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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."
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.
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.