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Granted I'm running on year old information, but isn't Chaintech known for producing POS motherboards? And anyways, a little research will show that Amptron, PC Chips, Chaintech, ECS, and ASRock might as well be the same company. (PC Chips motherboards and Amptron motherboards look surprisingly similar.)

Granted I'm running on year old information, but isn't Chaintech known for producing POS motherboards? And anyways, a little research will show that Amptron, PC Chips, Chaintech, ECS, and ASRock might as well be the same company. (PC Chips motherboards and Amptron motherboards look surprisingly similar.)

I have been using an Amptron iCue BKi810 with Linux for awhile. It is cute, small, cheap, but has a nasty loud power supply fan. It has _most_ of the features of the Shuttle, no firewire tho. Performance is ho-hum, but form-factor is great. Amptron Intl.

Hi,

I've been hunting high and low for a decent, small box-sized PC-compatible computer for about a year now. Trouble is, here in Germany it is close to impossible to get one unless you are willing to pay about 3 to 4 times the price of a normal computer with similar components.

- I first tried to build the box with a normal desktop case, but not only was it ugly, it was also quite loud. My dream machine is a PC-compatible system that looks like a stereo component and that is silent.

- vanilla, plain set top box hardware is hard to get in Germany if all you want is a quantity of "one".

- those few set top boxes being sold are proprietary and come with long-term contracts, so hacking them is not an option. We did not have an "iOpener" happening here, yet.

- there are very few "small" computers on sale over here. Those you can get usually are "thin clients" like the Dell Onmiplex or the Compaq Desktop iPaq that are not equipped with a TV out.

- Looking at its specs, the Multitainer is my dream machine, but it appears to have been a massive failure. I tested it at my local electronics store and it had a lot of stability problems. Also, it is curious that I cannot get a *new* machine anywhere in Hamburg (one of the major German cities). The few stores that want to sell the Multitainer all have "returned" devices from unsatisfied customers - still for a price tag of 1000 to 1250 dollars.

- I once had a hold on a bki810 computer. It was really nice, except that a) it was not upgradable with more recent CPUs and b) its TV out was sub-par. But my main problem: It was LOUD! It had the noise level of a vacuum cleaner! I tried to replace the fans, but no chance: Local electronics stores did not offer silent fans for that size...

- I've phoned down the local listing of office suppliers for small computers, but none could help me.

- I've also checked the very popular electronics classifieds, the local German eBay-style sites etc. Noone seems to sell used hardware.

After all these attempts, my summary of the problems with "build your own set-top box" is:

* Normal PC hardware is too loud. And surprisingly, some thin clients are, too.

* Few thin clients have a TV out or can be equipped with one.

* Those few thin clients that have a TV out offer a lousy picture quality, usually off-centered or not full-screen on a PAL TV. Yes, I've tried several TV out cards and none of them could come near my very cheap DVD player's TV out. Is it really that difficult?

All in all, I just wish the Multitainer would have been better. It's everything you'd need: Standard PC hardware components and a clever combination of stereo and video connectors. But apparently, it had engineering problems.

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I have one of these now (with a Celery 366). It's only an option with Windows, though, since Linux DVD support is pretty much non-existent (I run Mandrake on mine - using it as a small server, and the i810 support is mediocre). Amptron also makes a VIA MVP4-based version of the Book PC with Linux support advertised as a benefit, but that's constrained to Socket 7 processors only.

I'd like to see a version that can run a Duron processor (Socket A), with perhaps an embedded nVIDIA chipset for graphics. It'd be worth a good penny as the ultimate LAN party machine, though the heat might be an issue. The local dealer who pushes these the hardest says Amptron has a i815-based version of this coming out that'll handle the newer flip chip Celerys in a few weeks.

But Linux is an ideal OS for one of these "appliance" class PC's, and that's why we need real DVD support in Linux and part of why the MPAA is a bunch of fools. To do this today, you need Windows, and that raises the cost (legally) as to make a PC versus a dedicated DVD player prohibitive.

- -Josh Turiel

Try this Amptron product. You may not be able to buy it direct from Amptron. I've seen a dealer here and there reselling them.

It may be more than you're willing to pay (in the $500US range once you put a proc,RAM,HD in), but you have a real-live computer once you're finished. Maybe even an Indrema killer.

amptron book-pc board specs fyi.

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Take a look at Amptron's driver page... scroll down to 'BKi810 & HTPCi810' supported under Linux - drivers for everything (Sound, LAN, Modem).

this one's better and it's available right now - just add cpu/ram/hdd. (these people sell the base system for $260... pretty good deal)

Amptron sells a couple of 'pre-systems' that are without cpu/ram/hd based mostly on i810 boards. You can pick one up that's about that size with video / audio / lan / modem / cd-rom for around $130. They've got one with a DVD-ROM and a wireless keyboard for under 300. Slick little systems.