that is quite unique. For one, it is not quite as small as the other SFF systems. In fact, it is one of the largest of the lot! But of course, it is much smaller than a mid-tower casing.

Because of its relatively large size, the DiGiDice is able to provide owners with the luxury of having not one, but TWO 5.25" drive bays! This allows you to add optical drives without sacrifiying space for the the omnipresent card-readers. And that's not all. The DiGiDice even has space for two internal 3.5" drive bays that are commonly used for hard drives. All that make the DiGiDice one of the most expandable SFF systems in the market.

DiGiDice, the SFF giant!

The front of the DiGiDice is rather simple though. It sports a LCD, four hot keys and a digital dial which also acts as a button. Then there is the sliding door that hides away the optical drive bays, card reader slots and the front input panels.

Open Sesame! So that's where the drives are hidden!