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Shuttle's Tiny PC Reviewed

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the curiously-small-pcs dept.

PhantomHarlock writes "VIAHardware posted a review of a great miniature PC desktop system from Shuttle, the motherboard manufacturer. It's a tiny aluminum case with a floppy bay and one 5 1/4 bay. It uses Shuttle's FV24 mobo, one of the smallest on the market. The motherboard has built in video (with S-Video out), audio, 10/100 Ethernet, USB and dual firewire ports. " Might be a nifty device to use as a stereo component with that S-Video out.

7 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by connorbd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It does the job of being a small and workable system, and that's about it. It'd be a good cluster box, IMHO, but man... mofo is *ugly*.

    Would I buy one? I don't know -- probably if they put it in a nicer case, but not like that. But I speak as someone who still lives at home and doesn't necessarily have space concerns that this box would address. (And I mean, really -- if space was truly an issue, why not just buy a Cappucino box and be done with it?)

    What I want to see -- and I'm serious about this -- are a consumer-electronics-type case for a PC with an IR reciever and a graphical LED front panel (for media control) and a wooden case meant to match those "executive" mini-stereos from The Sharper Image...

    /Brian

  2. Windows XP dumb terminal by Mwongozi · · Score: 3, Interesting
    At the risk of being modded down for supporting Microsoft...

    Windows XP has a thing called "remote desktop connection", which is a lot like remote X connections on Linux, except that things like sound and hardware ports are also brought across to the remote machine.

    My home LAN has a fairly beefy PC on it running Windows XP Pro, and it would be really useful to have a few cheap and small PCs thrown about the house, which could connect back to the main PC in my bedroom and bring the desktop to wherever you are.

    Right now I use a laptop with an 802.11b card in it to do that, but that's a seriously expensive solution.

    1. Re:Windows XP dumb terminal by Mwongozi · · Score: 3, Interesting
      So you mean like VNC, except slower and more expensive? :)

      RDC is much faster than VNC on Windows, because:

      • VNC isn't very good at working out which bits of the desktop have been redrawn (Or Windows isn't very good at telling it...)
      • RDC gets the remote machine to draw widgets, with the host machine saying things like "Draw this widget here", rather than sending bitmaps for everything.

      It also resizes your desktop to whatever resolution the remote machine is using, which is quite nice. VNC doesn't do sound or ports either.

  3. Noise level? by larien · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Anyone know how noisy (or quiet) these are? With only one fan, I'd expect it to be pretty good.

    Reason I ask is that I'm looking to get ADSL soon (on order, actually) and I'd like to run a linux box as gateway/router/firewall on the ADSL and this looks ideal provided it's quiet enough.

  4. Home management / automation by aegilops · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Consider its use as a home device management "brain". A gadget doesn't have to look smart or pretty, or have particular high throughput - it just needs to have the right I/O and never go wrong.

    Consider this: you arrive at work, and ask yourself "Did I lock the front door?" Well, by using simple devices like this, wired in to your home security system (which, of course, we all have) you could find out. How about - the 'fridge door hasn't shut properly, and now your Jolt Colas (or whatever) are getting too warm. Better send an alarm (SNMP...) to you - while you're at work. Someone rings the front door bell at your house, and your webcam above the door switches on, streams video to your PC at work (naturally, as blessed by your local Firewall obergruppenfuhrer) for you to either remotely unlock the front door, or for you to choose to ignore it, and finally, schedule a random light activation pattern for when you go on holiday.

    OK, this device isn't really all about these developments, but simple, I/O enabled boxes, which are ready to go through a web interface, can SNMP on to your domestic home appliances, and are secure enough would represent a good market. They don't have to look all that sexy, but just be cheap and functional, and WORK.

    Two parenthetical comments in closing, however:

    1) I don't expect for a second that all those white goods manufacturers will agree to an open standard, and we'll end up with a plethora of separate boxes controlling different sub-systems at home (a bit like any control panel near the computer room), and
    2) Am I really that forgetful when I leave the house? Hey - now did I lock the car door...

    Aegilops

  5. Re:Use ideas by unitron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How good is the Tivo service? If a last minute change (news bulletin, late-running football game, etc) causes a network to time shift its evening schedule from 8:00-11:00 to 8:17:30-11:17:30, does it catch the change? If it was supposed to tape the 8:00-9:00 show and then change channels to catch a movie starting at 9:00, are you screwed, and in which direction?

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  6. Re:Interesting Specs by bergeron76 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It would be quite interesting. I should know. I've done it.

    Tell me what you think.

    --
    Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.