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Nimble V5 - The OQO Killer?
prostoalex writes "OQO was supposed to be a big advance in the personal computing field, but, alas, made it quick to vaporware list. Now another company will try its luck with a mini-mini-PC. The Register, PC World and MSNBC are all running paragraph-long blurbs about pocket-size Nimble V5 from Nimble Microsystems. The specs are - VIA 733 MHz, 128 DDR266, 30 GB HDD, USB 2.0, PCMCIA, no display, $699, supposed to ship this fall. Full specification available from company's Web site."
What is the intended market of these babies? I mean, it can't be midgets, we all know from the commercial that Verne Troyer (minime) uses a 17" powerbook.... ...oh, and imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things!
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
What's the dillio with these "mini computers".
... voila smaller board and smaller case required.
The whole reason desktops are so honking huge is because they have these PCI slot thingies you can cram shit in. If you really want to make a small computer do all surface mount stuff and dispense with the user upgradeable slots. I mean the PCI/AGP slots on an ATX mobo take up close to 1/2 of the mobo. If you removed them
Aside from the fact nobody makes computers like this [e.g. no third world labour setup to manufacture them yet] why is this such a special thing? I mean we have the technology in this day and age todo it.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Why spend $700 on it, when you could spend $400 on an equally-powered, larger (not as easy to lose, sturdy/rugged), and easier to repair, maintain, and upgrade, system?
Unless these things become as common cell phones, there won't be much point to them, except for some very "sophisticated" businessmen.
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
Is that fullspeed or high speed?
--
What do you wan't to learn today?
I'm not trying to troll here, I really want to know why anyone would get one, besides the coolness factor. I mean, if you need something small and quiet, you get a laptop. If you need maximum expandability (PCI slots, room for a big fancy heatsink, etc.), you get a tower system. When you add a $200 display, the price tag goes to $900. That's how much an iBook costs. I'm sure there are even cheaper laptops on the PC side. This seems like the worst of both worlds.
c-hack.com |
... doesn't inspire confidence in me with their past track record of problems. Given my past experience with the Asus AV7266, I steer clear of all products using their chips.
"Powers. I have them."
Ok, 7.5x7.5x2 inches is not my definition of fitting in the palm of my hand. Thats bigger than the drive bay mini computers.
CPU: VIA C3 Eden 733MHz
Memory: 128MB DDR266 SODIMM (expandable to 512MB)
Hard Drive: 30GB
Display Support: 1280x1024 maximum selectable resolution and up to 32-bit color
Audio: AC 97 compatible, Built-in Microphone, 3W
Amplifier, 4Ohm speaker, 3.5mm stereo jack x 2 (Ear/Mic Jack)
Front button: V5/PC switch button, Two Channels indicator, Volume Control Knob, Mic mute Button
Status Indicator: V5 channel (Blue); PC channel (Orange)
Power: Output: 18V DC, 3.4A, Input: Auto-sensing 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz Universal
I/O ports: USB (2.0) x 4, Ethernet Port x 2, PS/2 x 4, VGA x 2
Network Connectivity: IEEE 802.3 10/100BaseT x2
IEEE 802.11 Wireless PCMCIA
Operation System: Windows XP Home Edition / Professional Edition
Dimensions (W x D x H): 5.2 x 19.5 x 19.5 (cm), 2â x 7.7â x 7.7â (in)
Expansion Slot: PCMCIA Type II slot x1
Weight: 2.2lbs/1.0kg
Operation Environment: Temperature: 32ÂF to 97ÂF (0ÂC to 36ÂC), Humidity: 20% to 80% (non-condensation)
Accessories: Power adapter, Ethernet Cable, KVM cable, User Manual
Regulatory Approvals: FCC, UL, CE
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Looks interesting for someone who likes to carry her PC with her and her monitor on his back
...judging by the spesifications is isn't much more than one of the lower-power mini-itx motherboards from VIA and some bundled perhipals.
So why not do as the good people over at mini-itx.com and roll your own? You may not save all that much money on it, but you can get a system thats tailormade for your needs and absolutly one of a kind... or you can molest some poor old computer and pimp it out with some new, faster hardware.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
How is this supposed to be an OQO killer? Granted, I can't get through to the site- it's 'dotted. However, I've seen the specs as posted here, and to me- as a person who really wants an OQO bad- it doesn't look like it'd replace the OQO.
Mostly, this thing doesn't have a display. Or touch screen. Making it a portable computer, but not a palmtop. The OQO is cool for a number of reasons, but one of them is that it is a real and quite fast machine in the form factor of a PDA. Yet, it can be "converted" into a real desktop or real laptop using docking stations. With an OQO, you can slip it into the docking station and expand it with a new AGP video card or new PCI cards. This is just a low-lower mini-ATX board. Nothing that special, although I'm sure there are some folks who would find the V5 useful.
I mean, this Nimble thing doesn't even run on a battery. It is very portable, in that it's small enough to take your office machine to and from home, keeping monitor, keyboard, etc at each location.
The only thing I've seen that comes close to being an OQO killer- but is just as much vaporware- is the MCC, or the Mobile Computer Core. Like the OQO, you can slip it into a number of "docks," making it a PDA, a notebook, or a desktop. I'd rather have the MCC's PDA over an OQO because it has a bigger screen but without being too big, but such dreaming is worthless when no one will make one of these...
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Hush Tech makes a far better tiny computer that is also completely silent (except when using the DVD/CD drive). It looks allot nicer too, when used as a set-top box. The thing is powerful enough to be a DIVX/MP3 player, but it can also double as a TiVo or emulation based console gaming system.
If you just want a small, light, portable PC, I think something like the Hush PC is a better choice.
If you want something smaller, you can get systems that fit into a drive bay here.
It's okay, but unless you're talking about their 1GHz version, the performance is mediocre at best. The 733 MHz CPU compares favoribly on integer operations when compared to an equivalently clocked Celeron (About 1.25 times faster on average- mostly due to the higher FSB...) but is only about half as good as a Celeron on floating point operations. This is because the FPU is underclocked on all but the Nehemiah cores (1GHz and above...) by half the clock speed of the CPU.
The power consumption's great, but you need to be aware of the tradeoffs for that reduction in power- especially in the case of the earlier C3 cores. You want to use this as a set-top box machine or maybe as a home theatre PC if you're not planning on doing majorly strenuous things with it. As a business PC, it will do okay so long as you're doing something like worprocessing as your predominant task. Spreadsheets are going to drag miserably with this machine offering. A Nehemiah core machine would present itself well in the context of an office PC and while their price is MUCH higher than it ought to be for such a machine.
Fry's sells the 1GHz motherboards for about $140, the memory would set you back $60-120 depending on how much, a hard disk will set you back another $50-120 depending on what you bought, the special case for the new form factor motherboard will set you back $60-80.
So, doing the math, $310 is the base price for a better machine in a similar size factor.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
EPIA-M10000 motherboard : $140
mini-ITX case (basic): $60
128Mb of DDR RAM: $60
40Gb HD: $50
16x DVD: $50
Total cost: $360
That's all it takes to make a basic business PC these days. It won't be a barn burner, but it will do the job nicely no matter what OS you choose, 98, Me, 2000, XP, *BSD, or Linux.
(OT: The "lameness" filter is really lame...)
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas