Polywell Poly i1000A-3770T

Looks can be deceiving. Or big things come in little packages. These, along with countless other aphorisms, can be applied to the Polywell Poly i1000A-3770T ($899 direct), the latest in Polywell's line of small-form-factor desktops. There's plenty of muscle inside its super-compact chassis, particularly its mighty quad-core Intel Core i7-3770T processor. Of course, this firepower comes at a price: At just a shade under $900, the Poly i1000A costs $100 more than our current Editors' Choice for compact desktop PCs, the Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) ($799 list, 4.5 stars). Adding insult to injury, it ships with neither a keyboard nor a mouse (but then again, neither does the Mac mini). That said, its benchmark scores ultimately justify its price and challenge the notion that small-form-factor systems must necessarily compromise performance. For all these reasons, this scrappy underdog justly earns the Editors' Choice for small-form-factor desktops.

Design and Features

Measuring 8.2 by 2.9 by 7.9 inches (HWD) with the included stand (and 7.7 by 1.6 by 7.9 inches without it), the Poly i1000A's slender jet-black metallic chassis is so streamlined that most folks passing by in the Labs (justifiably) assumed it was a router. For all intents and purposes, it's almost identical in minimalist appearance to the Polywell Poly i2303 i5-2467M ($899 direct, 2.5 stars). The i1000A can attribute its compact chassis to the lack of an internal optical drive; those who need (or want) one would likely be better served by either the Acer Aspire AX1930 ($499 list, 3 stars) or the Polywell Poly ITX-Z6800 ($999 street, 3 stars).

Like the Poly i2303, the Poly i1000A is light on the frivolities. Aside from a negligible Polywell logo on the system's left side, everything on the chassis serves a practical function. The air vents located on the body's top, bottom, and sides quietly keep the system cool, and the ports have been judiciously arranged in order to accommodate as many as possible on such a tiny surface area. The i1000A's front panel has three USB 2.0 ports and an SD card reader. On the rear are two additional USB 2.0 ports, dual USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA port, an Ethernet port, HDMI and DVI outputs, audio and microphone jacks, and an RF jack for the included the wireless antennae (it isn't a router, after all).

Given its incredibly slim profile, it comes as no surprise that the i1000A yields minimal room to accommodate internal upgrades; that would be akin to jamming the complete Encyclopedia Britannica into a stuffed suitcase. At least Polywell ships the i1000A in a number of customizable configurations, so you can outfit it with your desired components at the outset.

A critical shortcoming that curdled our enthusiasm for the Poly i2303 and Poly ITX-Z6800 was the frustrating dual-drive configuration both systems utilized. Each came equipped with a supplemental 20GB solid-state drive (SSD) that theoretically facilitated quick boot-up speeds. But in practice, the glaring scarcity of available storage space on the SSD nearly precluded each system from fully operating, in effect creating a virtual straitjacket. Thankfully, the i1000A solves this problem by supplementing its 5400rpm 500GB HDD with a more generous 120GB SSD.

Another satisfying aspect of the Poly i1000A is the total absence of bloatware, as is often the case when purchasing a system from a custom outfit like Polywell. As soon as you plug it in (and find a mouse and keyboard), the Poly i1000A hits the ground running. The gratifying feeling of being able to use the system right out of the box instead of first uninstalling a load of unnecessary software is difficult to overstate.

Performance

With a few exceptions, the Poly i1000A almost uniformly outgunned other systems in its class. This hardly comes as a surprise, given its potent combination of a quad-core Intel Core i7-3770T processor (with integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000) and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. Its impressive Futuremark PCMark 7 score of 5,412 blew the rest out of the water, with the closest runner-up, the Poly ITX-Z6800 (3,662), falling considerably short. Meanwhile, both the Acer Aspire AX1930 (2,371) and Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) (1,936) were effectively lapped by the i1000A as well. As far as multimedia creation, the Poly i1000A towered above its peers, cranking out our Handbrake video-encoding test in a brisk 1 minute 11 seconds. The next best performer, the Poly ITX-Z6800, took 17 seconds longer (1:28) The others were completely left in the i1000A's dust, including the Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) (1:42). Likewise, the i1000A screamed through our CineBench R11.5 test with a score of 6.30, placing it well ahead of the Poly ITX-Z6800 (5.64) and, to a more pronounced extent, the others. The i1000A churned out our Photoshop CS5 test in 3 minutes 3 seconds, markedly faster than both the Aspire AX1930 (3:37) and the Mac mini (Thunderbolt) (3:47), while the rest of the class couldn't even complete this test.

The i1000A didn't completely shame the competition, however. Its 3DMark 11 score of 1,200 on the Entry preset was in second place behind the Mac mini (Thunderbolt)'s 1,542, but its Extreme score of 201 landed it towards the lower end of the pack, between the Poly i2303 (215) and the Poly ITX-Z6800 (188).

The i1000A also stumbled on gaming. It churned out an almost-playable 25 frames per second (fps) in Crysis with Medium detail settings, well behind the Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) (48fps) and slightly behind both the Poly i2303 (27fps) and the Poly ITX-Z6800 (29fps). The i1000A fared better on our Lost Planet 2 benchmark test, pumping out 18fps and finishing right behind the pack-leading Mac mini (Thunderbolt) (19fps). All systems unsurprisingly fared equally poorly when we increased the resolution and the settings to High, an understandable outcome given the fact that they weren't designed with gaming in mind.

As far as small-form-factor desktops go, the Polywell Poly i1000A-3770T is as agile as they come. By remedying the disproportionately allocated dual-drive setup that had plagued its previous systems and packing a quad-core Intel Core i7-3770T processor into the i1000A, Polywell has delivered a system that handily outperforms others in its class. That's why, despite its shortcomings, it earns our Editors' Choice award for small-form-factor desktops and further proves that big things can indeed come in small packages. Just be sure to bring a keyboard and mouse along with your own aphorism.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Polywell Poly i1000A-3770T with several other desktops side by side.

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