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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!"
Why isn't this used more often? It would be the first step to the ultimate silent pc. Is there any reason why an external power supply doesn't make sense for all desktops? I realize that many of them use the fans for heat exhaust, but with a well-placed rear fan, this problem is negated.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
I like the Shuttle boxes, because you can stuff standard parts in them, standard drives and the likes.
This however, has too many limitations to be of use to me. Sure, you can attach a lot of USB peripherals (Is it USB 2? I didn't see that in the review), but if you want a PC small enough to lug around, then you don't want to lug three other boxes (all possibly with their own PSUs!).
Where is this going? Mobile computing is best served with a laptop, IMHO. The costs for good performance are high, enough so to put off LAN partiers on a budget.
These boxes fill that niche, but I think that this one in particular is crippled too much by the laptop hard drive, slimline CD, less expansion, etc.
If you want an appliance at home, this is no good either. Server? At the moment the max 2.5" HDD is 60 Gigs, I think. and if the machine breaks, you can't just buy another PSU, for example, and slot it in the box - it's all non-standard. Buy a proper server and shove it in a closet, or quieten it down with custom fans and heatsinks.
Other appliances? There are cheaper custom-built mp3 streamers, DVD-recording video recorders, and so on available.
This thing is a no-no, in my opinion.
Note to ACs: I won't mod you up, even if you are being funny or insightful. So take a chance! It's not real life!
I thinking that with a 12v power supply, these
things would make one hell of a Car PC.
Just Think MP3/CD/Maping programs all load
and ready to go. Since it even has room for
a PCI card, you could even use it as an advanced
NET STUMBLING device with a PCI To PCMCIA Card.
...but it's taken a while for small boxies to make a return. One of my favourites (an obsession, even) are my Quadra 605s. Only marginally larger than the Lex reviewed, and about 8 years older.
One big bonus of the SFF pizzaboxes is the incredible ease of -getting- to components. All placed on one layer, there's no tangling of cables, or need to remove one major component to reach the others.
A pretty decent structure for a box that doesn't need to be constantly expanded/changed.
a grrl & her server
You said arguably the smallest, and I'm gonna argue.
First things first, the Lex system *is* neat because of the socket 370, but it edges out the Via Eden platform in one dimension by 10mm. Doesn't sound like a lot, unless you're making some really cool custom pc's.
In fact, I've built my own router (running Linux of course) in a 1/10th scale Celica using the VIA. 10mm more in either dimension and it wouldn't have fit. In fact, it looks just like the two projects I just now linked.
The via comes in 500 and 866 mhz flavors, and pulls VERY little power resulting in a low heat motherboard/processor solution. There's so little heat, they don't even put a fan on the processor, which is great when you have your 1/10th scale Celica routing your dsl in your living room where you want to hear other people and/or the tv instead of the computer.
So for those needing those extra mhz, the lex looks like a good solution. But for a Linux gateway/router and a couple other applications, the slower C3's do just fine, but pull less power and have the possibility of going completely fan free (if you can find a fan-free powersupply).
better still, build the psu into ups, always bugs me that the ups sits there converting it's output to AC and conditioning it, when it then gets turned straight back into low volts DC at the PSU at the other end of the power cord. Most modern home/office peripherals, and with a TFT even the monitor, also want DC.
:-)
of course you don't want a combined ups/psu for carrying to a lan party with cff case - weight wise they aint easily portable
With the 533MHz CPU, it needs no CPU fan, and is still plenty zippy for all of your favorite gateway tasks--we use them for web caching, DHCP, DNS caching, masquerading, NATting, routing micro-uber-boxes. Even with all of those services running, these little boxes will push a T1 line chock full of goodness with plenty of power to spare. We'd like it to be even smaller, of course, but I don't think the Lex box in question is the right way for us because we don't want a big hot Intel CPU in there.
We're popping an Intel dual NIC into the PCI slot for the firewall enhanced version (that's three NICs total), giving a nice Internal/DMZ/External separation in a very nice little low-power package.
Anyway, I'm enjoying the relative quiet of these boxes so much, that I'm considering getting an 800MHz one for my desktop machine. All of my real work goes on in the machine closet anyway, so I might as well have some peace, quiet, and an easily moveable machine out here in the civilized part of the office.
They used a PCMCIA memory card for both permemant storage and RAM. Their cases were designed to allow heated air to escape out the top drawing cooler air form the bottom thus using natural conduction to do the work of the fan. I think they used a cyrix processor.
I used the CE boxes for admin staff that only used office apps (Word and Excell) from a Metaframe server. The Linux boxes were from people who needed more than casual access to the web (graphics over metaframe is not a great idea).
Anyway, I have been trying to remember the name of the companies I bought from while I have been typing this, but I can't. I have changed jobs and really had not thought about them for a long time. I could check my records when I get home if anybody really cares ( and nobody has replied with it by then.) I am pretty sure that WYSE makes them too.
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
> Its arguably the tiniest PC around ...for the smallest form factor. I have a PC on my desk which is 15cm x 15cm x 4.5cm. (About the footprint of a CD case, but taller.) They're readily available under a host of different names. See www.paysan.co.uk for one supplier.
I have built a smal microATX based puter
Parts I used
1. micro ATX case with front and rear conection panels
2. microATX mofo Gigabyte GA-6PMM with 3 pci
and 1 agp slot Socket 370
3. VIA C3 - 800Mhz CPU
4. ATI Radeon 7000 slim video card with video out
5. Standard 12x DVD Rom
6. 20 gig Maxtor HD
7. slim 10/100 pci network card
the cost was under $300 and it works great. The mofo has a sound on board and it is not too too bad.
video playback for DVD, DIVX or MPEG movies is flawless on my Sony Flat TV. Over all a nice little system that fits nice in my entertainment unit
The problem, as I see it, is that a combination of needing to be backwards-compatible, and failing to reevaluate gestalt hardware design, has left us with boxes that don't look fundamentally different on the inside than they did 15 years ago.
Here's what I envision: a physical architecture in which every component is an enclosed, rectilinear module which snaps in and out as easily as a PCMCIA card. No need to open up the case to do an upgrade. No need to fuss with screws and fitting cards into slots. I mean, honestly, screws? We can do better than this, folks!
I think this approach would work. I mean, is there any good reason why cards have to slot in perpendicular to the motherboard? Through the magic of electricity and a miraculous substance called copper, we could easily redirect the power and data paths to component bays as described above.
Hardware should be modular, and that implies loose coupling. All that's really necessary is to connect the components with the appropriate sort of conductive material. That's a really loose constraint, and yet every computer that comes off the line has the same pain-in-the-ass structure to it.
Well?
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