Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo Q5030 review

Fujitsu Siemens’ tiny Esprimo Q5030 PC is built from laptop components and comes in the same tiny AOpen case used by PC Specialist’s Impulse 625 and VeryPC’s Parkwood II.

This is by far the cheapest of the three similar mini PCs, but while the other two share identical components, this PC has a less powerful processor and much smaller hard disk.

Its 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5670 is the slowest non-Atom processor here. It’s powerful enough for most tasks, but you may notice a few delays if you use it heavily for demanding applications such as image editing and encoding lossless audio.

It has 2GB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, an eSATA port, and 802.11b/g/n wireless networking. Power consumption was among the lowest in the group at 3W in standby, 19W while idle and a less impressive but still very reasonable 42W when active.

This is the only PC in the group to come with Vista Business. This doesn’t include Windows Media Center, so it can’t play DVDs without additional software. Fortunately, the Esprimo Q5030 comes with Nero 8, which should be able to handle most of your media playing and management requirements.

Instead, Vista Business includes additional backup features, support for remote desktop sessions and some extra scanning, faxing and document management features.

The Esprimo Q5030 would make a perfectly adequate business PC, particularly if space is at a premium in your office. Its specification isn’t bad for the price and it can easily handle most standard office applications. For home use, though, we’d prefer a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium, which the other two AOpen-based mini PCs have.

Of greater concern to both business and home users is the 160GB hard disk, which doesn’t provide much storage. However, the price of the Esprimo Q5030 has recently been lowered, which makes it better value, if basic. It’s even smaller than Asus’s tiny Eee Box B202, and is just the thing if your office is short of space.