What a disapointment...

First off, it's a development board not something designed to be put into an enclosure or into an end product. If that's what you're looking for try the Boundary devices Nitrogen6X. There's a photo of it in it's enclosure here http://boundarydevices.com/products/nit6x_enc/

Given that everything you describe as a flaw is easily seen on the many photos available, you really only have yourself to blame for not doing enough research before buying one.

selsinork wrote:

 

First off, it's a development board not something designed to be put into an enclosure or into an end product. If that's what you're looking for try the Boundary devices Nitrogen6X. There's a photo of it in it's enclosure here http://boundarydevices.com/products/nit6x_enc/

 

Given that everything you describe as a flaw is easily seen on the many photos available, you really only have yourself to blame for not doing enough research before buying one.

Knock, Knock ???

According to YOUR theory, the likes of Raspberry PI, Beagle Bone, etc are NOT development boards then...

https://www.google.com/search?q=raspberry+pi+enclosure&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=r-CkUbHjHY_s0gXjmICIDg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1222&bih=896

https://www.google.com/search?q=beagle+bone+blck+enclosure&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=xuCkUfnIENLB0gX55YDABQ&biw=1222&bih=896&sei=3eCkUeudI6Wd0QXrwYCYDQ

Mechanically, all I want from the board is threaded spacers of my choice, not the plasticky bits provided. Moving a component or a connector 2mm away from the drillling hole during PCB layout is not a rocket science.

I also wonder why if a buy any electrical appliance in UK, i get a UK plug...I guess someone has thought about it....

I've been giving this board some serious consideration because of its somewhat rare combination of quad core, SATA and gigabit Ethernet, but from what you say it does have some downsides.  Although I too am in the UK, the non-UK plug wouldn't be a showstopper for me  if the rest of the product is good enough.  It is somewhat pricy though, so any other downsides reduce its appeal a bit.

I hope Element 14 is listening to your feedback.  It sounds like their first iteration of the board has some small niggles.  Even if the problems are small, if they exist then highlighting them is helpful to anyone evaluating whether to buy it.  That applied even at the Pi's $25-$35 price point, so it applies even more at higher prices.