fit-PC4 CompuLab Pro Barebone

Loaded with 2 x 500GB SSDs (Crucial SATA and mSATA) and 16GB ram.Installed Linux Mint (per wiki). Configured RAID-1, started the sync, left to grab a bite.When came back, touched the box and almost got a skin burn. Nevertheless, it was still operating.Checked stats - SATA drive was running at 85C and core clocked 99C.Was about to return this, but decided to do some digging first. Two things made all the difference:1. Disconnecting monitor shuts off video card. In my case box was to be used headless anyways.2. Must adjust SATA link power management (on my box):echo min_power > /sys/class/scsi_host/host0/link_power_management_policyecho min_power > /sys/class/scsi_host/host1/link_power_management_policyThe box has been up for over 100 days now running Ubuntu 14.04 (ditched Mint)while fulltime hosting 2 VMs. Drives remained in 35-50C range.Overall a satisfied customer, but taking 1 star off for inadequate temperature control.While they deserve kudos for building a box that keeps going at 99C, the rest of thecomponents might not be as resilient. In particular flash in SSDs starts wearing ratherfast at those temperatures (most vendors specify 70C as operating ceiling). I guess,could've added some automatic SATA link throttling or at least slapped a big red labelon the box telling folks to adjust link's power management before stressing it.

Bought this with a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD and two 8GB DDR3-1600 SODIMMs from Crucial, and it's exactly what I hoped it would be. Absolutely silent since it's all solid state, no moving parts! This machine is compact (size of a router), but it's built like a tank. No issues with heat. It's only just above room temperature. The included printed documentation is minimal, but the manufacturer's wiki has lots of detailed info. This makes a great server for home use. Absolutely silent as I configured it. I could see this working well in an industrial/robotics setting as well. Compulab did a great job here! Install/setup notes below... Here are the SSD and RAM: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM) Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3-1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) 204-Pin SODIMM Notebook Memory CT2KIT102464BF160B / CT2CP102464BF160B Installation notes: This machine works great running Debian Jessie. I installed easily by booting off a USB thumb drive with the debian-8.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso image and an ethernet connection set up with DHCP. Right after logging, post OS-install, I installed the fglrx-driver as per [...] and the iwlwifi driver as per [...] and they work. The only thing I'm not using on this hardware (yet) is the bluetooth module which I disabled for the time being by making the file /etc/udev/rules.d/81-bluetooth-hci.rules with the following lines: # Disable built-in bluetooth on fit PC-4 SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", DRIVERS=="btusb", ATTR{authorized}="0"I'm very happy with this hardware.

Unit seems solid, but the wireless antennas could be a little more substantial/robust. Having an AMD processor I was expecting the graphics performance to be much better than it is (didn't they buy Radeon??). On a medium-level-resolution monitor there has been stutter and hesitation playing 4K videos (if they play at all). The same videos play fine using the same software on a mid-level laptop! Overall, however, I am satisfied and love the noise-free operation (using an SSD). Update: A couple of years into this and now the Intel-based (7260) wifi is worthless on linux. It crashes constantly and after much research it seems the linux driver for this chip is no longer supported (2.5 years since last iwlwifi driver update).

Four stars because there is a newer and (very slightly) faster version out, with a (very slightly) more capable GPU - the Fitlet-T, and that isn't made clear here.That really isn't a fault of the product, of course. The only fault I can think of is they don't ship it with the latest BIOS, and if you don't install it PXE booting is somewhat iffy. Oh, and the BIOS documentation is fragmented. It took a determined hunt to discover the Boot menu was F5, and the F11 was a PXE boot hot key.On the hardware side I can't fault it. Comparable with all versions of Linux I've tried, and all hardware (SODIMM's, WiFi cards, HDD's and SSD's) I've put into it, all monitors I've connected it to. No fan so it's completely silent, 5 years warranty and CompuLab seems to be very responsive for spares.

This thing has been nothing but a headache ever since we put it into use at our office front desk. After a few hours, we get weird graphical glitches that mess up the desktop and require a reboot to resolve. This is happening with both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14.04 with all the latest drivers. We need to reboot at least once a day, sometimes more. The whole point of this device was to have a trouble-free workstation we can depend on for years. Instead, it's become an unreliable maintenance chore.Support? What support? There's an email address on the site, but no-one has replied to my email yet. And of course the 30-day return window from Amazon is long gone now.The so-called "review sites" that do performance comparisons of these devices don't actually put them into daily use, so these types of issues aren't typically reported. Honestly, just stay away. It's not worth the aggravation.

Good machine for a desktop GNU/Linux experience. I'm interested to see new products from this company.Why -1 star:Could be faster, the WLan antenna connectors were not fastened well enough, they're flimsy on mine... it can be fixed if the computer is taken apart completely and the jacks are fastened by hand... I still prefer the manufacturer would QC it before shipping the product.