Micro Express MicroFlex 68B: One of the Best Values Gets Better

19.10.2011
Once again, Micro Express beats itself at its own game. But that's a good thing: The MicroFlex 68B desktop system (priced at $1,200 as of 10/19/2011) is a variation on a theme previously created by the company's top-ten Mainstream desktop, the MicroFlex 25B. The not-so-subtle differences between the two PCs include a brand-new case (we love it!), a lot more storage this time around (we love it!), and -- finally -- support for all the Blu-ray titles you can watch (we love it!).

As you might be able to guess, we're big fans of the changes.

The 68B and its predecessor share the exact same processor, an Intel Core i5-2500K. This time around, Micro Express doesn't opt for a huge overclock: The system ships with its CPU running at stock-clock speeds, a standard 3.3 GHz. What you do get, however, is a lot more memory -- 16 gigabytes of DDR3 RAM, or four times the brains of . We also appreciate that Micro Express took one of our big criticisms about the 25B to heart: The company has bumped this system's total storage to a terabyte drive and a 128-gigabyte SSD, a great improvement over the 25B's paltry 300-gigabyte drive.

"No overclock, you say! But what about the system's performance?"

Strange as it might seem, we saw virtually no difference in performance between the overclocked 25B and the stock-clocked 68B on our WorldBench 6 suite of tests. The 25B's score of 184 was just four points below that of the 25B's -- allowing it to share the title of one of the fastest sub-$2000 . And the 68B's graphical capabilities aren't a slouch, either. The exact same powers both Micro Express machines, and it's still just as good as any for delivering excellent frame-rates on our Unreal Tournament 3 benchmark (112, when tested at a resolution of 2560-by-2100, high quality settings).

Micro Express packs the guts of the 68B into one of Cooler Master's beautiful Storm Enforcer chassis. We love the case's near-silent ventilation, mostly thanks to a large, 20-centimeter front fan that delivers both red accent lighting and quieter airflow. A side panel window gives you the opportunity to admire the system's tidy insides from afar, and a swinging front door conceals the 68B's Blu-ray combo drive and multiformat card reader (including one USB port).

The 68B's primary front-panel connections -- four USB ports, split two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 -- are located right in front of a large indented "tray" on the system's top. This would be a wonderful place to stash screws for in-progress upgrades to the 68B, provided this system really used any. Its three free 5.25-inch bays are completely screwless and its four free hard drive bays use easy-to-install rails to integrate new storage into the system. It's a slight omission that the system's free PCI slots -- two PCI, one PCI Express x16 (running at x8), and one PCI Express x1 -- still use screws for device installation. And, yes, we would have loved to have seen a total of two, full-speed PCI Express x16 slots in the system.

We love the 68B's diverse smorgasbord of connection types: Seven USB 2.0 ports, one combination eSATA/USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 ports, one additional eSATA port, a FireWire 400 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and a combination of optical and coaxial SPDIF ports and integrated 7.1 surround sound. The included ATI Radeon HD 6870 videocard gives you two DVI connections and two DisplayPort connections, just no HDMI -- and that's a big omission.

We'd normally use this space to discuss the 68B's included mouse and keyboard, but we received neither with our reviewed system. Nevertheless, you'll be able to select from a variety of devices, if you so choose, when ordering the system on Micro Express' website.

It's hard to find something to dislike about . Just a few omissions mar the excellent construction of this killer Mainstream desktop, and they seem relatively minor in comparison to the system's many strengths. It's fast, it's priced perfectly, and it's a great improvement over one of our previous favorite Mainstream desktops, the MicroFlex 25B. We can't wait to see what else Micro Express has hidden up its sleeve!