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The Incredible Shrinking Motherboard

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the its-so-cute dept.

DrGonzo was among several who submitted news of the new Mini Motherboard from via. The Mini ITX standard is just 170mm squared, and this motherboard has audio, ether, IDE, video and tv out. Not bad for something so tiny. Here's an article about the small wonder.

4 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Uh, it's not that small by apsmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not 170 mm^2 but 170 mm X 170 mm, which is 17 cm x 17 cm, or a square about 6.5 inches on a side. Why is it people see "mm" and think small? Anyway as the article says, there are smaller ones out there...

    --

    Energy: time to change the picture.

  2. Will serial/parallel ever die ?!? by cgi-bin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Could easily be smaller if they got rid of the serial and parallel i/o. Ps/2 needs to go too! There's enough usb stuff out there that something like this shoudln't need them.

    I haven't used serial/parallel/ps2 in over a year at least. Disable them all in the bios to save interupts.

    --
    -Doug "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -- Arthur C. Clarke
  3. small mobo = large pricetag for cases/PS by Sodakar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    FlexATX, NTX, ?TX.... I admit I don't remember all the form-factors anymore, but one thing that has always bit me was the large pricetag for the cases and mini-power supplies. So... to all of you who are saying "this will make a small, quiet, cheap system..." I agree that it will be small and quiet (most 200W PS's are quiet), but I don't agree that it will be "cheap" -- the case and PS will probably cost $100. (and yes, I know PC cases can cost as high as $300, but the average, plastic case + PS is $30)

    There's always two major sacrifices for size -- and they usually are performance and cost.

    Still, I'm hopeful, as I would love to have a webserver the size of a Cobalt/Sun Qube, but at a comparitively low cost.

  4. Minimal... by Svartalf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's not MEANT to be upgraded, though. RAM, HD, and DVD/CD drives are the only "upgradeable" parts in this design. This isn't intended for the gamer/hardcore crowd. This is intended for the office space crowd and the home crowd where they have some minimal usage of things like games and DVD playback, but need a largely maintenance free machine that will do things like wordprocessing, etc.

    MOST people that want/need computers actually fall under that category, not the one that the /. crowd generally falls under.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas