Mini PC in an Actual Lunchbox

schnell29 writes "I am looking for a small case and such to house my next computer, and I have seen many mini, micro, flex ATX cases, but mini-itx.com has caught my atention. I like the lunchbox pc. With all the talk about quiet, small pc's this might be the ticket. And hey, they even report that VIA is now Microsoft CE .NET 4.1 certified."

Comments

Tasty

[Anonymous Coward]

Mmmmm this computer looks good enough to eat!

Batman Lunchbox

[Blackneto]

Pfft! I'll put mine in an Incredible Hulk lunchbox.
It will kick this guy's ass.

And when you boot it...

[darkov]

"Oh God, not Windows again! I told her I hate windows..."

Great!

[The Original Yama]

Now I can cook my lunch at work on my Athlon!

this will make bullies happy

[StefMeister]

Beating up geeks to steal their lunch (money) will become much more profitable.

Little Jonny starves to death...

[MosesJones]

This is ridiculous and irresponsible, mothers will be sending kids to school without food by mistake.

This MUST carry a large warning label that clearly states "contents are not edible".

Cooling Fan

[theedge318]

You can also eliminate all those pesky cooling fans ... just use those refreezable ice packs.

Honestly ... should we really be trying to put a computer in a lunch box ... how about putting it in a keg. Not only can it serve up your DIVX movie collection, it can provide you an all your guests with your favorite frosty beverage. Again the need for the cooling fan is eliminated by the kegerator.

Does anyone know where to get a kegerator with RJ45 and Composite/RCA connections?

Imagine ...

[BabyDave]

a five course dinner of those!

Only problem with x86 architecture

[tulare]

is that the manufacturers still insist upon maintaining obsolete interfaces on their mobos. Seriously, how many of you are going to buy a printer tomorrow that is parellel-only? The echos resound through the hall. Similarly for the serial port. These ports are only there to support older hardware for those too uncreative to go find dongles if they're stuck with crufty old hardware. One serious advantage of, say, an iBook over a comparable PC laptop is that the designers were free to be more creative because they weren't stuck with a bunch of zillion-pin garbage sticking out the back of the computer.

Seems to me it's time to clean up the x86 motherboard. I've been happily not using parallel or serial for about two years now. YMMV.

Re:Only problem with x86 architecture

[orangesquid]

I am frustrated when PC's come with only one serial port instead of two. Serial ports are incredibly useful for connecting external modems (sorry, but winmodems are solid cpu-using crap and there's no guarantee an internal modem isn't a winmodem) and for serial consoles. When you want to remotely administer a server that can't connect to the network, do you login through the serial port, or do you talk instructions over the phone to some idiot who doesn't know the difference between a PC and a lunchbox? Oh, wait...

Re:Only problem with x86 architecture

[AftanGustur]

is that the manufacturers still insist upon maintaining obsolete interfaces on their mobos. Seriously, how many of you are going to buy a printer tomorrow that is parellel-only?

Dohhh ? Isn't that like claiming that Floppies are obsolete since no software is delivered on floppies any more ??

I think you should instead think about the number of printers in-use that are parallell-port only, and then think about if the parallell port is "obsolete".

Re:Only problem with x86 architecture

[tulare]

I'll take this one at a time:

"Isn't that like claiming that Floppies are obsolete..."
Yes. Floppies are obsolete. Rely on them at your peril. I won't. I will still use them for those machines which I have to manage which are so obsolete as to be unable to boot from cdrom, but that's it as far as their usefulness goes. Rate of failure alone is a great reason to trash the floppy disk.

"I think you should instead think about the number of printers in-use that are parallell-port only..."
Yes, some printers still are parallel-only. How many of those are laser printers? Not very many. IMO, inkjets are almost never worth saving when you re-up your system, and most laser printers have multiple interfaces, so you're not tied to the parport to use those. One exception to the above is the occasional pen plotter... many of those are parport-only and definately worth saving if you need one. Which is a good reason to buy a "specialty" computer to manage it, or, um (jetdirect) an external (jetdirect) print server. (jetdirect)

All I'm trying to say is that not every single x86 mobo needs to have all this old crap hanging off the back of it. Be nice to clean things up a bit, while maintaining special models for people who need them for a particular purpose. Kind of like how you can still buy boards with ISA slots on them. Anyone want to argue that ISA isn't obsolete?

Re:Only problem with x86 architecture

[ShavenYak]

Imagine how much more you could get out of a mobo like this if you replaced the ps/2 ports, the parallel port, and the serial port with, say, 6 usb and 2 firewire ports. Again, why not?

I use a Via Epia motherboard in my MAME cabinet. Between the need to hook up a keyboard encoder, and the fact that it's running FreeDOS, using USB would not be an option.

These would also make great platforms for car audio and home theater machines, where you're likely to want to run a small LCD or VFD display, most of which will need a serial port. There are still plenty of good reasons to keep the legacy ports, and if you need that many USB ports, you can get a USB hub.

Re:Linux?

[Simon Lyngshede]

Of cause it run Linux, and *BSD. Via is even developing Linux drivers for the Eden platform. This enables you to use features like the TV-Out.

www.viaarena.com has a forum for Via Eden Linux users.

Cheater!

[Anonymous Coward]

There are two ways to get a computer into a lunchbox:

1. Shrink the mobo
2. Get a HUGE lunchbox

He opted for #2.

linker error: undefined reference to `CE .NET 4.1'

[AftanGustur]

And hey, they even report that VIA is now Microsoft CE .NET 4.1 certified.

?? Sorry, I mean no offense but I don't get it.. What has a "Microsoft CE .NET 4.1 certification" to do with this box ??

Linux!

[e8johan]

I'm currently running RedHat 7.3 on one of these. It works like a charm. My only problem was that the DIMM module made it hard to fit the CD reader in the chassis, but as long as you're into case modding that's not a problem.