Slashdot Mirror
Improving Computer Form Factors?
eschasi asks: "Recently we've been seeing some trend towards
smaller footprint machines like the new iMac or the tiny PC system
shown in this
recent article. All these tiny systems have scalability or quality
problems for me, and I don't think it has to be that way. But all the
solutions I see require discarding much of what we think is standard
to desktop/deskside mechanical design for PCs. Apple has been able to
do with much more freedom becuase they own the whole process. PC
makers, however, don't. The last major improvement to PC
motherboard/case design was the ATX design, and that was evolutionary
rather than revolutionary. I think that major improvement can still be
made in an evolutionary way. I want both worlds: I want a small
footprint; I want it in a premium system; I want it to have enough
room for a pair of hard drives, a 5.25" external slot, and a 3.5"
external slot; and I want it using largely off-the-shelf components,
and I don't want to have to re-invent ATX and PCI and ya-da-day to
get it!" Do you feel the same way? How would you improve the
current crop of PC form factors?
"IMHO large chunks of the problem could be solved by taking
advantage of both sides of the motherboard. Put the CPU and most of
the misc. chips on one side, put the expansion slots and RAM on the
other. The case design would have to change but that's quite doable.
Using both sides of the motherboard does more than reduce footprint
by half while returning to full expandability. You also get the
benefit of having the RAM sit directly opposite the CPU, reducing
trace length problems and permitting RAM bus speed increases. Other
timing problems might also be reduced.
I've left aside the rest of my extensive arguements for why this is
or isn't a good idea; what I'm interested in is this:
- Do other people see the same drawbacks with small-footprint systems?
- What seems to be out there on the drawing board for post-ATX systems?"
Some day you'll be able to store all the inside bits in another dimension, much like Dr. Who's police box.
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
I still like the old, big towers that are about the height of your desk. you can fit so many goodies in there, who cares if you really need them or not, you still CAN have them. Why does everything have to be so small these days? Little tiny cars,pager sized cell phones, cell phone size computers, small PC cases, iMac's and other similar computers (gateway profile etc, basically laptops on sticks). No thanks, not for this guy anyway. I'll keep my big truck, my clunky cell phone, and my 3 foot tall computer case.
Don't Tread on Me
mofoinasciiartistwannabetroll...er HI! me again. Just wanted to ask the inverse question. What if you want your computer to be big, frightening looking, with lots of blinkinlights?
I mean, granted, a modern minitower is nice.. but two or three lights just arent enough.
I therefore start the campaign for more blinkinlights.
Sun Systems are nice. Large (You have the "Refrigerator Cabinet", "End Table" and "Ottoman" form factors). Adequate blinking lights (ESPECIALLY on 6500's!)..
I want my computer to have lots of lights. I don't care if they do anything. I want my keyboard to sit in the middle of a console with a lot of dials, gauges, digital readouts, switches, buttons, knobs, and things that go "PING!" (a ping light WOULD be good, to think of it.) I want to see my network utilization on a graph led. I want to see my processor usage there, too. I want to see a red light come on each time some PFY discovers WinNuke, or someone tries to NIMDA me. I want to have one of those covered red buttons that may or may not launch a thermonuclear device. I want screens that go "zeeeeeeeerp, zeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerp" as text scrolls across it.
I already have three monitors on my desk. Wires strewn everywhere. But what else do i have? An Ultra 5, A beanie baby, and a dell optiplex. And a Dell Keyboard (at least i makes those satisfying *click*'s.). I WANT SWITCHES, dammit.
soo... any suggestions?
[notices steam rising from ears]
err.. teehee..
For a lot of systems that were made and sold Back In The Day, the power supply was, wisely, in a separate box from the mobo. The CPU is not the only heat source on a PC... Setting the power supply behind your desk, away from the case, might make a small system a lot easier to do.
Also, we have been keeping the keyboard as a separate component ever since the old 8086 days... but is that always the best way to go?
It seems to me that the perfect reduced-footprint destop PC design would look a little like a laptop PC with no screen, a nicer keyboard, and no touchpad... perhaps with a cable output for bridging to an optional stand-alone box for PCI expansion cards (for those who want the flexibility).
The end result: a latter-day C-64. Ahh, nostalgia...
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
hell yeah!!!
what are they more likely to steal, a 5 lb laptop or a 100lb monolith???
i've been weighing mine down with lead, cement and chains for just this reason. Aluminum lightweights- phaw!
-f
www.blackant.net
External IDE isn't that hard to do. All you need is a Dremel and some duct tape.
The new iMAC has one!!