A Closer Look - Outside

Hummin 3.03

We received the white version of the Hummin' 3.03 chassis. As it employs a shiny piano finish surface, taking pictures of the chassis is rather hard. The reflective surfaces do not create any real shadows, which is especially true with the white case. While the inner part of the case is made of plastic, the entire U-shaped outer shell has been created using a thick sheet of Aluminum. In terms of design, the Hummin' 3.03 really needs some time to get used to, as it looks like a printer without the wireless monitor installed. But this shape has a very specific purpose as we will see later on.


Even though the case is all white, there are plenty of black elements. This is a good idea as there are basically no white drives out there and thus black ones should not look out of place. In the rear it becomes apparent that the case only has a single fan in the rear and comes preinstalled with a micro ATX PSU.


Both sides are completely solid. Soundgraph has printed the Hummin' 3.03 label on both sides of the chassis.


There are two 5.25" drive bays, but Soundgraph includes a hot-swap bay in the bottom one. This allows you to install a bare drive into a running system for easy access to your media without having to use an external enclosure or docking station while leveraging the performance benefit of the internal SATA interface. The drive bay above that is actually open in our sample, but the retail one will have a cover in case you choose not to install an optical drive here. On the bottom edge, there is a flat connector, which interfaces with the FingerVU 1016W. A capable card reader along basic connectivity is hidden behind a black drop down cover. In the top edge you will find a fairly large, backlit power button and the embedded Wise IR receiver. This unit will not only work with the included remote, but also with a large number of other units like a Windows Media Center remote or Logitech Universal Remote.


Turning our focus to the rear, the right side holds two expansion slots for the motherboard. This is great as mini-ITX boards generally only have one expansion slot. Having two covers means that you should be able to install a dual height graphic card without problems as long as it is not too long. In the center an 80 mm fan has been embedded into the case. This unit may be accessed from the outside, by removing a few screws holding the cover in place. All the way to the left is the microATX power supply which we will get to later.


The Hummin' 3.03 offers two possibilities to insert the FingerVU 1016W monitor. You may either slide in the front or across the top of the case. The latter means that you may use the display as a sort of mini Surface variant - pretty cool. The appropriate connector can be found here as well.

FingerVU 1016

The display spans a full 10.1 inches, as much as many modern tablets. It also weighs roughly as much as an iPad. While the unit is a bit thicker, this is actually not a bad thing. The thickness allows you to properly slide it into the docking stations available. In the rear you will not find anything interesting except a battery cover. Behind it is a removable battery pack which is connected by a simple cable and connector. Soundgraph mentions a battery life of 3.5h, which is not really too much considering what modern tablets are capable of. Nonetheless you should easily be able to watch a full movie on the display if you wish.


On the bottom edge you will find a headphone jack, a little reset button and the wide connector for the display itself. It is great to see a 3.5 mm audio connector, as you can then watch a movie or listen to your favorite music using headphones.


The wireless USB dongle connects to the display in the top left corner. It is recessed far enough not to cause any problems or end up straining the port itself.

FingerVU Dock

If you do not own a Hummin' 3.03 and already have a HTPC, you may use the docking station by the simple name FingerVU 1016D with the FingerVU 1016W monitor to add the same functionality to that system. You may level the tray so that it fits your needs.


The entire tray is constructed from the same material as the Humming' 3.03 as the interior is plastic while the exterior shell utilizes thick Aluminum in that afore mentioned U-shape.


In the rear you will find various connectors and a switch. The Audio plug connects to the host system, piping sound to the single speaker in the front of the dock. Next to that you have the USB 2.0 connector and 5V power plug. In between these is a little switch telling the system which interface to use. USB and WUSB are obvious choices, but the Network over USB is an interesting third choice. Soundgraph will be releasing the FingerVU NEM (Network extension module) shortly allowing to connect to your PC through a traditional network. This means that the host system can be located anywhere within your home and you may use the dock and display to access the information stored on it - pretty awesome if this works as advertised.


Connecting the dongle to the dock is easy as well. There is a deep plug on the left corner of the dock. As you can see the monitor fits perfectly fine into the tray of the dock and should make a great addition to any HTPC.