Everex Impact GC3500 PC Package Review
I should really have written this review about two years ago (summer
2007), back when I first purchased two of these computers. And now, here it is August of 2009...every cloud
has a silver lining, though, as now that I have a lot of experience
under my belt with these systems, I can truly say what is good and not
so good about them. And I also know a lot more about their relative
reliability.
The complete and proper name for this package is "Everex Impact
GC3500". I'm going to keep it simple and just refer to it as the Everex
GC3500 from now on.
For those not familiar with them, these systems are actually packages.
You can't just buy the computer by itself. You get a whole computer
package consisting of keyboard, mouse, speakers and 17" CRT monitor to
go with your computer. All of this costs you $299 US, excluding tax.
(Or rather, it did, back when you could buy one of these. Now you
should be able to pay a lot less on the secondhand market if you want a
GC3500.)
For the price, it's not as cheap and nasty as you'd think. In fact,
these things are a downright decent bargain once you get past one
little stumbling block.
Windows Vista
Yes, you really do get a preloaded copy of Microsoft Windows with this
system, and it's even genuine. Even with Microsoft's aggressive pricing
strategy (the one that shows up when they want it to, like when the
competition is bothering them with a better product), a person can't
hope for more than Windows Vista Home Basic.
So that's what you get with the Everex GC3500 package. And it's not
entirely bad, at least Vista Home Basic is capable (for suitably small
values of capable, given Vista's performance and stability track
record) in every way except for the fact that it doesn't come with
media center, Aero effects or secret trapdoors.
So it should do just fine for lightweight computer use, such as web
browsing and word processing. Which, despite what people might say, is
what many far more capable systems end up doing over the course of
their lives.
The problem is that Vista just isn't stable on this system. In fact, it's safe to say that Vista is unusually unstable
on this computer. The first sign of instability came up when I opened a
command prompt window and tried--as I habitually do--to take it full
screen.
Vista responded with a brusquely worded error stating that the video driver failed to initialize the fullscreen mode.
Now I'm all for progress in terms of user interaction with the
computer, but seriously? A person can't get into fullscreen text mode
video when they want to? After having had the option for the entirety
of Windows' lifespan and release history? Even when the hardware is
still quite capable?
Come on.
(It is worth noting that this is not a limitation of Vista Home Basic
edition. I have seen this happen on computers running Vista Home
Premium and Vista Business.)
Video is more deeply broken in other, more significantly entertaining
ways. As part of my regular tests, I installed both iTunes 7 and Google
Earth on the system. iTunes worked fine right up to the point where I
engaged the visualizer.
And then, to use a technical term, the system went bonkers. iTunes was
gone from the screen, and an error message from the Microsoft Visual C
runtime library claimed that the program had requested the runtime to
terminate it in an unusual way. After which, subsequent use of the
system caused it to go down, not across.
After that, the system just stopped responding. I had to do a hard power cycle to regain control.
Attempting to use Google Earth resulted in even more spectacular
disasters. The system just died with corrupted video that showed a very
messed up STOP error.
The latest VIA Chrome9 video drivers did nothing to fix this problem,
by the way. The system still screwed up, and what's more, it screwed up
in exactly the same way.
Vista signed its death warrant not by messing up the video, but by
spectacularly messing up a file copy operation consisting of about 60GB
worth of music files.
Yes, you read that right. Vista couldn't do something which computers
have--generally speaking--done flawlessly since the invention of
storage media with a filesystem. Vista only managed to copy about 6GB
worth of the files before its logic simply became confused and appeared
to wrap around itself. The result, though not quite as impressive as
the video related failures described above, was still impressive.
So, Vista had to go.
Out With The New, In With The Old
I had a spare copy of Windows XP Professional to play with, so after
wiping Vista off the system, I installed that. After supplying all of
the needed drivers (available from the VIA website, for the most part), Windows XP ran exceptionally well on this system.
And those bizzarre crashes that happened under Windows Vista with graphics intensive programs?
They vanished. I also got my fullscreen command prompt. (Stop that snickering.)
I still don't really know why this was the case. I'd have a hard time believing that the hardware in two separate systems purchased at two separate times (both a month or so apart) would be broken in exactly the same way. The software (including the BIOS) might be, but that seems a bit thin to me.
Hardware
The Everex GC3500 goes a little bit off of the beaten path by basing
itself around a VIA platform. VIA chipsets and products using them
aren't all that uncommon, but VIA CPUs don't show up nearly as often.
This system is built around the VIA C7D "Esther" microprocessor,
clocked at 1.5GHz.
VIA's claim to processor fame in a world dominated by Intel and AMD is ultra-low-power processing.
VIA's CPUs are designed to consume as little power as possible in a
given role, while still providing enough computing power to do the
things that the average computer user wants to do.
This is a market where VIA stood almost entirely alone, especially in
the x86 compatible processor world. ARM processors are practically the
choice for applications that demand a processor capable of supplying
the performance to do things such as playing video and music on a
shoestring allocation of battery power. (Intel, doubtlessly watching
VIA and noticing how they have the low power x86 market nearly to
themselves, has also recently entered this market, with their Atom
processor family. I talk more about the Atom processor here, in my
review of the Intel D945GCLF motherboard.)
The VIA processors do have a few other interesting features, one of
them being the so-called "Padlock" security engine. This is supposed to
be a hardware-based random number generator, amongst other things. Its
value is debatable. I don't know of any software that uses it for
anything, outside of some limited offerings that VIA had on their web
site as proof of concept "toys".
Surprisingly, the components that make up the system aren't as cheap
and nasty as you'd truly expect them to be. For starters, the case
itself is very solidly built, and while you do need tools to get it
open, undue swearing and use of an oxy-acetylene cutting torch should
not be required. It could be pressed into duty as a chair. Furthermore, the case won't try to sink its metal
teeth into your waiting skin, nor will it pull the old "every time I
opened it, I got it to close but it never looked the same again" trick
that some cheap systems and cases are known for. The case itself
appears to have been made (or at least sold) by motherboard maker FIC.
(FIC, or First International Computer, is closely related to VIA
as both are divisions of the Formosa Plastics Group. FPG makes about
one of everything, and they're very proud of their naptha cracker.
The motherboard's origins are perhaps a bit less clear. It's a VIA
PC3500 motherboard, no doubt. VIA doesn't actually make anything of
their own, though, so someone else built the board for them. The
strongest hint of who that is would appear to come from the integrated
Ethernet adapter's MAC address, which is registered to Gigabyte, a
large and reasonably well respected motherboard maker. However, various
other companies also appear to retail the board, and the system BIOS
points to a motherboard supplier whose name I have forgotten at this
point. (And for now, at least, I can't be bothered to look it up again.)
It is worth noting that the motherboard has working fan speed control
and hookups for several fans beyond the one provided with the CPU. You
aren't likely to need that many fans, but you can plug them in if
nothing else will do.
The power supply is an entirely respectable and probably honestly rated
300 watt unit from HiPro. A Hitachi-LG optical drive (capable of
burning CDs, DVDs and even reading/writing DVD-RAM discs) and Western
Digital 80GB SATA hard drive round out the system unit. And there's a
no-name Conexant-based modem in there too, if you need it. All of these
things are fine for a system like this.
The monitor is, as already mentioned, a 17 inch cheapie. These days, 17
inch monitors would probably come in cereal boxes as free giveaways if
it wouldn't make the boxes bigger and cause anyone who happened to pick
one up to be caught off guard by its weight. You can't expect that it
will be good for color-sensitive work, but home users should be able to
get along with it just fine. Actually, there seems to be a 50% chance
of this outcome--one of the monitors I got is very good, where the
other one is completely out of focus. I thought about tweaking it and
made preparations to take the back cover off so I could see the focus
control, only to discover that the monitor did not want to come apart
AND that there was a
doubtlessly-entertaining-to-replace-and-probably-fairly-sharp finely
perforated metal cage around the electronics and picture tube.
The helpful man who answered the phone at Everex said I should just
return the whole computer with the defective monitor to the store. When
pressed a little (by my saying that it had been too long to do that) he
said I should just ship the whole thing to Everex. I asked if they'd
just send me a monitor, he said no. I wasn't terribly surprised by
this, and you shouldn't be either. Don't buy this computer if you want
hand-holding, because I don't think you are going to get it.
So I let that one monitor sit as a future project for some rainy day,
and replaced it with a 19 inch Samsung Syncmaster flat panel display.
That leaves the keyboard, mouse and speakers.
Things start to go a little bit downhill here. The speakers are
probably the best of the three items. They're not much, but they would
be entirely tolerable to use with the occasional bits of sound and
music that go along with some--well, the charitable phrase is
"interestingly designed"--webpages. And they plug into the wall to get
power, so you won't be abusing a USB port if you really crank the
speakers up.
If you listen to music even semi-seriously, I suggest you invest in a
better set of speakers. The motherboard's onboard sound system is quite
capable and could drive even multi-speaker systems easily.
I'm afraid that I'm biased against the keyboard from the start. I have
very high expectations of my keyboards, as I'm a big fan of the good
old IBM Model M 'board. There's very little that can come close to the
classic Model M if you like them, so this isn't even a fair fight. To
be as honest as I can, the Everex GC3500's keyboard isn't terrible. It
doesn't put important keys in funky places, isn't festooned with an
array of useless buttons that bring up useless applications and doesn't
try to make you type at a funny angle. It's just a cheap, quiet rubber
dome type keyboard. You could do far worse.
I used the IBM Model M with mine, and it worked just fine right out of the box.
The mouse--well, you'd better just go ahead and buy one while you're in
the store. Neither of the systems I purchased came with a working
mouse. Sure, it would move the arrow on the screen when you pushed or
pulled it, and the buttons seemed to work fine, but the ball inside it
just didn't have enough traction to drive the little rollers or
something. You should just bite the bullet and buy a better rodent
(almost anything will do) to use with this system. Even a grab-bag of
suspicious looking mice from eBay will do--they'll clean up fine in the
dishwasher, and you will have plenty of spares for less than $15.
At least Everex didn't cut corners on the system build quality itself.
Performance
Remember what I said about VIA's processors above? Low power
consumption is the name of the game. Looking inside the system will
prove this as both the North Bridge and CPU share one elongated
heatsink with a tiny little fan attached to the side where the
processor is located.
You can't expect that this system will set the world on fire. It simply
wasn't made or priced to do so. And it doesn't. My own informal testing
shows that this system is good at the kind of basic tasks you'd expect.
Word processing? Spreadsheeting? Most web browsing? Office work and
light multitasking? (Very) Lightweight multimedia authoring? Absolutely.
Gaming? Blu-Ray disc playback? Overclocking? Video editing? No, not
with this thing. (And the BIOS setup utility doesn't give you any basic
or exciting overclocking tools to play with anyway.)
You can (and should) consider using SpeedFan to wind down the speed of
the little fan on the CPU. Let it spin at its wide open speed of 6,000
RPM and it won't live very long. In a cool room, you could shut it off
with no harm done to the VIA CPU or chipset. (When's the last time you
saw a modern CPU that could do that without downclocking, stalling or
burning up?) Set the fan to 50% for warmer rooms and it will keep
things plenty cool enough, while being very quiet. Its lifespan will
also be greatly improved.
Software
The Everex GC3500 is blessedly--and surprisingly--free of Crapware. The
software that comes with it outside of the operating system is minimal.
The only appreciable piece of bundled software is the CyberLink
multimedia suite, and it actually isn't bad for multiple
optical-disc-related programs all rolled into one. It's quite possible
that it would be all you need to burn most types of optical media AND
it plays DVD movies just fine.
Unlike some other cheap systems, you do get a "real" restore disc to
put the computer back to its factory state as oppposed to a hidden
partition on the hard drive that won't do you any good when the drive
fails and may just smile at you before failing to do its job in some
creative way even if the
drive is good. This could be immeasurably useful if you ever had to do
so, as you might if the hard drive were to fail and require replacement.
Proving that you can't have everything at the price, the restoration
disc is just that--an automated process that reinstalls everything from
an image file without asking you too many questions. You don't get
separate installation media for the bundled applications or operating
system. Therefore, if you opt for a different version of Windows, you
will either have to try and transfer the applications (a practical
impossibility in most cases) or do without them, unless you feel
inclined to buy them separately. Fortunately, a lot of good and free
alternatives exist if you need them.
Overall
Everex has a decent basic system here, and it's not so made so cheaply
as to be total junk. The build quality of the system unit is
astoundingly good. That's the good news. The VIA processor is
interesting--and so far as I know, this is one of the few ways you can
actually get ahold of one (in the US--people in other countries may
have better luck). It could be useful for the construction of a low
powered network attached device (such as a FreeNAS box or low power web
server) or even as a basic home entertainment PC.
The bad news is that you have to buy everything.
You can't just buy the system unit by itself, even if that is the only
part you want or need. And the monitor, keyboard and mouse are all very
obviously cheap--though in the case of the two systems I bought, the
keyboard and speakers weren't so bad. Neither was the monitor if you
can excuse the fact that I got one good one and one bad one. I can
readily excuse that, it's not that likely to happen to anyone else.
The real showstopper, though, is the lack of a workable OS bundled with
the system. Windows Vista already doesn't have the best reputation, and
it's got some serious stability issues with this hardware. A legally
acquired copy of Windows XP (or earlier--Windows 2000 should also run
on this thing) is going to add at least $90 to the price of the system.
If you have no problem with using a free operating system, you can
always choose one and it should run fine on this hardware, as nothing
here is particularly exotic or filled with unexpected "features" that
will surprise you down the road.
But if you have to spend that $90 for an operating system, and you opt
to spring for a better mouse and/or speakers, you're getting closer to
systems that have much more capability, Intel or AMD processors with
vastly more computing power, from better known companies that should
have better technical support. (Everex has been around for a good
while, however.)
Therefore, as much as I'd like to recommend this thing on the points that it does
have going for it, I just can't do it. If, however, you found one of
these on the secondhand market, without the lackluster monitor,
keyboard, mouse and speakers, and if you know its limitations won't be
a problem, I'd certainly recommend purchasing it--if the price is right.
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Copyright ©
2009 William R.
Walsh. All Rights Reserved. Written 08/24/2009, updated 10/10/2009. Permission is
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