Slashdot Mirror

If you need USB, audio and video, just build a mini-itx computer. Cheap, small, and it's a fully functioning computer. The VIA EPIA 5000 is only 7 by 7 inches, pretty small, while it's bigger counterpart is still only a few inches bigger. Plus, you can get small cases, fairly cheap memory, optical drives like CD burners, DVD, etc, thin versions of the optical drives, hard drives, and more. If you need so much functionality, then mini-itx is better.


If you're concerned about paying SCO's license fees ($32 for embedded devices, $699 for single CPU's), don't worry: that offer expired October 1. You're in the same boat as the rest of us, buddy!

or wait for nano itx or check out this project

or wait for nano itx or check out this project

Because the mini-itx form factor systems fit the bill technically and pricewise.

And at 17cm x 17cm, they aren't as tiny as some SBC solutions, but they are a fair sight smaller than an ATX motherboard.

spreer

Rich.

I found this review that sums up the movie pretty well. All in all, a massive disappointment. Revolutions could and should have been so much more. Why is it that when anyone in Hollywood gets a good idea that has so much potential, they always manage to fuck it up?

I think this article sums up the situation pretty well.

This has been over at mini-itx for a while now...
Seems a lot cheaper to me.

nano-itx isn't that far away:

nano-itx

They're very, very tiny. I don't see a DVI connector, though.

I happened to visit mini-itx.com earlier today. I was rather disturbed to read this article about taking a teddy bear, and disassembling and reassembling it as a 800MHz PC. It seems relevant to this topic, in a demented way...

Mini-ITX

VIA chips that support "3DNow!" instructions instead of SSE instructions also run floating-point instructions at half the clock rate of the CPU.

VIA chips that support SSE instructions run floating-point instructions at the CPU clock rate. The "Nehemiah" CPU is the first of these. The Eden-N is a descendant of Nehemiah.

Here is VIA's press release on the Eden-N.

Benchmarks are the tool of the Devil, but here are a set from a review of the VIA EPIA M1000 motherboard.

Here is a review of subjective use of a 1 GHz Nehemiah.

So we have chips running at 1.1GHz, 553 MHz, 800MHz or 533MHz. And almost all people seem to think that these numbers are some kind of speed indicators, even at slashdot. Jesus!

How about a link to some actual benchmark figures? Have anyone seen any? I just looked at SPEC, but there was nothing there. What is the speed of these chips, really?

As a side note, I believe that the really interesting news is that the new EDEN chips use a nanoBGA packaging and are to be used in the new nanoITX form factor which is smaller than miniITX. At 120x120mm, the new motherboard is just slightly smaller than a CD enclosure!

ok the age difference wasnt to great but i had a k5 133 running in a comodore 486 sx case. The case was quite retro looking, big and square, and had a comodore ( C= ) badge on it, so it was kinda cool.
I think a have an obsession with kick arse computer hardware, and old cases. My favorite mini itx case mod was one that was inside a snes here I quite like this one as the cdrom comes out where the cartridge went in.

We have a sun sparc station 10 at work, i am dying to replace the insides with something x86 + linux. Of course i would never hurt any still functioning hardware, to much of a hoarder for that....

I'm surprised there's been no mention of the Tranquil PC. This is perhaps the quietest and sexiest mini-itx based system and the starting price is ~$600 USD.

And if it has to be USB, then why put USB 1.1 on a new product when the rest of the world is dealing with USB 2?

...this baby or this one, coupled with some of this along with some free time...?

Perhaps slightly off topic, but I was wondering if there were any movies that had Linux run as an OS on their computers? What about special FX that was done on Linux-based systems? I know Macs are big on these things ,but I know there is Linux for Macs too. Thx!

From the mini-itx site with pictures:

...but from our blurred photographs this version looks to have a VT8237 South Bridge, SODIMM RAM slot, SATA connector, 2 x IDE connectors, (1) PS/2 connector, TV-Out...

Actually, it looks to me like there is a composite and s-video TV out and no PS/2 connector. The specs that bazik posted from epia-center seem to confirm this as well.

aloha
psilo

Now I can make that ammo canister pc come true.

You mean like this?

Since those are Mini-Itx form factor cases I suspect that Inspiri put a Via Epia board inside.An Epia 5000 can be bought at Ebay. Then get an hd (160 GB are cheaper per GB nowdays).

The price will be lower than 300 bucks.

Epia 5000 have the lowest power intake, which should be considered if the box is to be run 24/7. But the prices on ebay seem to allow an M10000 to be had for not much more. The Epia M10000 has the advantage that one can change it to a media box for the living room (like Tivo), since it is fast enough for Divx and has TV-Out. This way one could have everything in one box. By putting mldonkey on it it could even run as a server for filesharing 24/7 while one could access mldonkey from everywhere using its http interface.

Much more for much less money without having them spy on your data. Sometimes it pays to be geek ;-)

Anyone with a laptop = possible terrorist

Especially with a case-mod like this

This |
this |
and my favorite

I think this one is pretty cool. It's built into a PC PSU, which is then installed back into a normal beige case. The case is otherwise empty (apart from a 70's disco ball, as if it wasn't surreal enough already).

At mini-itx.com are loads of mods for the VIA mini ITX platform.

How about a "Commodore 64 @933" and an ITX-64

How about a "Commodore 64 @933" and an ITX-64

see more of these mods

I want to see some FlexATX boards with honest-to-god processing power in these boxes.

Intel Pentium M processor running at 1600+ MHz with a mini-itx form factor, courtesy of mini-itx.com

Ok....

Here you go

ask and ye shall recieve....

also at mini-itx.com,
ammobox pc
another one
aaaand yet another

-your friendly mini-itx loving geek

also at mini-itx.com,
ammobox pc
another one
aaaand yet another

-your friendly mini-itx loving geek

also at mini-itx.com,
ammobox pc
another one
aaaand yet another

-your friendly mini-itx loving geek

How does IPCop run on an EPIA board? It's a linux distro.

I know about hackvalue, but why bother for a webserver? All of the reasons you mention are easily met by a mini-itx board.

Fanless, low on power (can even be frequency/voltage scaled if I remember correctly), small physical footprint, and a lot cheaper than mucking around with some custom built router.

Gramted it is not nearly as much fun than hacking some piece of proporitary hardware! ;-)

Unfortunately, I think that the correct solution to the heat issues associated with high-speed computing is to goto either slower or more efficient processors. I think that this is what Intel has been pushing with its Centrino line (my wife just got a centrino based notbook and its batteries easily go 3.5 hours, with the screen on), VIA with it's EDEN processors, and TRANSMETA has been doing with it's Coreuso (spelling?) processors. There is a whole community building passively cooled computers using these somewhat slower, but still good enough, chips. (we have a passively cooled EDEN based desktop/stereotop in our living room).

Or you could upgrade it and then put Windows on it.

VIA EPIA M Mainboard description
EPIA M image
EPIA M manual (7.12M - slow download)

mini-itx.com - bunch of other similar project

A small form factor PC? What would you want one of those for?

my home server is a pentium 100 with 16mb ram. passive heatsink. (ok so i should update it) have you seen mini-itx computers?

Plenty of room inside for a mobo.

these don't look like computers

You have no idea what a Via C3 is used in, do you?

Another good site for small PC's is mini-itx.com. Fun stuff.

For more information check out mini-itx or the super small case offerings of casetronic or Morex. Both of Casetronic and Morex make at least one case that has the same physical dimensions as a car stereo. Keep in mind these cases typically require the 2.5" hard drives and "slim" CD/CDRW/DVD drives which drives up the overall cost of the system and limits performance.

I was not aware of either the XPort or Rabbit options - at $40 to $60, those really open up some low-cost applications that are not in the range of $200-500 SBCs such as the Axis boards.

Is there anything similar for wireless 802.11, for less than a hundred bucks and with a power draw of less than 5W ? That is to say, a small board or chip with the functionality of the XPort or Rabbit, but in a wireless version? I know that AMD has the Alchemy boards, but my impression is that these are several hundred dollars. And you could always add a wireless PCI card to a Mini-Itx board, but that is at least $200, with power consumption in the range of 20-30W compared to the Xport, which draws less than 1 W.

It is a very nice looking box, but it is BIG and most likely too noisy to put next to your TV if used with anything but the ITX boards. It's the size of the old desktop PC cases. There are two 5-inch and two 3-inch bays in the thing. If you fill it with peripherals it will generate way too much heat.

The Hush looks like it would be much more compatible with an A/V stack, but notice the price and you'll see that the Telly isn't that far off price-wise. And the hush is "just" a PC with no PVR functionality set up on it!

I have a mini-itx box that is cheaper and (subjectively) cooler looking. I just don't have a remote, but who cares with a RF keyboard/mouse combo... Now what I want to know is, if that is based on Linux, then is there any way to get the software so that I can turn my own box into a PVR? Now that's an OSS I'm looking forward to! :-)

Bonus: look for the following and you too can build a Tivo out of your old PC's spare parts: Via Epia M 933 Mhz, Cubid 2699R mini-itx case (also in black), IBM Wireless Navigator Pro. (note: all these links point to pictures, not shops). Add the appropriate Linux distro, and voila, cheap PVR.

www.mini-itx.com Check out some of the project pages, lots of cool stuff that I think would be right up your alley. =)

Not sure if the following contradicts this or not, but this page at mini-itx.com states (emphasis mine)

The original EPIAs and EPIA Vs are very well supported under most recent kernels (EPIA 5000, EPIA 800, EPIA V5000, EPIA V8000). The EPIA Ms are less well supported (EPIA ME6000, M9000, M10000). Drivers exist in binary format only for MPEG2 acceleration, Sound and USB 2.0. Some distributions will have problems.