New Small Form Factor PC Reviewed

Beau Mundt writes "You guys haven't touched on the small form factor PCs in a while, thought you would be interested in this review of a Lex System SFF PC. Its arguably the tiniest PC around and could be used for many cool things like a Linux gateway, a wireless workstation, or just a silent small foot print system. The other neat thing is the reviewer stuffs a P3 1.26 and a Radeon 7500 into the system. Perfect for bringing to LANs!"

Comments

Nice, but TOO small for my liking

[bblgoose]

this definitely has potential in the right place, the right place IMO being a wiring cupboard or somewhere else where space is at a real premium. I wouldn't use it as a standard desktop, purely because if you have space for a monitor you have space for a slightly larger unit (I'd hope).

I wouldn't say the savings of a few inches are enough to make me use a laptop hard drive and one of those crappy 'blade' (or whatever) CD roms that you can't just swap out/upgrade/yada yada.

But then again, I like my PC's to have lots of growth space inside, YMMV.

not quite new

[ellyssian]

Those cases have been around a while. I built quite a few systems with them when working for a small-time pc manufacturer 6-7 years ago. Guts may have changed somewhat, but the layout is identical. Hopefully they don't overheat as much as they used to.

What about S-Video Out?

[cnelzie]

I haven't seen one yet. So, I might be wrong and they might already be readily available.

Here's the thing, I have a nice Sony WEGA Trinitron TV in the living room. I am also wiring the whole house for CAT-5. My plans include having a central "Media Server" to house all my music files.

Next to the TV will sit a PC with a connection to the TV, the stereo and the home network. I like the idea of a small form-factor system, partly due to the low-cost associated with some of these designs. I would really like to see one with a built-in S-video port.

-.-

Isn't this sort of cheating?

[dughat]

"The Lex case ships with an external power supply which allows the PC to be as small as it is, while also cutting out a major noise factor in the PC."

Isn't this kind of cheating. I've got a PC the size of a cable. It's just got this external power supply and mother board and cdrom and floppy....

And it's not like the case was smaller than say, a laptop. I don't get what's the big deal. If I want small, I'd go with a laptop. If I want a desktop, I want it big enough to add stuff, and not to have extra parts like a power supply to drag around.

Think outside the box...

[fmaxwell]

VIA PLE133 Chipset, it's just an appliance. Buy it, show it off to your friends, get stuck with it.

So you really can't imagine a use for this? You don't think that it would be good for a firewall, mail server, web server, FTP server, file server, print server, fax server, NAT box, or some combination thereof?

Not every computer has to be used for first-person shooter games and attempts at setting SETI records.

Re:But....

[egghat]

1.) External means you can put it on the floor. So it's more quiet, simply because it's further away. Remember that there is no reason to put a small PC on the floor instead of putting it on your desk where it should be.

2.) You have a problem with a quiet PC: You need a lot of air to cool it. A lot of air is needed to cool the PSU itself. If you put the PSU outside of the box, you get the chance to cool both parts passivly. (The PSU-cube has 5 sides to spread the heat when outside, but only one if placed inside the box).

Bye egghat.