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Actually, there were Pentium overdrive chips for the 486, however, they were slower than a regular pentium owing to the fact that it only had a 32 bit external data bus. Though Evergreen's solution, was as you said, a very fast modified 486-based processor.

"You can't type that with one hand."

ATA is not in the least bit based on ISA.

This document, describing the origin of ATA, seems to state otherwise.

It can live on ISA, PCI and other buses

And I'm guessing that though ATA can be bridged to PCI, PCI-Ex, NuBus, etc., the logic in that bridge probably looks a lot like an ISA bridge.

Gibibyte -- still getting used to that one ...

Secondly, use smartctl to query the drives and check their present condition. If you're running smartd, you should get a pre-failure warnings, but it would be good to check what their current state is.

Do you have a third IDE controller installed as well? The presence of hdi and hdk implies this.

How long are your IDE cables? They should be no longer than 18" (maximum length as per the ATA spec) and some controllers have this limit shared between both channels (e.g. the CMD640 - its spec limits total cable length to 18"). Also, the devices jumpered as master should be at the far end of the cable, with slaves slightly further back. This is a pretty good guide to cabling ATA drives correctly (though plenty of vendors and users don't and feel they get away without any problems).

Finally, have you tried the errata kernels released by RH?

--

Yes, I just read that in this excellent hard drive reference. There's a chart showing that 10K drives are 3.0" and 15K drives are 2.5". It also explains why smaller platters are better.

Yes, I just read that in this excellent hard drive reference. There's a chart showing that 10K drives are 3.0" and 15K drives are 2.5". It also explains why smaller platters are better.

You could always try using a one handed dvorak setup. Then you don't have to buy any new hardware just rearrange the keys on an old junker keyboard. And if you find you like the layout you can move to the standard Dvorak layout once/if you hand heals. Heck you can even get X keysym files.

These have the advantage that you don't need to buy new hardware to try them out.

http://www.pcguide.com/intro/fun/bindec-c.html

NTFS is a modern, mature, stable, fully journalled file system. It's got POSIX compliance, and it's got room built in for improvement. It also handles sparse files very nicely. In fact, even Windows NT 4 can use NTFS 3.1 (aka NTFS5) when upgraded to SP4 (ntfs.sys is replaced).

Few people really know what they're talking about when they discuss NTFS. Did you know it supports hard linking? Did you know it's got a change journal? Did you know it can encrypt and decrypt files on the fly for instant access? NTFS pushes security, and part of security is security through obscurity. No one can boot Knoppix and overwrite your SAM - they can format the drive, but they can't CHANGE your system (presuming then, that you could always restore your data).

Anyway, leave it to Slashdot to find some jerk who says NTFS is crap because it's a Microsoft product.

I'm not saying NTFS is the end all of file systems, but don't trash it. It's a very nice product, and, unlike reiser, ext3, and UFS2, it's proven and widely deployed.

More on NTFS

Doing CAD work I was used to shadow mask monitors (supposedly better for detail work), but I'm more than happy with my current monitors even though I do notice the horizontal lines every now and then.

Buy the highest refresh rate you can afford, and consider a dual screen setup if your video card can handle it. Two seventeen-inchers are better than one 21".

(According to my ex-girlfriend)

There's a picture of one here on google, although it appears the linked site is down

The google link to the site is broken - has a space in it. Here's the correct link to the site that describes how the keyboards work (and why you don't find many of them anymore). It's definately made me think about trying to find one on eBay...

You could map "caps lock" to "control", the way it used to be (and still is on some *nix systems).

See this bit of information.

Uneven platter surfaces on hard disks running at faster speeds with heads closer to the surface are more apt to lead to head crashes. For this reason many drive makers began several years ago to look at alternatives to aluminum, such as glass, glass composites, and magnesium alloys . . . One obvious disadvantage of glass compared to aluminum is fragility, particularly when made very thin. For this reason some companies are experimenting with glass/ceramic composites. One of these is a Dow Corning product called MemCor, which is a glass made with ceramic inserts to reduce the likelihood of cracking.

Bring back VLB!

The ATX and Mini ATXhave been out well before those cubes G4 Cubes.

I recently discovered that my spare Options by IBM SelectEase has some defective keys. I tried to take one of the halves (splits into 2 pieces) apart and found that the underlying PCB layer is held together by what appears to be locking washers attached to plastic pegs. What tool can I get to pry these off? The specific key's spring has been deformed so the force required to press it has increased and the tactile feedback has disappeared (spring no longer deforms to create the clicking sound). What I wanted to do was switch its spring clip with that of a less-used key like F11. I'm well aware the potential havoc that can arise by the disassembly of these mechanical IBM keyboards. More info at PCGuide and here

I know that pckeyboard.com fixes keyboards but with the unfavorable comment here, I don't want to try them since these keyboards aren't being made any more.

Also, what causes keys to repeat intermittently? Old springs?

I recently discovered that my spare Options by IBM SelectEase has some defective keys. I tried to take one of the halves (splits into 2 pieces) apart and found that the underlying PCB layer is held together by what appears to be locking washers attached to plastic pegs. What tool can I get to pry these off? The specific key's spring has been deformed so the force required to press it has increased and the tactile feedback has disappeared (spring no longer deforms to create the clicking sound). What I wanted to do was switch its spring clip with that of a less-used key like F11. I'm well aware the potential havoc that can arise by the disassembly of these mechanical IBM keyboards. More info at PCGuide and here

I know that pckeyboard.com fixes keyboards but with the unfavorable comment here, I don't want to try them since these keyboards aren't being made any more.

Also, what causes keys to repeat intermittently? Old springs?

umnn, it's even worse than that. The MTBF is calculated based on REPLACEING the drive before its end of service life. So drives may actually need to be replaced every year to make that series of drives get its million hour MTBF
here is a good article on MTBF

Over at "The PC Guide," there is a comprehensive look at issues related to the output power capacity and ratings of power supplies. I found it to be very informative... The link can be found here...

Your konwledge isn't that good. The fastest 486 in terms of Mhz was the Amd 5x86 - 133Mhz (4*33Mhz) chip. That chip easily overclocked to 160Mhz (4*40Mhz). In terms of pentium performance (integer wise) it was equivalent of a P75 at 133Mhz and of a P90 at 160Mhz (give or take a few percent)

In terms of performance the fastest chip that fitted in a socket 3 was the Cyrix 5x86 120Mhz, which (again speaking of integer performance) was equivalent of a P100.

Your konwledge isn't that good. The fastest 486 in terms of Mhz was the Amd 5x86 - 133Mhz (4*33Mhz) chip. That chip easily overclocked to 160Mhz (4*40Mhz). In terms of pentium performance (integer wise) it was equivalent of a P75 at 133Mhz and of a P90 at 160Mhz (give or take a few percent)

In terms of performance the fastest chip that fitted in a socket 3 was the Cyrix 5x86 120Mhz, which (again speaking of integer performance) was equivalent of a P100.

The whole gist of the article has to do with the x86's lack of general purpose registers. While this is true, you're not going to solve all of the x86 shortcomings simply by figuring out a way to add more of them. There are MANY things wrong with the x86 design; GP registers are just one of them. There's an entire section in the famous Patterson book that goes into all of the issues in much more detail than I care to state here.

Besides, there's already more efficient (albiet complex) solutions to extend registers that make much more sense in the current world of pipelined processors. Register renaming is one such example.

In line with what they other posts said, non-blocking I/O can be accomplished by letting the DMA controller take over transfers while the CPU does other things. However, I think the advantage that SCSI has over IDE that you're thinking of is that SCSI can have multiple outstanding transactions on a bus at once while IDE cannot. In other words, you can send a read request to one SCSI disk and, while it's being processed, send out another one to another SCSI disk on the same bus. With IDE, you have to wait to send a request to a new device on a channel until the last one finishes.

I'm not 100% sure about this, so if you need to make decisions based on this information I suggest you do some research elsewhere. You might want to check out the online pc guide.

Memory Errors, Detection and Correction (The PC Guide)

IBM experiments in soft fails in computer electronics (1978-1994) (IBM Research)

IBM moves to protect DRAM from cosmic invaders (EETimes)

All big electronic equipment manufacturers have ESD protection measures in place, however consumers (and sometimes retailers too) don't even know what it is. I bought RAM the other day, and the clerck was handling the DIMM's with his bare hands before me ! I was shocked, and even though I tried to explain, he didn't give a shit :/
(fortunatwely for him, the 2 DIMM's worked out fine).

Fuck you slashdot auto-filter assholes for always screwing up URLs. what purpose does that serve?

here. now it's an href. leave it alone.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/heads/opHeight-c .html

For the love of God, when will the PC industry stop with these damned limits?

FYI, for anyone interested in reading a nice list of all such limits with a technical description for each one, I suggest this link.

I've often wondered why slower RPM drives don't do dual read-write heads for faster access times and transfer speeds.

Multiple head assemblies in a hard drive sounds like a great idea, but doesn't work very well in practice. See here for info.

>I think you mean "Winchester drive".

Funny, I would have said drum drive. But whatever pleases you...

Apple did NOT create SCSI. Look here for the history of SCSI. Apple may have popularized it, but they did not invent it.

Ok, after having done more research than I thought would be necessary...

Most "ATA/100" systems aren't implementing ATAPI-6. They're implementing ATAPI-5 with an extention that includes UltraDMA Mode 5. ATAPI-6 does have 48-bit addressing, and Maxtor has implemented an extention that adds UltraDMA Mode 6 (aka ATA/133).

Note that ATAPI-5 is the current official standard. ATAPI-6 is _not_ yet official. See the Technical Committee T13 website for details. Another good reference is ATA-ATAPI.com, along with PC Guide ATA standards.

The net effect here is don't confuse the physical interface (ATAPI) with the network interface (UltraDMA). Yes, nitpick at the terms, but that's what it boils down to. Your "ATA/100" motherboard does not support 48-bit addresing.

I agree, however, on the crappy design, the marketing blurbishness, the projection of HD speeds, and your recommendation about not running out and buying a 133 adaptor.

This is probably the worst place ever to mention this, but:

Since NTFS support under Linux is pretty shoddy, maybe it's time to get serious here and switch to Windows 2000. Recall that NTFS theoretically has NO maximum file size.

On the other hand, if you are doing your calculations using Linux-proprietary software, you could mount the Win2k storage array as a samba volume under Linux, and store your data using, say, gigabit ethernet. Another solution is to write proxy software to create an in-between filesystem between the program and the actual filesystem. The data would be stored contiguously in a "virtual filesystem", which would actually consist of multiple files in the actual file system.

Since this software is pretty new, I don't know if I'd trust it with any Terabyte-sized files right now.

To see a real-world example of huge amounts of data, visit Microsoft TerraServer. From the site:

"All the imagery and meta-data displayed on the TerraServer web site is stored in Microsoft SQL Server databases. The TerraServer image data is partitioned across three SQL Server 2000 1.5 TB databases. USGS aerial imagery is partitioned across two 1.5 TB databases. The USGS topographical data is stored in a single 1.5 TB database. Each database server runs on a separate, active server in the four-node Windows 2000 Datacenter Server cluster... (Let mySQL try THAT...)"

"Microsoft TerraServer runs exclusively on Compaq servers and storage arrays. Compaq Corporation donated the 4 Compaq ProLiant 8500 database servers. The disk storage equipment, 13.5 TB in total, was donated by the StorageWorks division of Compaq Corporation. The web servers are eight Compaq ProLiant DL360, "1u" processors."

See... Bill DOES know where you live! ;-)

Switch to NTFS! Much bigger than 2TB

I would check for power problems. I once had a similar situation, where you could actually hear something when the monitor screens would shrink a bit. One quiet night I figured out that it was the power hungry Sun SparcPrinter on the same power circuit that was firing up the fuser periodically. It was causing brown-outs.

If all of your flickering monitors are on the same circuit, or worse, the same surge protector, try changing that.

I have had surge protectors that were "used up" and were spiking the power on their own. Try taking the surge protectors out.

You might try monitoring the power voltage with a mulitmeter to see if you see a change when the flicker happens.

Try testing with a small online UPS for one monitor to see if that cures the problem. Note that it cannot be a standby UPS. Those won't cure brown outs. http://www.pcguide.com/ref/power/ext/ups/types.htm

In my original post I was thinking giga"byte" when I picked the NIC (My bad). I could wait for the 10 gigabit NICs to be released or I could team up several 100baseT NICs as another reader suggested (Thanks!). I should have thought of that, but nobody's perfect. I also forgot that the NIC(s) needs a slot. I would have to place it on the 64-bit 33Mhz bus which would further decrease the overall STR from the original plan. I double checked the specs on the Mobo. The server has 3 PCI buses, not 2 (Again, my bad). There's the 64-bit 66Mhz bus with 2 PCI slots, a 64-bit 33Mhz bus with 5 PCI slots, and a 32-bit 33Mhz bus with 1 PCI slot. It's got 2 P3 800 Xeons and 1.5 GB of memory. It's running NT4 (SP6a and post patches)and SQL 7 (SP3 and post patches).

I'm extremely green in the database arena. In fact, it was just a month or so ago that I learned Access. Don't laugh! Again, suggested reading material is appreciated. I'm sure we all have an area in computers that we ignored completely until it was forced into our lives. My stronger areas and the focus of my career path are networking and security (System, network, physical, etc.).

In regards to the software our company runs, please don't bash MS. It won't help me learn anything I don't already know. I don't agree with their business practices and think that open source is the way all software should be for the good of mankind and progress. On the other hand, I did NT4 server support for Microsoft (Under one of their outsourcers) and prior to that, Windows 2000 Professional support. I have a firm belief that they're great products if you know how to use them properly. The same goes for XP (I flunking HATE 95/98/ME). When it comes to vulnerabilities and exploits, the only flaw is the administrator that doesn't install patches and doesn't understand why a properly configured firewall is a good idea. There's not many worms or hackers that exploit unannounced vulnerabilities.

The longer a drive is on, the warmer it gets (at least within the first approx. 30 minutes). The warmer it gets, thermic effects affect the drive's mechanic. This causes it to expand over time (and "shrink" if it gets cooler again). So the position within the range where the grove may exists moves.

This information is dated; modern hard drives store position info on the platter surfaces. The platters expand with temperature, but the feedback information for the voice coil expands right along with them, and the track should be written at the same position every time.

There is another effect that will cause the writing position to vary though. Hard drives will start writing before the process of zeroing-in on a track has completed, so some data will be written a bit off center as the vibration in the arm dies down.

There's more here.

Quantum used to make a multi-headed drive like that, known as the 'Chinook', after the helicopter with a pair of rotors. It was reputed to be very fast at the time (1990 or so, IIRC).

[it was Conner, not Quantum - here's a page about it]

All I know of W2K reparse points are the few descriptions I've read of them, so I don't have a total understanding.

Anyway, my understanding is that reparse points are made for virtual files (or symlinks and the like), and that it would be very difficult (or impossible?) to make full virtual filesystems like you do with translators. e.g. could I do e:\ftp_sites\www.foo.com\pub\pr0n\britney_spears.j pg using reparse points?

I'm hoping the answer is "yes", but all descriptions I've read of reparse points make it sound like symlink+code.

The answer is yes; the problem is that you have to write a filter driver to do this, which is rather annoying (I've not played on the kernel side of things for about 6 years).

Here's some details though:
Quick guide to reparse points

Simon

I dunno, I use Removable Hard Drive Trays, which make more sense for me.. I not only want to be able to switch drives, but move the drives between home/office etc.. I picked up several removable trays for $20 each (canadian even!) and am quite happy with them.

This lock switch seems overpriced at $16.95. Parts would cost you about $6 or less I imagine..

Did you know "turbo" buttons on computers actually do the opposite of what you might think they do? Yes, "turbo" buttons are meant to slow down your computer! In all honesty. Infact, here's a reference regarding it: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/case/switchTurbo-c.html

Well, it seem these days, most of the power user just care to get something like 200fps in Quake III. Why ? Beat's me ! I'm not on a quest to get the ultimate frame rate, I just want my box to be quiet as possibly can be.

To help you understand my take on the subject, here is the background :
My PC has the following components :

• A OEM case
• A 235W OEM power supply
• ASUS P3B-F
• Intel Pentium II rated 400Mhz @ 400Mhz
• A cheap OEM SECC2 Heat-Sink made of aluminum
• A 128MB CAS2 no-name DIMM
• Two 32MB CAS3 Samsung DIMM slowing down my memory timing, but preventing the appearance of the all mighty evil SwaP
• A ATI All-In-Wonder Rage128 16MB
• A Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
• A Realtek 8139 Ethernet NIC
• My beloved USR 56Kbps ISA Real Modem. Sorry but to me a component that uses CPU power to do it's processing instead of taking the load off is not worthy of being in my computer. Not to mention the M$ Win part...
• A Creative 48x CD-ROM drive. It's the loudest damned thing in my computer when it's spinning
• A Quantum Fireball AS PLUS 40GB (7200RPM) in a removable tray
• A Quantum Fireball CX1 10GB (5400RPM) mounted inside the case
• Of course the stupid old 1.44 MB floppy drive only used for booting Tomsbrt in case of emergency

Soon to be :

• A Adaptec 2940UW
• A Diamond Monster 3D II for Glide games

It turn out that the Quantum Fireball AS makes less noise than the Quantum Fireball CX1. I still have to figure it out ...

I use my PC for :

• Running Linux and learning as much as time allows me (Jez I had so much time when I was a student... Think of all the time I wasted in High-School running the evil W monster)
• Doing some gaming i.e. : Diablo II, Unreal, UT, Undying (Although that thing is going to cost me a new box)
• Spending numerous nights filling my brain @ Slashdot, Tomshardware, Anandtech, Arstechnica, StorageReview, Developper.Intel.com, and most importantly, hounding the web for all the case manufacturers and their take at a quiet box.

As I'm writing this post, that is probably going to be the base documentation for my Silent Case Project, you're guessing that my sleepless night of browsing have not yielded the desired result.

I've check out many options such as water cooling, moving the PC to the closet, returning to the forest where a PC is pretty far from your everyday quest for survival. None of them suits me.

The objective of my project is to build a case that meets the following criteria :

• A silent as possible
• Accessible
• Provides sufficient ventilation to maintain all the components running within thermal specs
• Be light enough to be easily transportable (Let's not forget the Lan parties ;-)

To attain those goals I have to :

• Read all I can about noise, sound, aerodynamics, PC specs
• Find suitable materials : A case is not just a protection against unwanted fingers and dust ; it must provide EMI shielding, proper grounding, resist to impacts, and fit into my conception of the king of object you want in your bedroom (If you were thinking about plywood and a box of rusted leftover nails, forget it)
• Find the tools or the companies or individuals with the means to work the materials I choose to build the casing

For the sound isolation I was thinking about some kind of foam. Mineral lint would be affective but that takes too much space and it's not the kind of thing I want beside my bed. Form the casing itself, metal is almost inevitable if you want EMI shielding and grounding. And as for you who wonder why I have not mentioned water cooling yet, the greatest source of noise is not my CPU cooler and your just moving the problem out of the case (Nice ; you have water heating up but unless your reservoir is like a bathtub or something you will have to transfer the heat for the water to the air).

That about as far as I am. If you have any idea that might help me, please fell free to send me some bits forming ASCII characters at Prozzaks@operamail.com

To finish up, here is a list of thing that might help people wanting to achieve similar goals :

• http://www.formfactors.org/ You should be able to find all the documents regarding the ATX form factor and thermal design guides. A must if you want to build a quiet PC.
• http://developer.intel.com/ Intel has contributed a great deal to the ATX definition ; here you will find many relevant documents including thermal design guides for all Intel processors.
• Etract from my favorite's :
  
  

  Hardware\cases PC CASE
  Fong Kai
  PowerOn
  Enlight Corporation
  dir.yahoo Enclosures Manufacturers
  procase
  YY Computer
  Psi
  IN WIN
  Amtrade
  American Suntek
  Addtronics
  A-Top Technology, Inc
  Nikao
  Palo Alto Products
  Antec
  Lian-Li
  amaquest
  Koolance
  Quietpc
  PC Power & Cooling
  
  
  

  Hardware\Heat Sinks ALPHA
  Cooler Master
  AVC
  ekl
  GlobalWIN
  globefan
  RDJD
  Foxconn
  Spring Spread
  Sanyo Denki
  TITAN
  TaiSol
  ChipCoolers
  Orb a
  ElanVital
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Form Factor Platform Development Support
  SSI
  WTX
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Standards Fibre Channel Industry Association
  PCI SIG
  RAB
  serialata
  SPEC
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Storage RAID.edu
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Cours CS 252 - Graduate Computer Architecture
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info The PC Guide!
  Hardware Bible
  FullOn3D
  developer.intel.com
  HwB The Hardware Book
  United Overclockers
  Ars Technica
  Tech-Junkie
  HardwarePub
  Webopedia
  Illustrated Guide to the PC Hardware
  SysOpt
  2CPU
  Ace's Hardware
  Technical Support - RaidHelp v1.0 - Free RAID Technology Guide
  Computer Architecture
  OPENCORES.ORG
  TechFest
  MidWest Micro Support
  
  
  

  Hardware\Resalers GeekTek!
  Micro-Bytes
  ALCO
  ABC Micro
  2CoolTek
  Plycon Computers
  TCWO
  ABC Micro - Lprix
  Case Outlet
  The Chip Merchant, Inc
  Cimsys
  OrdiGros
  ALIENWARE
  SHENTECH
  FireStorm
  Hyper Microsystems
  TWEAKBOX
  
  
  

  Hardware\Reviews Tom's Hardware Guide
  Sharky Extreme
  StorageReview
  HardOCP
  AnandTech
  SystemLogic
  x-bit labs
  Active-Hardware
  FiringSquad
  SocketA
  Overclockers Australia
  HEXUS
  dansdata
  SysReview
  
  
  

  Hardware\Manufacturers AMD
  ASUS
  Belkin
  MassMultiples
  Promise
  StarTech
  VIA Technologies, Inc
  ABIT Computer Corp
  Comcase
  Micron Semiconductor
  ECS
  
  
  

  Hardware Freeboxen
  

The PCGuide at www.pcguide.com has a wonderful discussion of backup and disaster recovery procedures at http://www.pcguide.com/care/bu/index.htm. Discusses the various methods and mediums, rotation schedules, onsite vs offsite storage, etc. Also has an analysis of the how well various backup methods protect against various risks (i.e., hardware failure, file system corruption, accidental deletion). A must read.

The PCGuide at www.pcguide.com has a wonderful discussion of backup and disaster recovery procedures at http://www.pcguide.com/care/bu/index.htm. Discusses the various methods and mediums, rotation schedules, onsite vs offsite storage, etc. Also has an analysis of the how well various backup methods protect against various risks (i.e., hardware failure, file system corruption, accidental deletion). A must read.

In 1990, part II of the so-called "orange book" published by Philips (who else), specified the characteristics and format of a recordable CD, or CD-R. CD-R is also sometimes called CD-WORM or CD-WO, where WO means "write once" and WORM "write once read many", both reflecting truisms about the medium. (There are other types of drives that are also WORM however.)
Initially, CD-R was prohibitively expensive--well over $1,000 for a drive, and $10 or more for each blank disk. As both of these numbers have dropped in half or less, CD-R has become quite popular for several applications, including archiving, software distribution, backup, custom audio, and a host of others. This section takes a look at CD-R in a fair bit of detail, although certainly not exhaustively; there are enough descriptions and aspects related to CD-R to fill a chapter as big as everything I have written about CD-ROMs in general, easily.
read more

That link really interested me, so I gave it a quick google search. Here's a link to a picture of the layouts, in case you were wondering like me what they look like. It looks like you can do the layout on a standard keyboard. Might be really interesting to try. I know I'm tired of shuttling back and forth between the keyboard and my mouse/trackball! enjoy, anyway.

It would be very hard to stay with those dimensions since you'd also have to fit at least a power supply, hard drive, dvd drive, and a couple PCI cards in there as well (audio, network). For a reasonably fast processor (such as would be requisite for good DivX/MP4 encoding/decoding) and the AIW card, a 300W power supply will be necessary. Again, ATX format PS is the most flexible so you've got another big chunk (roughly 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 6 inches - see ATX Specs). Also realize that you'll need a good heatsink for your CPU (I'd recommend a Duron or Thunderbird whose included heatsinks are 2 inches high). Using an NLX/Micro-ATX/FlexATX form factor (specs) buys some size, but limits peripheral/mobo choices. Also check out this quick form factor guide and comparison chart.

I haven't settled on a choice yet, but you might look at the following (these cases are typically about 17 x 17 x 6 inches, which is smaller than the Qbex you mention above). Key components are Abit KT7A, Athlon ~1GHz, ATI Radeon AIW, Pioneer DV-105S, IBM 75GXP HD, NetGear FA312, and Soundblaster Platinum.

• Lian-Li miniPC 31 - very spiffy aluminum case (black with silver) ... very pricey as well.
• SuperPower Landmark KS-699 - Small and decent looking, but will need to upgrade power supply and heat could be an issue.
• Palo Alto ATCX Convertible - Supports custom faceplates, buy without PSU (only 235W).
• CoolerMaster ATC 100 is similar to the Lian-Li, but slightly larger.
• Neoseeker has an interesting case listing, with collated reviews and rankings, but not a lot of independent data.
• If you get inspired to do a custom job, see HardOCP's article on case modding, which may be helpful.
• Slashdot has run many past articles on cool cases and quiet PCs (search for them, too many to link).
• Another tip: consider the Pioneer DV-105S or similar slot loading DVD drive, so you can orient horizontally.

Personally, I think the thing to concentrate on is the loudness of the unit, rather than its physical size (and, to a lesser extent its stylishness). I have a Tivo (Phillips HDR312 with 1 30G Quantum) and find it unacceptably loud when watching movies unless placed in an enclosed cabinet (its considerably more quiet than a PC). My focus on cases is just for something that can fit inside my audio cabinet and which can flow enough air (preferably out the back) to keep the system reasonably cool. If I get something really good together, I'll probably just build myself a custom case once its all settled out (but there is lots more important things to do for integration software, remote contol, DivX support, mp3 management, etc. first IMO). Remember you are also going to have a tangle of cables to deal with if you want good integration to an A/V receiver or multiple components.

Some other options to think about:

• Mac Cube, which is already compact, stylish, and quiet. Unfortunately, it lacks S-Video, tuner, and S/PDIF (digital audio) connections, costs quite a bit of money, and has limited software choices
• Laptop PC - compact and sometimes stylish, but may not have the horsepower for DivX and would probably require a lot more software to integrate functions, pricey (maybe buy used with dead LCD).
• Sony VAIO Slimtop or similar - small with many multimedia features, but you have to pay for LCD and don't have component flexibility.

Good luck, and please email me if you find anything else good or build software around the AIW and/or remote controls.

Regards, RJS