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Introducing the Asus VivoMini UN42 – a pint-sized PC, literally

The Celeron cost-cutter for us simple folk

Cloud control

Having used WebStorage before, it was annoying that my user ID was not accepted to sign in. It reported, "This WebStorage ID is already existed" [sic]. I know, it's my old account. I ended up trying to log in from the WebStorage website to find out what the issue was. It appears that as my previous WebStorage foray had long since expired, the account was now in limbo.

So, needlessly, I had to create a new account using a different email address. Come on Asus, if you're going to provide a cloud service, you could join the dots better than this.

Asus VivoMini UN42-M054Y AI Suite 3

AI Suite 3 RAM SPD listings. Note the fan speed showing (bottom right). Click for a larger image

Where Asus does excel is at system level and even at this end of the food chain the Asus AI Suite 3 provides some useful utilities to keep an eye on things, as well as making tweaks to USB charging, its 802.11ac Wi-Fi configurations and easy BIOS updating.

If you're not so interested in gazing at RAM speeds and would rather more conventional entertainment, then Asus provides a couple of audio utilities. You can fiddle with a graphic equaliser if you fancy, select presets and configure you audio set-up.

Asus VivoMini UN42-M054Y audio options

Audio options include a graphic EQ and various presets or a enhancements using Waves MaxxAudio

If you prefer an easy option, the AudioWizard, powered by Waves MaxxAudio, will tailor the sound to the type you choose; recording, movies, music, gaming and speech. As you're not trying to make poxy laptop speakers sound listenable, the results should satisfy in everyday use on headphones or a hi-fi. If the VivoMini is destined to become a living room PC then you'll find screws in the box if you want to mount it on the back of a monitor.

The Reg Verdict

Admittedly, the unappetising 32GB SSD in this base model did colour my experience of using the Asus VivoMini UN42. In short, building a Windows PC around this this capacity is best avoided, as Windows updates will inevitably eat too much of it.

Presumably the thinking behind this is to match a Chromebox on cost, but Google's OS doesn't store apps on its SSD and Asus can't seriously think that Windows with Bing is a comparable system.

That aside, the VivoMini UN42 is an exceptionally quiet mini PC with a low power consumption that, as Asus states, is for "everyday home computing". If you don't stray too far from that notion, you should be reasonably satisfied, assuming you invest in a larger storage option or go barebones instead. ®

Asus VivoMini UN42-M054Y

Introducing the Asus VivoMini UN42 – a pint-sized PC, literally

Low cost mini PC powered by a Haswell Intel dual-core 1.4GHz Celeron 2957U, 2GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD
Price: £200 (Windows version), £125 (barebones) RRP

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