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Sapphire Edge VS8 Mini PC Review

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.

Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.

New and Improved Features

  • Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
  • Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
  • Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
  • Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
  • Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
  • Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.

For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2h:12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power. We are using the newest version which has been optimised for Sandybridge processors.

Hardware acceleration is enabled.

The overall time is far behind the performance leaders, however it is a reasonable time, and significantly faster than the last ‘low end' generation, which take well over an hour to complete the same task. Still, not the ideal machine to be performing intensive video editing with however.

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11 comments

  1. fantastic read Zardon, I like this unit, very impressed with the size.

    I agree though, 60GB SSD is about same price now as 500GB Mechancial. why not offer one at least?

  2. bare bones for me . ill be ordering this as I want to fit one behind my tv downstairs, but 120gb SSD I think for my unit.

    any pricing information on bare bones yet?

  3. This could be a nice device but for a few problems.

    1.) I doesn’t look that nice and even though you might be hiding it behind a TV it still should look nicer in case we do want to show it off because of it’s size

    2.) Give us the option of a 7200RPM mechanical drive with a small price difference or or pay a bit more and get an SSD even something like a 60GB would be better than the HDD in there at the moment

    3.) The option for a windows OS if required so basic users can have it running as soon as they get it open plus us enthusiast’s/Experienced people would get the option without OS so we could put whatever OS we want on it

    4.)Have a bundle with external dvd drive again for basic users.

  4. Hi Andrew, thanks for your views. That’s pretty much what we think too.

  5. Its a nice idea, but its a half assed approach from Sapphire.

    The version you reviewed would be ideal for joe bloggs, but there is no OS and no means to get it installed without buying an external drive. This is just not something a user going into PC world will ever be able to handle. They want to take it home, hit the power button and bam, all sorted.

    Enthusiast users won’t want a system with a 5,400 rpm 2.5 inch drive, thats 2008 technology and was poor even then.

    Barebones is the only way forward, but having to get memory, SSD and an OS is expensive.

    They should have been more honest in the marketing and released it at 450-500 with everything ready and installed (good quality SSD and 8GB of DDR3 memory – come on its £30 online now!).

  6. Its a good review and honest in the conclusion, although the score is too high. I like the system, but id have scored this a point lower.

    5,400 rpm hard drive? The lack of OS and optical drive means this is firmly positioned at the enthusiast audience, NOT mainstream. Why insult us with a 5,400 rpm drive – every enthusiast reading this will be horrified? I wouldn’t even use that for backing up files now.

    its very poorly configured.

    Although I like the small unit, id be interested in barebones, depending on the price.

  7. Any idea on barebones price? id like this as a home server system, but im not paying for a 5,400rpm drive.

    They dont need to charge more for SSD, a 60GB SSD is the same price as that 500GB slow ass unit they installed.

    I would have expected more from Sapphire, its a poor decision. I didnt even accept a 5,400 rpm drive in my old laptop, it grinds the whole system to a halt.

  8. I couldn’t restrain myself ang ordered one in this configuration yesterday morning since it was readily available here in Italy (tracking even says it should be delivered today!), even though I also had reservations about the hard drive, which were founded it seems. 😉 But it also seems that otherwise the box should suit my needs very well, as it draws little power and should be very silent during general usage(i don’t game btw). I will install Arch Linux on it, which should boot relatively fast compared to Win7 even on this slow hard drive (I don’t expect to boot it more than once a day anyway) and replace the HDD sooner or later with an SSD anyway. I wonder how much the barebone version will cost, though, and how much more I will have paid for in the end for being unable to wait a little longer. I paid 350€ delivered for this version, btw.

  9. Sorry, for a test you have to look at points that are not specified. So is it HDMI 1.4(a) or the old 1.3 not capable of 3D. Is it 7.1 Sound or just 6. is it possible to change the drive or is it soldered…

  10. @signorRossi. Can you look at your device for my asked points above please?

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