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1.0GHz P3 In A CD-ROM Drive Bay
Migraine Man writes "Similar to the PPC-based Briq, the folks at Stealth Computer have introduced an Intel-based PC that's built into a 5.25" CD-ROM-sized enclosure. It's got a 1.0GHz P3, 256M RAM, 20G HD, 10/100 eth, CD-ROM, USB, FireWire, video, and sound. At USD 995, it's reasonably priced too. You could put three of 'em on a 1U rackmount shelf, or stuff several into a mid-tower and build your own desktop cluster. A summary datasheet is here. Very cool."
So where does the CD-ROM go?
your own desktop cluster
I think 'Beowolf' is the word you're looking for...
Moderation: +4. Modded 70% Funny and 30% Overrated. 100% Saturated.
heat!
Something like a VIA EPIA EM 6000, for way way less $. (eg: under half the cost). And you would have a system that is Mini-ITX Form Factor, Micro ATX Chassis Compliant. - Not a custom hard to fix type system.
I totaly agree, I think those are very cool. Especialy for servers. Imagine having a stack of 10 dedicated servers you were leasing out in a neat little stack. Only question is... upgradeability? Are these going to be disposable computers, or will one be able to replace parts inside? (CPU/RAM/HD...)
What happens if you shove four of these in four consecutive (vertically) 5.25" drive bays? Would they overheat? That might limit the usefulness if you had to space them out... you'd have to buy twice as big a case as physically needed. Maybe if you alternated... P3, coolerunit, P3, coolerunit, P3.... ;)
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Neat idea, but what about cooling?
A 1Ghz P3 generates quite a lot of heat. Wouldn't stacking them vertically like CD drives overheat them?
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
So techincally I could put these in the open 5 1/4" bays in my desktop? And have a self contained beowulf cluster? And enough heat to make the sun seem insignificant? w00t Where do I sign up???
the idea is you have one of those, then these things in the drivebays :)
It's got a 1.0GHz P3, 256M RAM, 20G HD, 10/100 eth, CD-ROM, USB, FireWire, video, and sound. At USD 995, it's reasonably priced too.
Kinda like a laptop?
it says:
Power Input
+ 12VDC (mini-jack input)
does that mean its powered like from the same cables you put into a HD/CDrom? by the larger mobo sized one? or something else?
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Someone needs to buy the biggest computer case they can find...fill it with half a dozen fans, neon lights, a see-through panel, colored wiring... ...and then just slap one of these bad boys in the 5.25" bay. Hilarious!
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
This isn't a troll, but what exactly is the niche? For not a lot more size, but less money, you could have a shoebox PC like a Shuttle SS40. For not a lot more space you could buy a laptop of the same performance, and have screen and keyboard. And you still have to plug all the wires in the back and (by the looks of it) provide top and rear venting, so you can't just pack 'em in a rack like crazy.
So, serious question: what's the niche? They're cool, yes, but beyond that?
Wouldn't it be about 3 times smaller if it didn't have the CD ROM? Then you could plug in a USB one when you need it, or share one CD between half a dozen units, or whatever.
Virtually serving coffee
1.0ghz for $1000? Where do you do your computer shopping? Macy's?
Maybe it's me, but MORE POWERFUL, not smaller should dictate the expense of computer parts.
You can put a 286 inside a wristwatch, it doesn't make it worth 5000 USD.
Just my $.02
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
The Cappucino TX-3 has had similar or even better specs for quite a while now, and its pretty similar in size:
-Intel 815 motherboard
-1.2 Ghz Intel Pentium III processor
-512MB 144-pin PC133 RAM
-30 GB internal hard drive
-Your choice of 24x CD-ROM, 8x DVD-ROM, or 8x/8x/24x/8x DVD/CD-RW combo drive
-Built-in 10/100 base-T ethernet (RJ45)
-Internal 56K V.90 modem
-Four USB ports (USB 1.1)
-Two FireWire ports (IEEE 1394)
-No operating system installed.
-All standard I/O ports built-in
-Dimensions: 6" x 5.75" x 2.25"
-Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year
Also, CappucinoPC have the Mocha P4 machine which is slightly bigger and has specs rivaling current fully loaded computers.
Check out these links:
Cappucino TX-3 at Thinkgeek
Mocha P4 at Cappucinopc.com
A review of what appears to be the Mocha at Tomshardware
Honestly, this is really, really impressive. I can't even visualize how one would fit the cdrom tray, cpu, chipset and hard drive in a box that small, even using mobile componants on custom boards. And don't forget the heatsinks needed for a fanless sealed design like this.
Yes, very impressive indeed.
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
All you're missing are links to this product as seen on ThinkGeek.
--sdem
I guess the one question that hit me first, was who is going to buy these? Well, there are a few key markets, including: /. users, corporations looking to save desk space, and upper-class Joe Schmoe.
The key for this computer is going to be the corporate market, as companies go for space saving, energy saving designs to increase desk space for their employees as well as take a chunk out of their power bill. The extra cost for this machine to be compressed into such a small form factor is nothing in comparison to the total savings that would be possible with low-power-consumption computing.
The Political Programmer
.. inside my powermac ;)
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
Everybody is saying how a nice "beowulf" cluster of these could be made in say... a full tower, but what you're missing is that all the IO ports are on the back, this may be more practical as a standalone system...
:)
You would need another open bay just to run all the I/O wires! That, coupled with the fact that a vent seems to be places on the top makes this seem to be a "PC the size of a cd-rom drive bay" rather than a "PC that goes into a cd-rom drive bay"
Also there seems to be no place for mounting rails, but that can be solved with a little krazy glue or duck tape
This would be a great thing to install in your dashboard. You could have a self-contained computer that works as a GPS moving map (connect the GPS antenna to the USB port), CD/DVD player, MP3 player, game system, wireless internet, and so forth. You'd just need to pick up an LCD screen to go with it.
Not that I'm advocating people typing email messages or playing UT while driving -- they're distracted enough as it is. But this would be great for the passengers, especially on road trips!
Too late to be known as Bush the First, he's sure to be known as Bush the Worst.
You can get the barebones version of this computer from caseoutlet (http://www.caseoutlet.com/NWPc/Sumi/Sumi.html) for significantly less (about $330 to be specific). it you put a via c3, which can be passively cooled, you have a ultra small, super silent puter. of course, you'd probably be better off getting one of the new via epia m mother boards and putting it in a custom case; it end up being about the same size, cost less, and offer more (usb 2.0, tv out, etc).
Try imagining _not_ imagining a beowolf cluster of these.
Look a monkey!
Looking at the picture there's a big cooling vent on the top. Putting it on a 1U rackmount shelf with another shelf directly above it would kill the airflow and probably melt the thing down. Other than that, cute idea. They really should have put the fan in the back, using a cooler-running (slower) CPU if need be. Oh well.
so when will i be able to put this inside my case, and then a smaller pc inside it and... ow, my brain.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Not the CD rom on that computer but on your computer... hardy har har...
Oh, I get it. That means $995, doesn't it? Maybe I'm behind the times, but I glazed over the "USD 995" part of the article as if it had no meaning other than maybe a part number or something. I'm not trying to flame here, but I would have saved several minutes of my life if the article had said $995 or US $995 or $995 (US). Instead, I sat there going "This is cool, but I wonder what it costs."
Im not here now... Im out KILLING pepperoni
I can easily imagine this in place of my car stereo. Not just for music, but also navigation etc. Just put on a specialized front panel and/or hook it up to a small touch screen on the dashboard. The CD/DVD player could be nice to keep, though. 12 V power should work quite well in cars.
Beowulf cluster in a server case!
When I saw the pictures of this tiny little unit, I thought one thing: HTPC (That's Home Theater PC).
It would be especially nice to fit these units with a DVD-Rom to make a compact home-brew DVD/PVR/Photo/Video Jukebox. Especially considering your video input options for the PVR portion: DV/Firewire, USB capture device... whatever.
i swear my userid used to be lower.
What brain dead retard modded this Troll?
If you really really don't think it's funny, mod it overrated or something, not troll.
In Soviet Russia, trolls moderate you!
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you could stack and overclock those babies if you were willing to store your rack in liquid nitrogen. Even better, you could make Superconducting Plutonium Pentium V chips and run the whole thing in a liquid helium bath. If space and performance are really such problems, this is the solution. Meantime...I will stick to maxitowers with huge power supplies and redundant cooling systems. If you really want small and expensive check out the wearable systems from Xybernaut
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so what is the melting point of siicon?
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Let's see-- I've got 5 drive bays and 6 PCI slots. With PCI blade computers and these new puppies, I could theoretically have 12 (counting the normal one) computers in one case. Does this seem like overkill to anyone? Sure they're fun, but what are they for?
This doesn't have TV out, which would be nice for making a PVR box. Are there any USB TV in/out adapters (supported in Linux, natch) that could be used with this thing?
Thanks for the pointer to the barebones unit. I've been looking for a unit like this - consequently why I posted this article. The barebones unit may work better for my application, as I don't really need the CD-ROM drive. Hey looky! Slashdot is a technical resource, not just a place to bitch and flame and complain about spamming the spammers.
Super Mini computer barebone system . Features:
* Super mini size 5.7" x 1.6" x 10"(WxHxD).
* Accept PIII & Celeron Processor(Optional).
* Ultra light extruded Aluminum body.
* Two standard slim device space for Notebook
CD-ROM & 2.5" 9MM HDD(Optional).
* Heatsink/fan for CPU(included).
Now all we need is a 15" or 17" flat-panel with a spot in its base for this little sucker to slide into and...tada...something like an imac. I could see some companies maybe wanting something like this: Low power consumption and if the monitor fails, you can just slap the pc into the base of a new monitor. Or easy monitor upgrades...harder to do that with an imac.
If Moore's law keeps on going strong, I should be able to have rudimentary AI in my RealDoll by 2012 thanks to innovations like this!
Trolling is a art,
on the specs page it says Dimensions: 10" x 5.7" x 1.6"/i how's 5.7" going to fit into a 5.25" bay?
unless i'm mistaken, this is either a pile of hooey or the link is wrong. i can't find anything else on that site that would make sense either.
in any case, what's the point of making a tiny sized pc if you're going to put it into a bigger case anyway? why don't you just put little rubber feet on them and just stack them on top of each other? then you wouldn't have to worry about fitting it exactly into a 5.25" case.
As nice as these small units are, I'd like to see some wee machines built that stick in dual processors and a couple of 10/100/1000 NICs. No fancy 3D video, no firewire. Just beef to cluster together.
Trolling is a art,
And how do the Soviets get you out?
Doritos.
I did a quick googling and came up with the manufacturer.
With the DVD option, and a some monitor creativity, you have a pretty cool car unit that is a full function computer, add a gps, play mp3's, dvd's, cd's, whatever... and it wouldn't take up a ton of space.
the idea is you have one of those, then these things in the drivebays :)
Now you're talking!
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
Really nice tech; if mixed with GPS and GIS and a few other things you could have realtime tracking of where all the squad cars are located.
I also fit my powerful solution into tight little spaces. ;-)
Have you ever actually measured the outside of your CD-ROM drive? (Hint: it's not 5.25". Derivation is left as an exercize to the student.)
The manufacturer's link - here - was provided in an earlier response to this post. It describes a PC-104+ expansion port, and an optional daughterboard to add 3 more LAN ports. What does that mean? I dunno, it doesn't provide more detail than that ... So maybe you can dump the CD-ROM drive and shove in 3 additional LAN connections.
does it look like this one ?
So, how long until we see a mod at pimprig.com showing a mid-tower Lian Li with a window...showing that the mid-tower is empty except for a slightly strange looking CDROM drive.
I could get one of these, a 15" flat panel screen, keyboard and mouse, and be more comfortable, and it could all fit in my laptop case. Don't get me wrong, I like my laptop, as laptops go. I haul a full-sized USB keyboard around sometimes since I type better with it. I just think this may be a better set-up.
Hey, I've been trying to find some info on those PCI blade computers. I remember and ad in Linux Journal for them a couple of months ago. Anyone have a link or two about these things?
Who said Freedom was Fair?
I would love to have something about this size, with USB, two 100mb ethernet ports, netboot in prom, 128 to 512 megs of RAM, a gig of hard drive and about the performance of a 300 MHz PIII. A G3 would be nice for the power requirements. That's it. It seems like you could do it cheaply.
Anyone know of something like this??
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
...In my day, they were called drive bays, as in floppy drive bays. :-)
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Now THAT'S what I call a cupholder! (ducks)
I'd like to see a beowulf cluster of those; it would be easy to do!!!
Great comparison. While we're at it lets compare my gremilin with a ferrari.
Sure it costs 10x more but then it looks better doesn't it?
This post should be modded down as troll. While the post above this one ("I'd love one of these... in my power mac") was modded down as a troll athough it would be a great idea. Put a pc in mac, and have the best of both worlds in the same form factor.
Where will I put my 5.25" floppy drive?
They are pimping the fanless celeron version, which uses the Cu128 core. In fact THAT was Intel's greatest MIPS/Watt CPU line. Underclocking 766E MHz Celery is good for the environment, and it still 0wnZ at most FPS.
The P4 puts out a lot more thermal energy and only gets marginally better performance. It may dissapate heat better (thus run "cooler") because it has a larger die area, but it puts out more thermal energy total.
Remember, you can even cool an Athlon passively as well, it's not too difficult. But I wouldn't recommend doing that inside a space of a paper-back book!!! ^_^
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
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I'm selling 14.4 modems, and these guys are building CDROM computers! Sheesh, ain't my face red.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
This may be something like what you are looking for. It has 3 10/100 ports, runs linux from HD or Compact flash, and is completely self contained. The site also caries other small systems.
Like pi? Try 10,000 digits.
ahh yes, the "CD-Rom drive bay" ... or sometimes known as a "5.25 inch expansion bay", or "5.25 inch floppy bay", or even better, a "half-height drive bay" ...
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Alright, here's my nonexistent example:
I have three units INSIDE one standard PC case at a client's site. One unit serves files, one syncs the server to the third unit every hour. If the first one fails I swap the third one into the first's shelf, and plug a new one into the third shelf. As they die every few years they get replaced with new ones with better specs. The server EVOLVES. This is just an example, it can be done with fewer machines or in different ways. You just have to write a few scripts to handle whether the machine is a slave, master, or cloner in the mix.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Why does it NT 4 Workstation cost more than Windows 2000 Professional?
Check out their prices for keyboards on the site too. 795.00$ USD for an aluminum keyboard? Where do the mechanical arm and the hand lotion pop out from?
I'm sorry, but the idea that you want to make a cluster with duplicate firewire and other ports, not to mention the waste of extra drives, is pretty silly from a cost basis.
:) ) Also, a processor with high internal cache makes more sense than one with less caching and more "system" memory, since pretty much all transactions should stay on the data bus.
This is cute, but way too expensive if you're serious about clustering. Unless you really really have space issues in your rack, you can buy stripped 1G P3 machines for cheap and use those instead.
If you're clustering and you do have space issues, the optimal configuration for each unit would be to have only two connectors: power and a very high speed data bus. (One connector, if you can put power on the bus without there being surge issues for a stack
Get off my launchpad!
They really don't add much space. And if you look at the back of the case, it's pretty stacked with connectors - they can't really make it much shorter without getting rid of some of them. On the other hand, it's got an external power supply, which is annoying, though it's probably not very large, since it's only 60 watts.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Besides, if you're doing a PVR box, you want a much disk capacity as you can get away with, and you won't get that on laptop drives. Sure, you can probably get 40GB by now, but you'd be a lot better off with a box that's 3-4 times as large that can hold removable drives (e.g. the 3.5" 120-200GB drive in 5.25" form factor drawers, and you'll need enough power supply to drive the disks. If you really wanted to put one of these things in a 3-disk case, I suppose you could, but you should be able to find better form factors.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
It's probably not a good idea to stack these. If you look at the pictures, the CPU fan's ventilation holes are on top, so stacking these would cover those holes. You may be able to stack the Celeron models, though.
For those who run servers in racks, and pay for space taken taken, etc - it's a cost effective solution. If you pay for the space taken by a single PC, but suddenly can fit 3-4 in a the space of a single then you are saving money.
So they run on 12V DC? How many watts? Heating issues could also be a problem, if you start clustering these in a box... although you could use the extra space behind for a few fans.
Personally, I looked at this and said "sweet, it would probably fit in the dash of my car."
Running at 12V DC it makes sense, not to mention the fact that newer Mp3 decks can cost only about $100 less...
Yes, I want one of these in my car... wish it had TV-out and/or a decent video card (doesn't say the chipset) and/or maybe PCMCIA slots, but you can't have everything.
Yeah, but they'll have some explaining to do when the data shows they were all at the local donut shop for 2 hours :)
Trees everywhere, and not a forest in sight.
A friend of mine who built a Van's RV-4 airplane is wanting a small PC onboard with touchscreen for multi-uses (gps, engine monitoring, in-route weather, flight planning, mp3 player, etc) and one of these would be a perfect fit due to small size, light weight, 12V, and being a convenient, already built, nicely packaged computer for only about $200 more than the cheapest comparable-performing miniature pc we could build from individual pieces-parts... and we were planning to have to make its case from raw sheet aluminum ourselves.
For 1K I can get a SunFire V100 server...
oh comeon mods, RC5 _does_ do incredibly well on RC5......
ffs.
Could you imagine a beowulf cluster of these things?...
Oh, wait...yeah, I guess you did.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
That post should of course have said "the G4 does do incredibly well on RC5"
Why buy like five machines to run RC5 on when you can buy _one_ and have a nice desktop machine at the same time?.. really...
I think I found what your looking for. Check this out.
Its about the same in specs (actually better) plus includes the following for the same price:
a KB, built in mouse, 14.1 screen, ability to plug into the lighter socket, and get this, can run Linux and even comes with battery so you can take it out of the car! What are they going to think of next!
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
This one's got a real P3 1.0 or 1.2GHz processor with PC133 sdram memory... probably a *lot* more powerful than the VIA.
All your pants belong to us....
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Noise is a function of air turbulence (and crappy bearings). Fan tip speed directly increases turbulence.
Get a bigger fan, run it more slowly (like your case fan), and speed up the air with a venturi duct before it hits the CPU.
Of course, this is difficult or impractical for 1U cases.
One Duron 700mhz system I have is set up this way - air is admitted from the back of the case through a cardboard duct to a large fan which bolts to a balsawood frame which screws into the heatsink (this fan moves more air than is required by the CPU itself). This forces air out any other exit (mainly through the power supply, which has had its own fan removed). It's about the best I can do without depending on passive cooling or a heat pipe.
++This one's got a real P3 1.0 or 1.2GHz processor with PC133 sdram memory... probably a *lot* more powerful than the VIA.
It is way over twice as much money, and it is not twice as fast. It also has no extra PCI slots.what would it be like to have a beowulf cluster in the same, compact box? that would br crazy!
If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
So, how's this smaller, better looking or more efficient than the cappuccinopc reviewed by Ars Technica almost 18 months ago?
Wow! Totally waste your time FOUR TIMES AS FAST!
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Color me unimpressed.
http://www.byte.com/art/9612/sec12/art4.htm
Ok so the P3 one isn't $10,000. But it's not 1996 anymore. Is this really that impressive given things like VIA EPIA and the Tiquit and Jumptech machines?
Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!
I want to build a robot with an entire embedded PC. I which case, the tiny size and the 12v supply make this ideal. Even the shuttle is too big. I have already started designing the OS, and this is just what I need. The OS is a stripped down Linux dist BTW. I could pack one(or more) of these in the case, one WI-FI card and have a client machine do the dirty work using SSH.
My big concerns is the heat output, noise output(there may be some ultrasonic sensors) and actual power consumption. 12v does not sound much - but at how many amps(I do hope we are talking mA)?
I am gonna have to read the artical again methinks...
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol
Does this mean we are really not far off having a car KITT? THat would be some case mod- you know flashy led's and all- maybe a few more neons and stuff... Case window? Hah I got a sun roof! Hehe...;-)
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol
...so that the trolls from the IT department would be happy. ("See? I got the spywa- er, monitoring software up and running!")
Or so that I can do Windows/Linux native-testing of my websites.
Why don't I use VirtualPC? Well, I don't really trust VirtualPC to accurately imitate thingies like Windows font sizes, and I like keeping the number of running programs to a minimum. A habit from my Classic Mac OS days that I still don't feel comfortable breaking.
All without sacrificing room on my desktop. All I would need is a MoniSwitch attached to the case/monitor side, so that I can use the same monitor and USB input devices for both machines.
Ths't the true advantage to this thingy. Having more than one OS environment running in one case. And since Apple isn't likely to do a quiet XServe, well, I'll go the other route.
Ah, it's fun to dream...
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They drive on the wrong side of the road, too.
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