Final Thoughts
Ignore the Tranquil PC etching on the front of the iMono – it looks a bit spidery but that was because of a minor issue with the etching machine and something like that would never go out to a customer (but it’s ok to send to me!).
And don’t forget that our review unit was the industrial version – the home version will look a lot more “home” friendly but without sacrificing the quality or the silcence.
And while it’s called the iMono today – there is a very good chance that name will change in the next few weeks – so watch this space!
I mentioned earlier that the iMono was heavy – it really is, but it also silent. I don’t mean there is a little noise coming from it, I mean it is completely, 100% quiet, not a whisper or a peep coming out of it. Now that is nice!
Expandability wise, other than increasing the memory or the storage space using mSATA, there is no internal expandability available, so any storage space you want to add or use would have to be external (which is ok because the iMono has both eSATA and USB 3.0 ports). So you could also add an external TV tuner card and make this into a nice silent Media Center PC (although you really would want the home version of the iMono)!
The iMono performed well in all our tests, and it was great that it included an HDMI port which meant it was easy to connect to a TV and use as a Media Center. After several hours of use the case felt quite hot, but I think that it down to the material and the home version probably won’t have quite the same issue.
Cost wise, the iMono starts at £329.00 + VAT at 20% (note that price doesn’t include a CPU or memory – it’s just for the unit and motherboard, so you will have to select some options). As usual with Tranquil, there are a number of options to choose from. The cost of the review unit we had was £706.95 + VAT. Now that is not exactly the cheapest PC on the market, but then you have to remember that you are paying for the quality, not to mention the completely silent nature of the PC.
Tranquil are offering a pre-order deal:
We are pleased to announce that the iMono is available on a pre-order basis. Orders received prior to the planned shipping date of 9th November, can be discounted by including the following coupon code at our checkout : MONO59
We have given the iMono 4 out of 5. It just missed out on 5 out of 5 due to the cost, although you get what you pay for in both build quality and silence. So if you want a high quality, silent and small PC, then take a serious look at the iMono.
It’s a little beauty. If those external graphics card boxes for laptops ever take off, this could benefit from an expresscard slot too as gfx is the only weak point.
Hello all, please find my personnal experience with this unit : (experience also posted on tranquilpc website as review) :
I’ve preorderd this case by end of October 11, expecting to receive it for first week of Nov 11 as advertised on the website.
1 week after the preorder I’m told the unit will only be shipped 3rd week of november because Intel haven’t ship the motherboard on time…
I proposed them to send to me all the components but the motherboard (MB was available where I live so I could have ordered it and built the PC myself). I had indeed sold my old htpc and was unable to see any movies or listen to music …
Answer was negative because I was told they were doing serious tests on units before shipping them… I wasn’t that happy but this was anyway a fine arugment for me.
2 weeks later I receive another notification telling me that some additional delays will have to be expected because the SSD drive was out of stock !!!! Another week of delay was told to me to be expected : 3 days for getting the drive, 1 day for testing …
1 week later I (finally) received my unit to discover that :
– The feet provided with the unit were in plastic (whereas the ones on the picture on the website were in metal)
– A corner of the case was damaged 1cm of steel was missing !
– The unit was not powering on …..
After 2 hours spent on testing and finally unscrewing the unit I realized that the reason the unit wasn’t powering on was that the RAM was not correctly fit in the Motherboard !!!
Once I fitted the RAM , the unit could power on again !
Following this I called them and explained them the situation and asking them how they could have done any tests on a unit that was simply not powering on ????
I was proposed to have a summary of the tests that were done to this unit (which I accepted and which I never received …)
Regarding the defect on the unit I was asked to send some pictures, which I did and I was send a new unit. (this reactivity contributed to the fact I put 2 stars on the review …)
In the meantime I have also written a mail do the CEO directly to present the situation and ask for a compensation (commercial gesture) for all the time I have spent (nearly 8 hours for the whole issue), the inconveniences (I had no HTPC for 1 month !) and also the fact that I was completely misled about the tests they were doing !!! (How can a unit that cannot powered be tested ??? How can a unit that is externally defective be sent ?)
This mail was sent 1 month ago :
At that time I am still waiting for a direct answer from him to my mail and also waiting for the compensation I have asked for for the time I have spent on this issue (8 hours !)
If they had offered me the compensation I was asking for, I would have ordered more items for them.
As they didn’t this is actually the first and last time I put an order for one of their unit.
So as a conclusion : cases are really nice looking (that the other reason I put 2 stars on this review) but service quality & customer relationship was (at least for me) one of the worst I have ever experienced when buying online.
So buy at your own risk 🙂