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Build Your Own Mini-Computer
Bored in Chattanooga writes: "Tom's is running an article reviewing a Shuttle mini-computer. Seems to have everything the average computer user would need, minus a nice 3D graphics card. Perhaps the standard large ATX-size computer cases will cease to exist and be replaced by these "mini-computers." I find these gems cuter than any iMac I've ever seen!"
Why on earth would a supposedly tech-savvy site misuse a term like that? I seriously thought they were referring to wardrobe-sized computers...
I wonder if they will start making standard notebook parts, so us do-it-yourselfers can build one ourselves. We could stop feeding Compaq, Dell, Apple, and IBM money and just get the parts, a case and a screen and throw it together.
God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
The "SpaceWalker" is no way as cute as the Apple iMac. Plus the iMac comes with a NVidia GeForce 2 MX 3D card and 15" LCD monitor. The iMac has DVD-R/CD-R burning compared to the CD-RW of the SpaceWalker. Also, the iMac only has a 10.6" foot print. From what I understand, that is smaller than the FlexATX board.
The SpaceWalker is more a diamond in the ruff compared to the polished Apple iMac.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
As far as anyone can tell so far (apple has JUST begun shipping their new beauties), the new iMac has the same botherboard as the Powerbook G4, with some added extras (daughtercard for GeForce2, etc). It actually uses SO-DIMMS.
I'm suprised no PC manufacurer has followed suit. Laptop mobo's are tiny AND heat-efficent, two specific features that are needed for Mini-PC's.
This question begs to be asked. Why isn't any company creating something like this but instead of the very, very slow S3 chips, use an Nvidia Nforce?
The Nforce is fast enough graphics-wise, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I'm playing RTCW on a dual Celeron 466 w/ TNT2 32Mb... Yeah, I can't have all the special effects, and it only runs at 640x480, BUT IT WORKS! I've spent far too many hours playing it at this cappy resolution and I loved it. Granted, and Athlon XP2000+ w/ GeForce3 would blow my computer away, but it is also a few thousands more expensive. So on an Nforce, coupled with a newer CPU would be significantly faster.
Not to mention the fact that the Nforce has good sound capabilities too. And it supports the Athlon, which is also faster than the P3.
Honestly, I'm just waiting for the day when they're going to come out with this very same computer, but with an Athlon w/ the Nforce inside, and I'm buying it. I hope SpaceWalker is listening to me...
A radio or TV card?
You can plug in a radio or TV adaptor to the USB ports.
More USB ports?
That is what a 4-port USB hub is for.
SCSCI card?
Well, you can use it on the only 1 PCI slot. Besides, it has Firewire ports so you could possibly plug in external Firewire harddisk, tape drive, etc instead of using equivalent SCSI devices. OK, I concede that this Mini-PC is not as expandable as regular PC, but the expandability is not as bad as you think.
I'm just amazed by the number of posts along the lines of:
* What, only one PCI slot? Stingy bastards.
* No on-board 3D video, wtf?
* All the peripherals are integrated - what if I want a 3com NIC instead of Realtek?
* How am I supposed to fit my three CDROM drives into this?
Guys - this is EXACTLY THE FRIGGIN POINT. Believe it or not, there are other people in the world besides you, and many of us have been waiting for exactly this kind of integration in commodity PCs for quite some time. Not everybody wants to spend weeks building the Ultimate Gaming Machine - some of us have real work to do and we just want a reasonably fast machine without all the hassle. Small is great when you need several machines in a rack, or you want to stash the machine neatly behind your monitor. This machine is perfect for me - I have several Linux and Windows workstations, plus a couple of FreeBSD servers, all with empty slots and drive bays, so this would be a much better replacement for all those bullky mid-towers.
If you want five PCI slots, a $400 video card, surround sound, 1TB of hard disk space, etc, then this product is not for you. It's not designed for you, it's not being marketed to you, so why are you complaining that it doesn't fit the bill?
I'm surprised it's taken this long. Large cases date back to the days when you'd need a separate card for your serial/parallel, IDE, VGA, etc, and a bunch of drive bays for a pair of 5.25" drives, a newfangled 3.5" drive, and so on. There are still plenty of uses for that space, sure, but not so much in "mainstream" PCs any more.
Well, if you don't like the video, make use of the PCI slot. Ditch the sound card. ATI just announced a PCI Radeon 7000 for the Mac, so I would imagine it's either already out or coming soon for the PC. Sure it's PCI, but it'll still spank a Savage4. Plus, the Radeon 7000 has a DVI port, so you could hook up a nice LCD display.
:)
Having said that, I'd love to see one of these slightly taller, with either 2 PCI slots, or a PCI and an AGP slot. Then there wouldn't be much to complain about! (Actually, I wonder if there would be room for another card with the floppy gone? I mean, who needs a floppy anyway?)
As others have pointed out, it isn't nearly as attractive as the new iMac, I wouldn't mind having it on my desk next to one.
SIGFEH
When I read the story, I thought they were going to teach me how to build a REAL mini computer. not some stupid x86 box. When did mini computer stop meaning mini computer (as opposed to a mainframe) and start meaning a small x86 box?
Last week people were complaining about slashdot killing the lisa web server. This time the direct link to the microchip server wasn't even posted and the "machine" is already down. In fact, it's probably on fire right now.
...of mini computer. Last time I checked the computers we normally used were "micro" computers. Minis are the thigns that are bigger than that, but not big enough to be a mainfram yet. A good example would be the Sun 10000 we have at work. It's huge 8 processor server with a ton of disks, in a rather large box. Too big to be in teh same category as the desktops, but not as big as the supercomputer up stairs (a mainframe). So it's a mini.
Of course a major problem with mini-computers is that there's just nowhere for the heat to go.
As far as my thinking goes, the smaller the case, the better, provided that there is a strong enough air flow. Reason being, that with a small enclosure, there is less air to displace. A fan that can extract at 10 cubic feet per minute is going to fully displace the air in a 10 cubic feet case once per minute, yet this same fan will displace the air in a 1 cubic feet case 10 times per minute, giving better cooling. The air flow around components tends to be faster, but this depends on the physical layout just as much as a larger computer.
The problem with small cases are the small fans, not the small cases. Small fans don't tend to scale down well. I like to put a large fan into a small case, at an angle, with the output side ported out of the case unrestricted, with the efficiency of the fan lost at the sucking side, inside the case. This might be inefficient compared with the abilities of the fan, but tends to be much better than a small fan working at it's best.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
Two changes to this configuration would make it perfect, IMO...
No onboard video and an AGP slot on the opposite side of the board...
And for the case, a separate power supply module.
The result would be even more compact, and the components would be even smaller. Swap the A/C power module for one supplied by 12 volts, and you've got the perfect box for your vehicle.