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Mini-box make some neato little ITX boxes which you could hook up to any number of storage solutions. Past that, I've had good success with Mini-ITX boards. I get the cases from Web-tronics, as the MITX ones are very, very expensive -- they're meant to make your MITX look like a CD player, pretty much, and I can do more without having to worry about cosmetics. MiniBox (above) sells snap-in MITX power supplies ranging from 60w to 200w. For the extra cool factor, use a Xenarc display or use something 'headless', e.g., LCDProc and Crystalfontz. (As I remember, the MiniBoxes come with their own little displays.)

I'm surprised that none of the other follow-ups mention mini-itx which have totally silent PCs apart from the ultra-quiet Baraccuda hard drive that goes in there. If you look at the Hush (amongst others), the CPU heatsink is connected to the case which dissapates the heat. If you put a Haupage PVR350 in which handles the MPEG2 encoding and decoding in hardware then you should have something that will comfortably sit underneath the TV and will also act as DVD player.

Phillip.

Something like this?

The Xenarc screens are supposed to be better than the Lilliput screens FWIW. I've purchased a 7inch version with vid capability as well as VGA for under $400 off of EBAY.

I've been looking into this in order to monitor what's going on with my car's standalone EFI system. Since that EFI system's software allows me to build "dashboards" I can do LOTS of interesting displays. I have been collecting URLs and you can see pics of other's progress and discussion here -> http://forum.aempower.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=9604

Some URLs I've collected in no distinct order or organization:

http://www.logisysus.com/catalog/product_info.php? cPath=74&products_id=189
http://logisysus.com/catalog/product_info.php?prod ucts_id=334
http://www.kingyoung.com.tw/s620.htm
http://littlepc.com/
http://www.diamondsystems.com/
http://www.viaarena.com/
http://www.media-car.fr.st/
http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/index/Griffi n_RadioSHARK_AM-FM_Radio.htm
http://www.xmradio.com/xmpcr/ (I bought one, have added optical output, and have purchased TimeTrax!)
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr usb_datashee t.htm> (have one on the way, thanks EBAY!)
http://store.karpc.com/cat-LCD-Touch-Screen--lcdmo nitor.htm
http://www.mp3car.com/
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2NX/
http://www.carbotpc.com/products/
http://www.powerstream.com/DC_PC.htm
http://www.powerstream.com/mini-itx.htm
http://www.media-car.fr.st/
http://drivesoft.net/
http://www.gnetcanada.com/
http://www.lighttek.com/talisman.htm
http://skylab.org/~chugga/mpegbox/MPBS1/
http://www.compucar.be.tf/
http://www.autonode.com/ig710specs.html?
http://www.trc12volt.com/
http://www.intraplexcorp.com/tx3.asp
http://www.sfftech.com/
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
http://www.dashmatics.com/forum/faq.php

Hopefully some of those will be of help to others considering this sort of thing, I'd be interested in working with others to research this! My plans are to mock up something with the touchscreen and front-end software working with the WINTV, XM PCR, my MP3 collection, GPS mapping, the RLTC software, and my AEM datalogging software. IF it works well (or even halfway well) THEN I'll buy hardware to put IN the car. No sense spending the money if the interface turns out to suck or be too distracting while driving. I'll likely be able to play DVDs too but honestly that's pretty se

I'm impressed at the claimed 220W peak power consumption of the 12-node box, but wonder what kind of real computing performance it provides.

Here's a 12-node cluster made of VIA EPIA V8000's with 800MHz C3 processors. Idle power consumption is ~140W.

"The machine runs FreeBSD 4.8, and MPICH 1.2.5.2. After working with his machine and running some basic tests, Glen's cluster looks to be equivalent to at least 4 (maybe 6) 2.4Ghz Pentium IV boxes in parallel on a similar network - achieving a performance of around 3.6 GFLP."

You're probably talking about this one.

Just FYI, I found it linked on the page of "this beautiful one" you provided.

Ewwwww!

You'll find the answer to this question quite a few times over at Mini-ITX.com.

The people there shove a mini-itx board into everything - the front page shows a Commodor 1541 drive and a Sega Master System.

Granted, some of them are absolutely horrible (There was this God-awful Mac SE mod that looked terrible, ill-fitting pieces, a huge cut for the optical drives, etc - though I can't find it, but I did find this beautiful one instead. Damn, suppose I'll stop doing my mod now hehe) but they give you a pretty good idea of what can be done with those little motherboards

You'll find the answer to this question quite a few times over at Mini-ITX.com.

The people there shove a mini-itx board into everything - the front page shows a Commodor 1541 drive and a Sega Master System.

Granted, some of them are absolutely horrible (There was this God-awful Mac SE mod that looked terrible, ill-fitting pieces, a huge cut for the optical drives, etc - though I can't find it, but I did find this beautiful one instead. Damn, suppose I'll stop doing my mod now hehe) but they give you a pretty good idea of what can be done with those little motherboards

A laptop which is basically all the componants of a pc crammed together and encased in plastic is never going to be as quiet as a comparative desktop.

If you don't need a fast pc then get a fanless mini itx board http://www.mini-itx.com/, a flanless power supply, a quiet hard drive and put it all in a big airy case with a large low rpm fan and hide it all under the desk. Much quieter and cheaper than a laptop.

These would make great MythTv boxes if they had more pci slots. Currently there are only two. It would be nice to have two regular tuners and a digital tuner in the box. They could also add an irda port to the front. Also the thing weighs 15kg or approx. 33 pounds; not something you want to trip over in the dark.

Hush Silent Mini-ITX PC review.
Same concept, I guess, but because Via C3s can be passively cooled, it may be a better solution for low preformance (not that there's anything wrong with it), quiet PCs.

I've been keeping up with Dr. Dietz's work since Purdue. I really admire his work, and I even ran a small 2-node PAPERS cluster at home using his AFAPI library.

PeTS may be applicable here, especially his research into Flat Neighborhood Networks (FNNs). However, I think that AMD/Intel sytems use too much power (70 watts or so each). A computationally-equivalent cluster of VIA EPIA motherboards (maybe 10 watts each) would be both physically smaller and much easier on the electric bill. At $100 each for a VIA EPIA V10000A or $163 for the newer VIA EPIA M10000 Nehemiah I could afford to both buy a cluster and run it. Running an AMD cluster would use more electricity than I could afford.

The picture in the middle of the PeTS page, KAOSlab.jpg, is my background desktop at work, and I often get comments. I wish I were so lucky as to work with that sort of thing every day. :)

VIA C3/Eden EPIA motherboard + Mini-ITX case combo fits that role better. Why use live CD on P3 when you can use CompactFlash on C3?

Small form factor PC's have been around for a while. Check out some of the mini-ITX pc's.

Windows box in a windows box

Antec cases aren't that bad

Ah, they still look like a machine.

What exactly would you envision as your ideal case, aesthetically?

That nanode thingy is actually pretty cool. It is a mini-itx box though.

Anyone know when the nanode is going to be available?

A Mini-ITX case would fit the bill, but supports limited hardware. The scene is well covered at mini-itx.com. Sudhian's Small Form Factor area covers a wider range of systems, including this one, and may be more apropos...

Is there /any/ well designed PC out there? The only great box I have ever seen is this one: http://mini-itx.com/news/images/story0334.jpg, which is built for the less-powerful mini-itx board only.
I wish there were more boxes not looking so... PC. Hush (http://www.hush-technologies.com/start.html) is getting close, but not close enough... this is still look kind of cheap. Any hints?

This one was /.'ed on the first reply!

Maybe they should host their site on one of these newfangled 933Mhz C64's

Could the jukebox in this picture possibly be the one on this site?

Anybody have any experience using the VIA EPIA boards for DVD and video playback? I'm specifically interested in the MII 12000 for creating a MythTV box. I was also thinking MicroATX, but Pentium 4's and Athlon XPs run hotter and draw more power than the C3. I'd like to keep the power supply and CPU Fan and as quiet as possible.

Extreme Tech was decidedly underwhelmed by the M10000 while mini-itx.com seems to think is fine. The mini-itx review seemed a little hand-wavy though.

It may come as a surprise to some, but there's quite a lot of interest in very small and very quiet PCs. Just check out this site as a for instance. And there's also this review on Tom's Hardware site.

You mean something like the Cubit or the T-Cube (a little down the page in orange) with a monitor slapped on? Been done. Many times.

You mean something like the Cubit or the T-Cube (a little down the page in orange) with a monitor slapped on? Been done. Many times.

Like so?

Mini-ITX C-64

I am definatly interested in more efficient power suplies, as well as more efficient processors. I have just recently built an arcade system dedicated to the game NeverBall and NeverPutt which uses a 7" LCD and a Trackball for input. The PC sits under the bar and idles most of the day. The 600MHz Celeron CPU uses little power, and I'm sure a Transmeta or Via C3 would use even less but its what I had. My main concern with leaving the box on all of the time is the power drain. Already with a MythPC and a Squid box running all the time my powerbill is in the 100-150 range for a guy a cat and an apartment.

The PSU in the NeverBall-Box is a 250Watt ATX from Compusa (not sure who makes compusa brand PSU). I once ran across a link on /. which showed what the average powersuply costs in $/mo but I cant seem to find it right now. I use a power brick for my laptop and see similar products for sale for Mini-ITX PC's. Is there a way to use these for an ATX and are they more efficient than normal PSU?

PS: OT: Anyone else have issues with neverball and ATI? Got texture probs with Rage and Radeon on XP. Sorry so off topic.

This is disturbing.

But I think with all of the polish and insane attention to detail, I have no problem forgiving his rectangular choice.

But I think with all of the polish and insane attention to detail, I have no problem forgiving his rectangular choice.

I agree. He should have purchased this single mini itx 1u or this dual mini itx 1u

I agree. He should have purchased this single mini itx 1u or this dual mini itx 1u

What I don't get is why the Epia MII-12000, which has a fan, and not one of the fanless ones?

As others have mentioned, it's probably a lot more practical to put a big semi-quiet PC in the next room, but if you're going so far as to go diskless for the project, it seems a bit ridiculous to have a fan on the MB.

Check http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/cluster/ for a Mini-ITX based cluster.

Here are some specs for a rack full of them...

A proof of your concept: the Mini-ITX Cluster

Aha! Too late!! (it's been done with older cards but who cares?)

Forget mini-itx, I want to know when Nano-ITX will be availible... I get the distinct feeling that it's a vaporvare promo trick... it's only 2/3 of the size of the mini-itx boards and 10x as useful/easy to put into things.... I want one :(

Mini-ITX.com

The Nano-ITX board that they announced last year still seems to be the coolest thing around in terms of potential for off-the-shelf, single board computer projects.

I mean, it's only 4.7 inches by 4.7 inches! Of course I've never seen a price, but sell this thing in the $100 range and I'll take 3...

Mod parent up: +1, And One lyrics

Most casemods I've seen make me wanna puke, with all the tacky cliché 31337 g4m3r stuff. I love this HL2 case, too bad he had to go and make the case useless by putting the usual frigging HOLE (a.k.a. "window") in the side - they do make cases for RF emitting/sensitive devices like Faraday's cages for a reason.

An Enigma case is something I'd expect to see here. All these small form factors really seem to get people's creative juices flowing. Telefunken radios, cigar humidors, oscilloscopes, WindowsXP retail boxes...
I remember seeing a replica of the type of typewriter-ish computer used in "Brazil", so an Enigma would be a piece of cake. Breaking in to a museum to get a real Enigma case might prove difficult though.

It came to me after reading about cluster of VIA low-power computers.

this one? :)

Check out the Underwood No. 5 PC where yet another fellow with too active an imagination has converted a typewriter to a computer. Quite clever, actually.

I'm using a 533MHz fanless EPIA 5000 motherboard as a server. Fine, its not an Intel CPU, but it does x86 code just fine.

Yeah its slow, but very low power, I mean, I used to use an K6-3 400 as a server, but my electricity meter was wizzing past fast, so I switched to the motherboard (had a spare one sitting in a cupboard anyway) and the meter slowed down a lot. Much better.

Yes it's slow, but if I can run Smoothwall 2 on a 486 100 with 16Mb RAM, it should run just fine on the EPIA motherboard. Though, said 486 has no fan anywhere apart from the PSU, even then the PSU automatically adjusts the fan depending on how hot the PSU is despite being ancient and coming with the 486. Works well, though the web interface is a bit slow especially if parsing the logs.

Oh yeah the EPIA motherboard is bloody tiny too ;)

Fastest EPIA motherboard without a fan is 600MHz I think, but you can get a 1.2GHz EPIA board with a fansink - even tho I'm sure the fan is very quiet.

Mini-itx Motherboard (Fanless, Very Small) ~$115
80GB HardDrive $70
Gigabit NIC* $25
Pretty Case $100
Linux Free*
Total ~280-305
*Optional
^Requires Initial Work (Maybe there is a handy Distro for this type of thing I don't know?)
BTW Newegg.com says they will carry mini-itx soon so prices may get much better in the US.

Mini-itx Motherboard (Fanless, Very Small) ~$115
80GB HardDrive $70
Gigabit NIC* $25
Pretty Case $100
Linux Free*
Total ~280-305
*Optional
^Requires Initial Work (Maybe there is a handy Distro for this type of thing I don't know?)
BTW Newegg.com says they will carry mini-itx soon so prices may get much better in the US.

Those in Northern Ireland will know that the biggest problem for us is pp charges. To help with this i've compiled a wee list of shops and charges usually for something small and light like an ethernet card. Sorry if any of it is wrong - if so please contact the site and let them know that they need to make it clearer.

• CCL Computers Online 10 extra. 3.95 for small order 7.50 large all + VAT
• Insight Direct 19.99
• MicroWarehouse claim they don't ship outside uk mainland
• SavaStore 15 + VAT extra
• Scan Computers UK citylink so expensive - they quote 7 + VAT for non-NI will contact you for exact pricing
• Simply Computers 12.95 + VAT
• Overclockers UK 3.48 + VAT 2nd class recorded
• ebuyer 15 surcharge on NI p&p
• Komplett.co.uk approx 10 p&p
• aria .co. uk 11.95 + VAT for under 8KG
• Novatech 15 extra p&p
• Kustom PCs
• Tekheads.co.uk RM Recorded from 2.85
• mini-itx.com 8 - 12 +VAT
• LinITX.com 2.39 recorded or 6.05 next day special (+ VAT i think)
• TheCoolingShop.com free delivery on orders over 4 but under 2KG - over 2KG = 20
• PC Nextday 17.61 inc. VAT next day
• Leapfrog Computers Ltd 6.90 + VAT
• Chillblast 1.18 inc VAT recorded 5.29 special
• Stuff-uk.net under 100g 3.75, under 500g 4.05, under 1KG 5.25, under 3KG 6.60, large over 1KG 10.50, all + VAT
• CaseTech.co.uk from 2.95 based on weight for 3-4 day courier. guess + VAT
• Crucial UK over 25 free p&p. under 25 2.95
• Over-Clock UK from 1.42 2nd class post to 4.59 citylink
• Micro Direct Ltd. 17.63 inc. VAT
• Carrera SSC 64 for complete system
• MESH Computers 20 inc. VAT
• dabs.com 5.88 inc. VAT extra

it is still no match for Omnibot

Why not just build a solid state PC? Use a board like the VIA EPIA MII, with a big CompactFlash card for your hard drive. If you need extra space, get a quiet hard drive, and attach it as a secondary storage device that's only read when in use, and it'll be silent the rest of the time. Here's a link, scroll just shy of half way down the page, and you'll see some photo's of the board. In addition to being silent, you can make some pretty cool custom cases for it ;).

My mission to create a silent server is documented here