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ArsTechnica Espresso PC Review
Hannibal from ArsTechnica gave the head's-up of their review of the Espresso PC. We had an article on this super-sweet little machine recently. This little machine weighs .99 pounds, has USB, Celeron, 3D Sound, built in touchpad - and Hannibal covers putting Linux on the puppy as well. /me wants.
After reading the original story on Slashdot, I purchased one of these puppies and started playing with it.
I put up small review with some pictures
I really like the unit. I wanted something small that I could cart around data such as games, mp3s and others. I loaded Homeworld on to it last night and it ran surprising well in both OpenGL and Direct3D. As a little game machine, this sucker really shines.
I originally purchased it as machine to play MAME games on and so far this is working pretty well. My only complaint is I can't seem to get sound working with DOS MAME. The Sound Blaster DOS emulation on the SoundMax drivers seems to just crash. MAME32 (the win32 version) runs fine howerver.
In all, I really like the unit. It's a small size, but it's not small in its capability. It's a good powered machine and can play most of the latest games (Half-Life, Homeworld, etc). Quake3 does run, but the 4MB of texture memory really slows it down.
The TV SVideo and composite out is very handy for portability as well--you can take it to people who don't have a monitor handy and use any TV. I've been watching DVD movies on it hooked to my TV and it works very well.
I also like the fact its easily upgradable. It's a Socket 370, so as new Intel Coppermines come out, you can upgrade the processor easily. IBM is also producing newer small drives with larger capacity so it would not be unreasonable to throw a 24GB drive in there in the next year when one ships.
I'd recommend it for someone looking for an additional PC to their current one that doesn't take a lot of space and is easy to pack up and move.
/// Zoid.
I can see the point of small, portable computers, but if this has to be plugged into a power socket somewhere, what makes this better to own or use than a laptop, palmtop or even a desktop PC?
The fact that it's physically small makes it ideal for embedded PC use by those of us who are looking for embedded PCs to do things that generic PC/104 units don't do well or do well too expensively. This wasn't necessarily cheap, but it was small, all-in-one, and takes DC power in.
When I'd heard about it, I thought that it'd make an excellent MP3 player for my truck-- I don't
have much interior space, being a pickup truck, and anything I build in takes interior cargo space from things like ratchet straps and the flashlight and the squeegie.
Unfortunately, if they went cheap on the sound output, it doesn't do that well, and if they went cheap there, who knows what else they did cheaply? It won't solve the problem I hoped it would solve, and now I wonder about its suitability for other problems.
My friend brought one over and we were listening to MP3's using winamp and everything sounded fine, no distortion. We ran line outs to the stereo and video to the TV for some acid television (aw yeah).
Maybe Hannibal didn't investigate the situation enough. (Outputs too high causeing clipping?)
Jon
Actually those were metric pounds. A metric pound = 1.32 firkins of rasberry jam at 283 degrees kelvin. Hope that helps.
I'm in international reader too, I come from america.
-JD
...is that the little thing sucked at playing MP3s. Hannibal tracked it down to a WaveOut problem. Once that gets fixed up, then this baby will be a sweet little PC.
:) (sorry - somebody had to say it).
Plus, filling a normal PC case with a Beowolf Cluster® full of these things still seems like a good way to blow all that lottery money I want to win
Is this post not nifty? Sluggy Freelance. Worshi
Seriously, anybody know where I can get the parts to build one of these bad boys?
Actually, maybe I can convince my wife; "awww, honey, it's just so key-yoooot! Lookit the dainty li'l rubber feet!"
Er, maybe somebody should just point me to the parts before my head blows up.
Free music from Jack Merlot.
The review says "wearable" every 3rd sentence, but then cautions that it has no battery. So what am I supposed to do? Have an operation to install 120 V outlet in my chest?
No, it can be a little more convenient than that. My company sells a gel-cushion-over-pvc gadget that you strap on your back. Then you run a subdermal line up your notochord (from the small of your back to the base of your neck). The BioPower unit on your back acts as lower lumbar support when you are sitting in your car or office, and through inductance draws power from the line, which in turn gets its power directly from your life force.
You'll feel a little hungrier, maybe sleep more often, but unless your life energies are being sucked away by something else already (eg you haven't eaten well, are watching the Fox Network, or work for MS) there should be plenty of power for all the personal electronics you use. And with the lower lumbar support, many users experience less back and neck pain.
Our company targets these for field service techs and sales reps. We surgically implant a GPS receiver and two way radio. This allows an employer to monitor where his people are, what they are saying, and to contact them whenever and whereever necessary.
It's not meant to be a labtop or to be mistaken as one ... it's a computer that is tiny ... that's about it ...
I want one so I can show people "What linux is" just plug my computer into their monitor and keyboard and there we go ... I have a working example.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed