ECS RS480-M Radeon Xpress 200

The RS480-M has turned out to be an impressive little work machine capable of doing more if you put in the money for a good video card. While the ATi Xpress 200 chipset is still relatively new, the abundance of people moving over to micro ATX makes it an ideal choice for SFF/HTPC machines. This is exactly where the RS480 fits in. Despite only having the power of an X300, you won't notice any problems while watching your favorite movie. Where the RS480-M can improve on is being bundled with VIVO, or at least TV-Out. Thankfully the RS-482 by ECS has us covered.


Comparing the performance to the nForce 4 based Albatron K8SLI, our little RS480-M went neck and neck only taking a large loss in performance when SATA II could be factored in. While it did score lower in every benchmark by a small margin, going with the RS480-M will save you a few bucks and still deliver comparable performance!

Advantages:
• Very affordable
• Good performance
• Integrated graphics great for everything but the latest games

Disadvantages:
• Lacks SATA II capabilities
• No TV Output