Slashdot Mirror
Case Modders - Think Small
sysadmn writes "Mini-ITX is a relatively new form factor for PC motherboards measuring only 170 mm x 170 mm. The folks at Mini-ITX.com have this page of interesting projects, including full systems built into 1/10 scale models of a Ford Focus Rally car and a VW Beetle. Another project recycles a SparcStation IPX from 40 Mhz Sparc to 800 Mhz Via C3. Not to be outdone, motherboard maker Via has its own Mini-ITX project page, with several cool automobile systems."
Can be as bad as one; it's the loneliest number since the number one...
dah dee dah dah dah... dah. duh? dah!
Uno es el número mas solo que tú harás siempre.
alrighty, who's got alternative links, mirrors, and cache?
Slowing down already...
are they running the freakin site on one of these things?
hmph.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
google cache
yes that is correct, it's a friday night, and I'm on Slashdot complaining about the slashdot effect on some poor machine, couldn't get any better...
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Now what would be really useful would be a car that would drive people home safely after a night of safely killing of excess and troublesome brain cells.
A smal system like this would be a good first start.
You could use a doom or quake game engine loaded with a map of the local streets as a nav aid for the car.
I tell you, this could work.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I'll be really impressed when they can put in a water-cooling system with the reservoir under the hood of the Focus or VW mod.
$cat
This doesn't appear to be a repost, but the deja-vu as I read this is overwhelming.
Killing sites is fun, weeeeeeeeeeeeee.
they are great for settings where you dont need much. My school library has some small cases for the computers running the card catalog, unfortinately the card catalog computers are running fullpower P4's with tons of ram and all the goodies, while the computers used to do internet research etc. (and not nice small cases) are 1st generation p3s
in my head I dont see why you need more power to look at card catalog text (thin clients would be the ultimate space saver, stick a server somewhere that has room but no easy access to actually have a monitor and stuff) but I have to admit, the cases were very pretty
the suggestions I see for these as a LANparty case just dont make sense, usually I like to have my full graphics and sound etc along with me
Bottles.
I'll refrain from the obvious comment about /. editors.
Why is it that there is no serious commercial market for quality case design? The only company actually seriously doing any design work is Apple. Some of these cases are exceptional, and I know I'd pay decent money for them.
What's with all those companies out there? Why can't they get their act together and provide some decent case options? Anyone know?
Jedidiah
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
So I wonder if the poster has ever seen the Desktop Hacks at Applefritter, which include the Shop Vac Mac and the Lego Mac?
Loomis
"The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
A Beowulf cluster of these...
Inside a toaster.
That was actually my submission to The Register when they held a contest for Eden applications. VIA was giving away a bunch of these Eden mini-ITX systems to the winners. That is where VIA's applications page came from.
Imagine a cluster sitting on top of every desktop in a classroom. Instead of just being able to use time on a cluster to explore it's architecture or a class building one cluster as a project, each student would have their own cluster.
Problem is, even the 800mhz C3 performs no petter than a 450 PII. Additionally, the processor has absolutely no parallelism. Only one path with no out of order instructions.
That lack of balls does give them an advantage: they draw only 60 watts for the entire system. That includes memory processor and all.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
Let me tell you something, Apache has no market share. This worm is strictly a stunt by the Green Screen Linux crowd to make themselves feel like they have a good story to tell. Let's face facts, when it comes to mission critical, secure, rock solid, industry standard web servers, there CAN BE ONLY ONE -- IIS 5.0 with SP2 (patched by Q327154, Q327155, Q327156...Q356987). This combination of software and security patches is a virtual Fort Knox of web security. Apache, with its text .conf files is no match for the unbridled power of the IIS METABASE
here are details on the construction of one of the cases featured on the now slashdotted site...
Case modding is fun. I stuffed my last PC into an old SGI Iris Indigo that I was getting pissed at (blew up my KVM switch before I realized that the keyboard port is a few pins away from standard PS/2...). However, watch what you're stuffing that motherboard-of-the-week into. I don't care if you rip up a Sega Saturn, a Sony PlayStation, an old SPARC, or an Iris Indigo - those were all mass-produced systems. (With the exception of the Indigo, these were all on the mini-itx.com site.) No one is going to miss that old tape deck, and making your own case out of plexiglass is just cool.
What I don't want to see is someone ripping up a piece of history for 15 minutes of fame. I'm donning my flame suit already, but just give me a chance here. Stuffing an Eden mini-itx into a 1/10 size Beetle is just cool. However, if you rip up an old NeXT Cube, or an Apple III, I'll be forced to kill you. Old hardware is cool and useless; old, rare hardware is to be kept around by any means. Go ahead and rip apart that old boat-anchor XT you have lying around for a new bullet-proof (literally) box, but if you put a cutting wheel through a rare piece of hardware, you deserve to have your guts ripped out and a new motherboard sewn into place, just like the antique that you destroyed.
So go ahead and stuff a micro-pc in that old 80's toploader VCR, or a PS1. Just stay away from the truly rare, cool stuff - it needs no modifications to be neat and interesting.
Every cloud has a silver lining (except for the mushroom shaped ones, which have a lining of Iridium & Strontium 90)
I like big, thank you so very much.
.
:-D ) then sure, but. . . .
Besides.
I have 5 PCI cards and 4 IDE devices, and I am trying my best to get some more stuff. . .
Now if some new bus interconnect method was made up that involved a connector edge a tad wee bit smaller then that of PCI (heh, hasn't technology advanced at least a wee bit since the early/mid nighties?
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
My fault. Sorry. Maybe think about laying down the coffee or you choice of highly energy drink.
Oh man, it's obvious that you are very extremely new to computers. How does it feel to be exposed as a NEWBIE in front of all these people on Slashdot? Must be very embarrassing!
we've been doing this for a while on www.mp3car.com
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
in the ford focus case gallery page, you can click on the last photo but there's still a "Next" link.
hit that and you get another photo not in the index
this
Brings new meaning when my computer *crashes*.
I'm going to eat a bagel, a real bagel from a real Jewish bagelry, with poppy seeds, right from the oven!
I love Montreal!
Come on, people, we can do better than this!
The only problem would be figuring out how to fit a network card into the PCI slots.
Trees everywhere, and not a forest in sight.
Where's that great bagel bakery, in St. Leonard maybe? Can't remember exactly, but it's north
of downtown. Yes, Montreal has the best bagels, beats New York by a mile. Beats them all.
The idea behind the mini-itx is to build a system that will look cool, and can handle the emulation software so that we can all re-live our childhood, one video game at a time...
The new VW beetle is NOT air cooled. Only the older model is. (the article claims the beetle is air cooled when the case is actually of a new beetle.)
Just thought I'd let you know.
If water were beans, I'd be 70% beans.
But my wife says size doesn't matter. Damn that poolboy sure is dedicated.
So when is somebody other than VIA gonna put out a mobo in the mini-ITX form factor? The low power/no fan thing is cool and all, but I'm a bit more impressed with mini-cases that can run current, *fast* p3/p4/AMD processors.
Mind you, the Ice Cube case looks like it oughtta hold one of those Shuttle mini-PCs just fine.
the cyrix proccesor has no power what so ever it can't even decode mpeg-1 what are you gonna use it for?? dos?
reminds of when king authors said
"what are you gonna do bleed on me". that pretty much sums up what this cpu/motherboard does to the competetion
There great PVR/MP3 Jukeboxes. They have enough CPU to decode VCD's or play DVD's. Quiet enough to sit next to the TV without having to build a soundproof enclosure. $59 for the Cupid 2677 case and $120 for the epia 800. recycled ram, HD and scrounged a slimline CD used off ebay for another $30.
If your set on having AGP and sound about the smallest I've seen is the shuttle XPC SS51 which is Flex ATX. small enough considering many of us have been lugging 30-50 pound cases to Lan parties.
I'm waiting for someone to build the mini-ITX sized MB with an AGP riser slot. probably happen sooner then I think. I'm guessing late next year.
If its size doesn't satisfy my secretary, I'd have to go to great pain and expense to get it enlarged. And adding another 6 inches of plastic to what's already there would look kind of weird.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
I blew up my prototype, Commodore SX-64. See the damage?
F-U-N.
And heyo, I just learned that ultralong DNSes confuse slashdot. Filter fun friday maybe?
A couple of years ago at the height of the .com economy I was working as a "Sales Support Technician."
...Sadly, all the money for cool toys went into paying the salary for a certain pair of other IT workers who's sole purpose seemed to be making everyone else's life hell. Ah ve.
Our sales force had been touring the country with a windows based pre-alpha product that had a footprint too large to effectivly work on any of the laptops at the time... Our sales force started carting around a normal desktop. Imagine their chagrin when they realised that desktops weren't meant to travel regularly and they had to talk their way out of demoing the product...
Well, that's the reason for that neat-o title. Part of my job included carting around the two 19" monitor boxes containing a mid tower case, keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, etc... I would have *loved* a design like this (and a flat panel display) doing all that traveling.
Regardless, these days laptops like the Dell Insperion's negate the need for complete desktop systems, but I can see cases where a proper desktop would be useful (Demoing a PCI/AGP device anyone? How about a particularly nasty piece of bloatware.)
It's a nice tradeoff between flexibility and size.
Yeah thos eboards are pretty sweet can put them anywhere.. this is a lunchbox I built with it.
http://www.fathertom.net/
The board is nice because the c3 800 chip stays cool no heating problems..
Are more people installing comps into their vehicles than we know about, or is the cell phone alone still enough to keep our eyes off the road? Who the hell thought of the word Telematics? Was it before or after he said, "Sorry about running over your cat Mrs. Jenkins, but someone was trying to outbid me on e-bay." ?????
Peter B.s' Carputer is rather sweet distraction. But alas, to use windoze for such a divine creation is truly a pity. Oh well... The $750 he spent falls well below the price of a new laptop. Hey Pete, how are you networking? WLAN? Or is there an Ethernet plug on your car somewhere next to the gas cap? I also wonder where the CD/DVD-ROM is located. And how long do you suppose it will be before the hard drive gets rattled into oblivion.
I'm wondering because having a computer in my car seems to be the only feasible way to watch DVDs, post to Slash Dot, read the news and shop for auto insurance all while being chased at 110 mph by the cops through a school zone.
For my Carputer I want to use an old laptop LCD monitor mounted in place of my sun visor (Er, I mean the passengers sun visor)... anyone found any info on converting laptop LCDs for use with a home (or in this case, car) computer?
And like my mother always said, "Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah."
There is no logic, only space. theARTofConfusion
Cool... this must be about the best possible place to ask this :)
:)
I've got a Mini-ITX setup for my living room. No disks, no fans... network booting debian from my fileserver... A totally silent box.. nice
I've been having _issues_ with XFree86 tho. With a monitor, there's no problems at all... Everything works great with xfree86 4.1 or 4.2...
To get the TVOut working, you have to use the trident_drv.o released by Via back in February, which is only compatible with XFree4.0.2 and doesn't have working Xv support, so everything chugs along very very slowly.
Via promised us a new driver back in July, but still haven't come through and delivered.
I've also tried the new trident_drv.o recently released by alanh, but it doens't seem to support the TVOut either...
All I want is fullscreen movies on my 32" Widescreen TV... Anyone got this working properly?
Thanks.
Ok, I can understand the utility of having a computer in the car and the article has links on how to give the critter the correct power. But the thing that has been mystifiying me for a while, is how do you drive around and not trash the hard drive on the first pot hole or rail road track that you drive over? Are the notebook sized hard drives that good for shock factor??? I could imagine a fleet of courier vehicles that I could switch over to linux/pc's & 2.4G wireless, if I could be sure that the h/d wouldn't be trashed after a few months of use/pounding.
Anyone with experience doing this willing to share their wizdom?
Or should this turn into an ask slashdot?
My case mod
72 LEDs mounted behind translucent plastic, all with computer controlled brightness. There's an XMMS plugin :)
-- 2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2
They chose a VW Beetle because it's also air-cooled!
For the record, the VW Beetle they chose is a new Beetle, which is water cooled. The old beetle is air cooled. So is the old VW bus..
what is this? month of 'small computers'?
seriously, how does this come as news? if the mobos were allinone superfast crusoes with integrated evolving gfx chip or something maybe then...
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
The monitor they show is only video, not VGA ! Has *ANYBODY* ever found a source for a ~10" LCD VGA Monitor?
I don't want to use NTSC out from a video card (clarity and all) and I don't think I'll have much luck dismanteling laptop LCD's.
Help!
I live in the dorms, and I only have one room. So, my computer is always out in the open for every one to see 24/7. Why would I want to put something ugly in my living space if I could put something beautiful?
It's not about ego, it's about the fact that having beautiful things around you makes you feel better, while having ugly, cheap looking shit makes you feel bad.
Some people actualy are sensitive to this sort of thing.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
repost!
Hummers do have an asthetic, even if it wasn't intended. Just because something isn't flowy like an AudiTT or something dosn't mean that it dosn't look nice. The Hummer may not have been designed with looks in mind, but it does have a look. And a lot of people like it (the whole 'technical' look)
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
you wont have a will of your own? you mean?
like someone was controlling your violent
urges? like, perhaps, VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES?!?!?!
Read the commentary about the cases. Imagine it being read aloud by one one the Pythons.
I decided to pitch an arguement to my wife about doing this kind of mod with some equipment. After much explanation she just sat there laughing at me... All she would say is, "I can't belive you are arguing 'Smaller is Better!'"
What can I say? I never win.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
When You are, like me, using several PCs (as for printer server, connecting peripherals that don't work with my latest/fastest machine etc.) and building them myself, I have both a space problem and cooling problem. A motherboard like this would fit in:
Athlon-socket.
1 AGP port (45+ degree bent socket to save space).
2 PCI ports (45+ degree bent etc.).
2 Ethernet 10/100 external ports in a builtin Switch (with 1 "virtual" EthAdapter/card accessible from the OS).
2 (or more) DDR memory sockets.
6 USB ports.
4 IDE ports.
All in a minimal format (much smaller than Micro-ATX).
A variant could be as above but with:
Ethernet Gigabit Switch.
Only one PCI and builtin Video.
(For "server" dutys.)
And to that PSUs half the size as now.
I have a dream..
Mundus Vult Decipi
So, there's a PC inside a Saturn case, and a little down the page there's a PC (almost) in a Playstation case...
What's next, a PC inside an X-box case..?
Sarcasm generaly has a 'humor' component. If the above post had been funny, I might have caught the sarcasm.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Ever seen bubbly flowered stereo components? And you never will.
Actualy I have. At the exotic "target" stores.
Unless you consider a nearly spherical cd/sterio with hello kitty plastered all over not to be 'bubbly'
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
havn't established anything, other then your general lack of humor, and otherwise rampant idiocy.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I've got an old Personal Iris case with a working power supply, but I'm not sure how to rewire it for a standard PC motherboard. Does anyone know of a guide somewhere? I was just going to get a normal PC case and leave this alone, but this thread has come at a good time...