SmallNetBuilder

Internal Details

Removing the plastic top cover reveals the hard drive, which is suspended above the main board on a sheet metal frame (Figure 1). Both products use 3.5 inch 120GB 7200RPM drives with my ASAP sample sporting an IBM/Hitachi IC35L120AVV207 while my BOSS review unit came with a Samsung SP1230N.

Figure 1: Tritton ASAP with cover removed

Removing the hard drive frame reveals the main board (Figure 2), which is based on a Toshiba TMPR3927CF 32 bit RISC-based CPU, with 8MB of RAM and 1MB of Flash.

Figure 2: ioGEAR BOSS with hard drive assembly removed

A Silicon Image SiI 0649 Ultra ATA/100 host controller, two Realtek RTL8100B 10/100 Ethernet controllers and RTL8305SB 5-Port 10/100M Ethernet Switch make up the rest of the major board components.

One missing component bears special mention, by the way. Neither the ASAP or BOSS have a cooling fan, and as a result, run very quietly. This is a big plus in my book!

Update 3/5/2004 - More information about what makes the ASAP / BOSS tick and who really makes it can be found here.