We recently had the opportunity to take a detailed look at two Mini-ITX chassis from Lutec, a Taiwanese company which has specialized in ergonomic and space saving products for the Asian market. They are extending their SEED line to western audiences and asked us for our honest and unbiased impressions. With the review that follows, I will do my best to provide you with just such an assessment. We tackled the SEED MA-280 this time around. This impressively small unit has a MSRP of around $70/USD, which is mid-priced for a Mini-ITX nettop chassis. The focus of its design is in light desktop or multimedia use, which is apparent in its appearance. Having just reviewed the SEED MU-380, my natural instinct is to compare the two. That would be largely irrelevant given the number of available Mini-ITX chassis on the market, so I’ll try not to draw too many parallels. Read More...
The next SEED review is up. This time, I looked at the MA-280. Feel free to post opinions in this thread, or leave a comment on the article.
I am not sure of my opinion regarding the price... It looks uber neat and stylish (I thought the MU-380 looked better) and seems like the perfect nettop box or a very able media centre (HDMI! very neat!). But after all for $70 it is merely a bare-bones box.... I love the size... it is like a toy robot which can shoot real bullets... :chk: And the Atom thermal performance is also very cool indeed (get it....?). Well done for the review! Looks like you had a lot of fun....
Thanks for the kind words saba. It wasn't much fun to be honest; I've been so busy with my full-time job and family, it's really hard to make time for an in-depth review (let alone two!) ...I'm sure you understand. Still, I would normally enjoy doing hardware reviews otherwise. Oh, and I actually liked the look of the MU-380 better also, though it's about twice as deep as the MA-280.
