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It's labeled "Gamma" for a reason

What is that reason? Usually if a product is in final testing it is labeled "Beta", if it is earlier than that in the development phase it is labeled "Alpha". If it not yet Alpha it is "pre-Alpha" or "in development". Gamma would imply that it is past Alpha and past Beta and instead of going into production it is gone into some new development phase.

This thing looks just like the MSI Hetis 915 and it has similar specs. I don't know if they sell the Hetis anymore, but I bought one several years ago for a MythTV frontend and it cost about the same. Neuros is selling oldish tech at fairly high prices for what you get.

This box is only going to be useful for a HDTV, since it doesn't seem to have a S-Video or composite output. I don't know how well it will serve as a HDTV box since it has an ATI graphics adapter. I don't think the ATI linux drivers allow any offloading of the decoding (like XvMC or NVidia's new VDPAU. It has no hard drive thus can't serve as a media storage or recording box. It doesn't appear to have an optical drive and you control it using a clunky keyboard rather than a remote. This doesn't look like a very good HTPC to me.

Hopefully boxes based on the ION platform will be coming soon and will bridge the divide between cheap, attractive and capable.

I'm going to have to temporarily suspend my moral embargo against buying from Wal-Mart if they have a $200 PC with a C7 chip. The C7 is a beautiful little chip with all sorts of hardware cryptography begging to be taken advantage of. Via's Padlock engine is an amazing and underappreciated tool that security geeks would do well to take note of. And if this Linux is using the 2.6.22 kernel it'll have all the tools baked right in to take advantage of that raw cryptographic power. I use an MSI Axis 700 system running Gentoo Hardened for my firewall/VPN package and love the performance.

The Merom chip is dual-core and has ludicrous amounts of power-controlled cache, which turns off when not in use, and the Centrino platform is highly efficient. AnandTech tested an MSI S271 recently, which is bested for computing power by an Asus notbeook with a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo chip but, being a 12-inch ultra-portable using integrated graphics, the MSI runs longer than the Asus which has GeForce Go 7700 graphics.

The new MacBook Pro is what I wanted in March when I bought my Turion 64 notebook.

I found a barebones WSXGA+ non-glare MSI-1039 on eBay for $600USD. It'll take a Turion-64 and up to 2 gigs of pc3200 DDR, and it has a 256mb Radeon x1600. It runs really hot though, but it's my dream (realisticly speaking) gaming laptop. MSI-1039 Product Sheet

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/
http://www.rawpowerpc.com/
http://www.rkcomputers.com/

They may not offer an OS-less laptop, but many of the resellers linked to by http://www.msicomputer.com/NB/index.asp do. I'm actually gonna buy the MS-1039 as soon as they are actually for sale. OS-less, of course.

IF one knows that one wants a machine that will run "new" release programs in 3 years, that means AMD64, rather than 32-bit
( compatibility-problems, as-in programs simply not running, have been found on the Intel implimentation of x86_64 )

That cuts down the field greatly.

THEN, one looks at whether the thing is guaranteed to be wordprocessing-only
( or equivalent non-taxing, ie NO multimedia-rendering or vid-conferencing, ferinstance ),
and one can sanely go with single-channel-RAM ( socket 754 ),
rather-than dual-channel-RAM ( socket-939 or socket-940 )

THEN once looks at what kind of expandibility one may need, later. . .
Video-card?
No-longer does AGP count ( they aren't making top-end ones anymore, and soon won't be making middle-of-the-road ones, either! ),
so one requires PCIe ( PCI-Express ) 16x on the motherboard.

Does one want to be forced to find a firewire-card to add-in later? or does one want everything built-in?

Does one want the ability to add-in PCIe add-in cards for, say, high-end-audio, or for video-capture, or for ANYTHING?

one needs PCIe slots, then, too ( PCI is going the way of the dodo )

All in all, the one mobo I know-of, that at-the-moment covers it ( including a 4x PCIe slot, for later! ),
is by MSI http://www.msicomputer.com/index2.asp

Unfortunately, it's got a fan on the chipset,
so it's an on-when-one-uses-it cheap workstation-board,
rather-than an always-on everything-server-board
( fans die after however many running-hours they happen to survive )

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?mode l=K8N_Neo4_Platinum&class=mb

Abit's got one that is missing the PCIe 4x slot, but that has no chipset-fan, called the
Abit AN8 Ultra
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?c ategories=1&model=278

Right, that's the mobo, howabout the CPU?
syncronous-with-the-RAM is a good rule

IF the mobo can deal-with PC3200 RAM ( these 2 can ), then that means the RAM's communicating-speed is 400MHz ( rather-than, say, 333MHz )
Since there isn't any valid thing as 1/3 of a wait-cycle ( it's either 0 or it's 1, with computers ), I want the CPU's actual physical speed to be a multiple of that, like say 2000MHz.
That gets the speed, so what choices are there?
cheap, and I wasn't able to get-one, is the
SDA3400DIO28W Sempron 3400+ Socket 939 ( the "3400+" is the approximate equivalent in Intel-speed, known-as its "rating" )
More expensive, and having more on-chip cache-memory, is the
2.0 GHz 939-pin Athlon 64 3200+
Ultimate capability would-be the X2 chip ( 2 Athlon64 cores in one chip, so when one program is swamping one core, the system still responds )
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInforma tion/0,,30_118_9485_13041%5E13076,00.html
shows that cheapest multiple-of-400MHz X2 chip is the "3800+" and the highest-end is 2.4GHz "4800+"
Hit http://www.pricewatch.com/ to discover what sane-prices are for the things, but be sitting-down when you see the highest-end ones. . .

Case? Aluminum. That keeps hard-drives cooler ( whole case acts like a nice-big heatsink ).
Make decorations for it using pipecleaners & a hot-melt-glue gun, if you want. . . : )

Video-card?
IF you want quiet, go for ATI rather-than NVidia ( fan-speed, I'm talking about, here ),
and if you want cheap, grab some X300 or something,
the higher-end cards the X800 XL is a very good bu

IF one knows that one wants a machine that will run "new" release programs in 3 years, that means AMD64, rather than 32-bit
( compatibility-problems, as-in programs simply not running, have been found on the Intel implimentation of x86_64 )

That cuts down the field greatly.

THEN, one looks at whether the thing is guaranteed to be wordprocessing-only
( or equivalent non-taxing, ie NO multimedia-rendering or vid-conferencing, ferinstance ),
and one can sanely go with single-channel-RAM ( socket 754 ),
rather-than dual-channel-RAM ( socket-939 or socket-940 )

THEN once looks at what kind of expandibility one may need, later. . .
Video-card?
No-longer does AGP count ( they aren't making top-end ones anymore, and soon won't be making middle-of-the-road ones, either! ),
so one requires PCIe ( PCI-Express ) 16x on the motherboard.

Does one want to be forced to find a firewire-card to add-in later? or does one want everything built-in?

Does one want the ability to add-in PCIe add-in cards for, say, high-end-audio, or for video-capture, or for ANYTHING?

one needs PCIe slots, then, too ( PCI is going the way of the dodo )

All in all, the one mobo I know-of, that at-the-moment covers it ( including a 4x PCIe slot, for later! ),
is by MSI http://www.msicomputer.com/index2.asp

Unfortunately, it's got a fan on the chipset,
so it's an on-when-one-uses-it cheap workstation-board,
rather-than an always-on everything-server-board
( fans die after however many running-hours they happen to survive )

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?mode l=K8N_Neo4_Platinum&class=mb

Abit's got one that is missing the PCIe 4x slot, but that has no chipset-fan, called the
Abit AN8 Ultra
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?c ategories=1&model=278

Right, that's the mobo, howabout the CPU?
syncronous-with-the-RAM is a good rule

IF the mobo can deal-with PC3200 RAM ( these 2 can ), then that means the RAM's communicating-speed is 400MHz ( rather-than, say, 333MHz )
Since there isn't any valid thing as 1/3 of a wait-cycle ( it's either 0 or it's 1, with computers ), I want the CPU's actual physical speed to be a multiple of that, like say 2000MHz.
That gets the speed, so what choices are there?
cheap, and I wasn't able to get-one, is the
SDA3400DIO28W Sempron 3400+ Socket 939 ( the "3400+" is the approximate equivalent in Intel-speed, known-as its "rating" )
More expensive, and having more on-chip cache-memory, is the
2.0 GHz 939-pin Athlon 64 3200+
Ultimate capability would-be the X2 chip ( 2 Athlon64 cores in one chip, so when one program is swamping one core, the system still responds )
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInforma tion/0,,30_118_9485_13041%5E13076,00.html
shows that cheapest multiple-of-400MHz X2 chip is the "3800+" and the highest-end is 2.4GHz "4800+"
Hit http://www.pricewatch.com/ to discover what sane-prices are for the things, but be sitting-down when you see the highest-end ones. . .

Case? Aluminum. That keeps hard-drives cooler ( whole case acts like a nice-big heatsink ).
Make decorations for it using pipecleaners & a hot-melt-glue gun, if you want. . . : )

Video-card?
IF you want quiet, go for ATI rather-than NVidia ( fan-speed, I'm talking about, here ),
and if you want cheap, grab some X300 or something,
the higher-end cards the X800 XL is a very good bu

Thanks Dan, can you tell me where you got the board from? I found this on MSI's web site, is it the same (RS482M4-ILD)? Here is a link:
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?mode l=RS482M4-ILD&class=mb
Do you record SD TV? If so, how does it look on playback, relative to the source? Thanks Again, Alex

Video card: Model "e-GeForce FX5200(128-A8-N304-LX)"

chris at beefstew dot net

The newest MD players actually play mp3s but they wrap them in some drm.

I know, but as i posted before in a similar discusion: too little too late. It's a shame, because it's the usual story with Sony: top notch products encumbered by retarded lock-in's.
Besides the need to reencode constantly, i really liked it. It ran for over 10hs with a single 1200mAh AA battery charge, was virtually shockproof, had a lot of options and sounded damn fine. The thing is, for the same price i sold it i got a MP3 player which:

a) holds 6 times at much music as a single MD,
b) sounds damn good aswell (i was very surprised by this - kudos to MSI),
c) has FM radio with 10 programable presets and records from it,
d) is completely solid state - AAA rechargeables last forever,
e) i can plug to my PC via USB or record from a line in, and
f) can also record from a built-in mic. 512mb worth of mid quality .wav files. I used the MD to record some classes and even there the MP3 stick player is MUCH more comfortable.

This board has 8 sockets on one Opteron and 4 on the other. If you read the fine print in the manual, you will find you must go down to 266 DDR to use 8 memory modules on the one CPU.

like the MSI K8TNeo2 which has built-in SATA HD support and works fine in Linux 2.6.x with SATA enabled in the kernel config.

Just make sure you ask the linux kernel guys why they still can't be bothered to document the recent (2.6.7) change in the naming of SATA devices from /dev/hd[a-z] to /dev/sd[a-z] which is mildly important to know when setting up a SATA boot device.

find linux-2.6.10/Documentation -type f -exec grep -iw sata '{}' \;

I personally think MSI's product line looks better.

I personally think MSI's product line looks better.

I recently installed an ATi X800 from http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?mode l=RX800XT-VTD256E&class=vga MSI and noticed it has component in - the site might be of help.

Well, its not a shuttle http://www.msicomputer.com/pressrelease/MEGAPC.asp
but thats was the way I finally got a box into the living room, the thing has a high Woman Approval Rating and its nice for parties indeed.

Well, its not a shuttle http://www.msicomputer.com/pressrelease/MEGAPC.asp butthatswasthewayIfinallygotaboxintothelivingroom, thethinghasahighWoman Approval Rating and its nice for parties indeed.

I had one, but never used the streaming part, and I found bad reviews about the card, although I never had a problem with it. Check it here

I had one of these, it worked pretty good... To bad it I use my Mac for everything now.

TV capture + Streaming software: MSI TV@nywhere

here's one with all the banks on one cpu
here's a nice little overview

I am interested to see the kind of support available for Linux on the MSI Mega180 sytem. It should be fairly straightforward as it is nForce2, but I still wouldn't expect the LCD or remote to be easy to talk to -- might be a fun project to hack on...

Just get an MSI mega pc.

You can turn on and off the computer and still use the home theater section independently.

Walmart had a Lycoris OS pc for. $199 .

Some of the Microtel systems come with an MSI 6390 board . The MSI Metis barebones ( $138 at Newegg also uses this board and I have used these boards extensively due to their tight integration, small form factor, high degree of reliability and stability.

Walmart had a Lycoris OS pc for. $199 .

Some of the Microtel systems come with an MSI 6390 board . The MSI Metis barebones ( $138 at Newegg also uses this board and I have used these boards extensively due to their tight integration, small form factor, high degree of reliability and stability.

Here we use a P120 laptop w/OpenBSD as a wireless router. Used to serve files and mysql webs off it but got slow, so moved serving to a "mini" system.

Don't use the MSI NetPC MS-6215T system as a server. The power supply is only 90 watts. I ran it 24/7 for a year, the next time I powered it down, it wouldn't power back up. Was running a P3 Tualatin (low power) 1.13ghz, Geforce PCI card, Wifi, and 60gb hard drive. Now I power the system with a standard sized ATX power supply sitting outside the case. Works but is UGLY.

But do use the Shuttle SS51g. It has a small but full power 200w power supply. Been running the hell out of this thing with 60+80gb hard drives, Geforce AGP, and Wifi. Not a single problem. Also the cooling solution in these things is very very nice.

Regarding the original story subject, it has on-board Ethernet and sound, which is fine for my needs. Personally, I like the idea of having as much stuff as possible integrated, at least for non-critical applications. Less cards to fiddle with means less stuff to go wrong. I'm currently looking for a Mini-ITX sized system with video, two ethernet ports, IDE and pretty much nothing else built in. Everything seems to have USB and Firewire and be designed as a home audio server, and all I want is a faster, quieter firewall/Apache/mySQL/whatever box than my old P133.

The ddr which came witht he system was a bit of a surprise, it was unbranded, but took aggressive memory timing (2-2-5-2-4) and cas 2. Pushing the FSB up to 136+ gave me 2GB/s memroy bandwidth in Sandra which made the onboard s3 graphics fairly decent.

The case was not the most attractive thing in the world, but it was damn sturdy and the quality seemed on par with cases from Antec.

Even with Windows, these machines are a great bargain and offer quality parts whcih exceed anything you can expect to get from Dell or Gateway costing a few hundred more.

...but will it have a decent mobo to run on?

Score: -1, Troll. As long as you avoid obvious crap (like anything from ECS), you should be OK. At this point, I'm somewhat partial to the MSI K7D Master.

Still, MSI color their mother boards, including ports, etc in a purple hue. I'm pretty sure they'd get the material in that boring green color easier, but it's all about standing out of the crowd. Same reason to why you'd make your LED blue.

This is my favorite slimline PC. Supports P-III 1ghz+, costs under $300 barebones.

Company site
A friendly ebay dealer
Config for Linux

ASUS A7M266-D
Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW and GA-7DPXDW-C
MSI K7D Master

The problem with these boards is that they aren't really any cheaper than the Tyan boards (last I checked.) I think the reasons for the high cost are the AMD 760MP/760MPX chipset and the fact that AMD processors suck a lot more juice than the P3s and Celerons that worked on the cheapie Intel dual boards.

Ian

I just bought a msi kt3u and I was wondering if anyone knew where to get the s-bracket?

• 200/266MHz FSB, Supports AMD Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP up to 2000+
  
• Ultra DMA 66/100, 2 PC100/133 DIMM Sockets up to 1GB
  
• Integrated Trident Blade3D AGP Graphics Engine shared memory up to 8MB
  
• Micro-ATX Form Factor, 3 PCI, 1 CNR, AC 97, 2 USB, AGP 2x
  
• ADMTek AN983B 10/100 BaseT Ethernet
  

I don't think that the PCI64 slots are compatible with standard PCI cards... look at this picture of a MSI board: MSI as you can see the polarity lock is reversed on the PCI-64 slots.

Microstar makes some motherboards using cool colors...

Check out this board for single Athlons or this board for single P4's.

The font page has some more examples as well.

Microstar makes some motherboards using cool colors...

Check out this board for single Athlons or this board for single P4's.

The font page has some more examples as well.

Microstar makes some motherboards using cool colors...

Check out this board for single Athlons or this board for single P4's.

The font page has some more examples as well.

Yup, the case looks cheesy and flimsy even for being aluminum. When I was looking, I was very impressed by the MS-6215. It's about the same form-factor as the Bookpc, but also has 2 PCI slots. It has the i815 chipset, Fireware, TV-out, and integrated LAN/audio/USB. The i815 graphics are not as good for gaming as the Via PLE133, but for a home theater system, this would be awesome. Pricing is about the same as the Shuttle barebones system, low $200s.

MSI NetPC Concerto III (MS-6215). They look to be a bit difficult to find, about $300 with no cpu/ram/drives, but nice and tiny. I don't know about underclocking or OS support, but the nice thing abot this one is that it has 2 PCI slots on a riser- something you don't see on many of the NLX boards. Builtin 10/100, sound, TV out, IR header and 2 1394 ports(good for webcams and uploading off the DV camcorder, not to mention portable drives). Those PCI slots would be good for putting in higher fidelity sound or hardware DVD decoding.

Anyone had any experience with this particular box? the $300 bare price is a bit offputting, but it's so nice and tiny.

The only difference I can see is that mine has 4 DIMM slots as opposed to 5. I can't tell from the picture in this article whether it's a socket for PIII or Athlon though. Considering it's got a VIA chipset that looks just like mine, I'd say this motherboard is just a dual PIII board.

However, it totally rocks. :) To sum up a few of its features:

• Dual IDE buses (yes, it does have 4 IDE ports), one at ATA 66, one at ATA 100.
• Firewire and USB onboard
• Nice clocking facilities

Fross

The only difference I can see is that mine has 4 DIMM slots as opposed to 5. I can't tell from the picture in this article whether it's a socket for PIII or Athlon though. Considering it's got a VIA chipset that looks just like mine, I'd say this motherboard is just a dual PIII board.

However, it totally rocks. :) To sum up a few of its features:

• Dual IDE buses (yes, it does have 4 IDE ports), one at ATA 66, one at ATA 100.
• Firewire and USB onboard
• Nice clocking facilities

Fross

What you want to do is very possible. I had the same situation.
I bought one CPU to start out with and built up my system, knowing that I didnt want to replace my mobo. I have the Microstar 6120, its a dual slot1 mobo with onboard adaptec scsi. I bought it 3 years ago (phew) right when the BX chipset came out. It is relatively inexpensive in its class and is rock solid. It has bus speeds Auto/100/112/133 so it can take all sorts of cpus. I have been running on dual PII-450s recently. My friend is using a Shuttle 649A with a P3 and that motherboard (imho) is not as stable. My system has been runing rock solid using the Microstar. Specs here, and a great price

I bought my cpus from Step-Thermodynamics which I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The coolers on those are simply the best. They add a ton to the stablity and performance (I got the 400-450 step).

Good luck in finding what you need
-Chris