The first all-in-one PC to ship with Ubuntu pre-installed has gone on sale.
System76’s ‘Sable Complete’ packs a powerful set of internals behind a 21.5″ HD display with edge-to-edge glass, aluminium trimming and a ‘sleek, industrial design’.
Ubuntu 12.10, released last week, is installed by default.
Starting at $799 the Sable Complete packs in some powerful components.
- 21.5″ HD LED Backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
- Quad-core Intel Core i5 3470S @ 2.90 GHz
- Integrated HD Graphics 2500
- 4 GB DDR3 RAM
- 250 GB SATA II 6 Gb/s 16 MB Cache
- Built In Speakers, webcam and microphone
- USB ports
- HDMI Out
- Audio in/out
The lack of built-in-WiFi on the base model is disappointing but it can be added as an ‘extra’ for $35.
If the base specs don’t float your proverbial boat you can, as with all System76 computers, swap out bits and pieces to suit your needs. Upgrade to a 3rd gen Intel i7 CPU, ramp up the RAM to 16 GB, or add a 750 GB HDD. Solid state hard drive options are also available.
Pimping your machine out will, naturally, bump up the price, so if you’re ordering from abroad be sure to factor this is to your shipping and import duty costings – you don’t want any nasty surprises on delivery day!
The Sable is a gorgeous looking PC that (on paper at least) is faster, cheaper, more expandable, and better at running Ubuntu than the 2011 iMac I’m writing this article on.
More impressively to my mind (and my wallet) is that although System76 are a niché retailer (meaning costs are often higher than those of mass-manufacturers) the all-in-one PC is competitively priced, even without WiFi, a disc drive, or input accessories.
Compared against two similarly specc’d machines using other OSes – namely the Vizio and the 2011 iMac – the Sable stands up well.
The Vizio sports a significantly slower CPU but a marginally better graphics card. The HD2500 used in the Sable is more than capable of handling 1080p HD video and 3D gameplay.
Sable can be upgraded t0 a HD4000 by switching out the i5 CPU for an i7.
We’ll (hopefully) be putting the Sable through its paces later next month, but in the mean time you can head on over to the system76 website and buy yourself one!
