Using USB to Separate Computer and Keyboard/Mouse?

Klaus Thorn asks: "As a member of a technical team that plans a radio station with several audio-editing cabins I'm thinking about separating the noisy heat-producing computer from the cabin using one VGA cable and one USB cable. The computer is in the computer storage room. In the cabin there is (besides LCD) an USB hub with keyboard, mouse, soundcard and CDR-drive. Has anyone tried this? I need to know whether this all-USB-solution is clean and stable or a bunch of problems. I need to know what distance I can put between cabin and computer-storage room. Let's assume USB 2.0 and amplifying USB cables and Windows XP."

"One more detail: When the admin changes some hardware in the computer store room he does not want to run to the cabin to push a button. He could plug out the USB cable and plug in another USB cable that is connected to mouse and keyboard in the same room. After he's finished he could exchange the usb cables again (to the one leading to the cabin). This is only sensible if the computer will accept all four USB devices without driver reinstall and reboot. Anyone tried this or can predict wether this will work?"

Comments

Just use this

[GigsVT]

Here

Re:Just use this

[Rick the Red]

Looks good, but it left me with an un-answered question: Is USB one of the things it extends (along with VGA, Keyboard, etc.), or do the two units communicate over USB? They imply the latter, but they say it uses CAT5 wire. They lost me.

Re:Just use this

[GigsVT]

I've got one just like this at work, but it is PS/2 instead of USB. It uses CAT5 and extends USB KB/Mouse and VGA video in this case, in my case it uses cat5 and extends PS/2.

Re:Just use this

[sweetooth]

The two unites are connected via the CAT5 cable and extend the various listed protocols.

Re:Just use this

[Directrix1]

Google search for "USB over IP".

Re:Just use this

[IM6100]

That would be 'USB over Ethernet'

There's no need to cram in a protocol requirement where any protocol would do.

Re:Just use this

[Directrix1]

Theres no need to cram in a physical network requirement when IP runs over just about everything. 6 and 1/2 dozen of another. Its all just some form of USB tunnel.

Re:Just use this

[PurpleFloyd]

Why encumber a product with IP when it doesn't need it? This is designed for end-to-end transmissions over a single wire; IP is ridiculous overkill incorporating useless overhead for things like routability and the ability to communicate with multiple devices.

In fact, the designers of this product seem to have even dispensed with Ethernet (note that it only says it'll work with Cat5 and contains its own gain control system - something that to me tells me that it's using some sort of broadband signaling, rather than the baseband shared by almost all forms of Ethernet.

As for "physical network requirements," everything that works over a network can't avoid using some form of physical communication; all the fancy protocols in the world won't do you any good if you can't get two systems to exchange bits. While it's possible to avoid permenantly tying yourself to one particular medium (via modular interfaces), it's impossible to have a network without physical communication. You just can't have IP between two locations without something to communicate packets - there has to be some form of communication. There's a reason why the physical layer is at the bottom of the OSI and TCP/IP models. It's because if the physical layer fails, there is no network.

Re:Just use this

[Directrix1]

Because you can easily, cheaply set up an ethernet bridge to wherever the you want the tunnel to go. IP goes anywhere. And, yes, I realize you need a physical medium for a signal to transmit over "duh". Routing it over IP allows ubiquitous access. Any computer can be the destination, not just whats on the other end of the CAT5. It doesn't have to be IP encapsulated, but it sure does help. And it probably doesn't hurt. Also, if you're using USB remotely, I really doubt latency is much of an issue with what you are doing (because you probably can't get too high bandwidth piping USB to begin with).

Re:Just use this

[PurpleFloyd]

However, video signals are analog and high-bandwidth. To run one over IP, you would need to have an ADC at the source end, plus compression hardware if you ever want to run more than TV resolutions in realtime. The point of this device is to put a computer in one room and a console in another, not to allow use of a computer from around the world.

If you need access to your US-based computer from China, you'd be much better off using VNC, X, MS Terminal Services, or another remote-console app, combined with a PC Weasel and serial terminal server if you need console access from boot.

The point of this system is to provide a console a few hundred feet away that is functionally equivalent to a console directly connected to the computer. It seems to perform that function adequately. It is not designed to provide halfway-around-the-world access; the products I mentioned are far better for that. Furthermore, it would be a bad idea to include IP functionality in this product: it would mean a significant increase in cost, while simply duplicating features that are mostly available through Free software running on the host machine. Sure, IP encapsulation on a device like this would be great. However, it is simply impossible from an engineering standpoint to make it work via IP without shooting the price into the stratosphere or requiring an insanely high-bandwidth link.

Re:Just use this

[emc]

6 and 1/2 dozen of another.

You must be from Europe.

In Soviet Russia, the dozens own you.

Check first

[segvio]

Look up specs on USB audio devices. Many (and I mean MANY) will not work at all on USB (power or unpowered) hubs and require a direct USB connection.

Re:Check first

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for this hint. I will ask the sound card manufacturers directly. Klaus Thorn

Stable, sure,

[computersareevil]

But why not use VNC, a retired computer, and a single (as long as you need) Ethernet cable? It's potentially simpler and gives you the flexibility to attach to multiple computers without a KVM.

Re:Stable, sure,

[RevAaron]

Not sure what kind of old, retired computers you've been using, but the majority of them are warm and noisy, which is what the poster is trying to avoid.

You could buy an old laptop perhaps, or do plenty of research to find am older, yet cool and quiet PC or Mac desktop. One of those fan-less iMacs?

Re:Stable, sure,

[gl4ss]

there's ways to cool the new computers as well without excessive noise(and to damp the hd noise).

though, it can get expensive and be a much greater hassle than relocating the computer out of room.

.

Re:Stable, sure,

[computersareevil]

Not sure what kind of old, retired computers you've been using, but the majority of them are warm and noisy, which is what the poster is trying to avoid.

You guys have a good point, but a CD- or floppy-booting HD-less Pentium could reliably operate with no fans and no noise and very little added heat.

The flexibility alone would be worth the few minutes it takes to mod the machine, IMHO.

Re:Stable, sure,

[MattCohn.com]

Audio editing in real time over VNC.

You slashdot posters crack me up.

Re:Stable, sure,

[computersareevil]

Audio editing in real time over VNC.
You slashdot posters crack me up.

Obviously you understand neither the sumitter's need nor VNC. Realtime is not a problem on a private network.

You unintelligent snobs crack me up.

Re:Stable, sure,

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you actually ever used an audio app over VNC on a local network? It isn't pretty. Come back when you actually touch a real audio workstation.

Re:Stable, sure,

[computersareevil]

Have you actually ever used an audio app over VNC on a local network?

Yes, you anonymous coward .

Re:Stable, sure,

[MattCohn.com]

I'm not AC, but I'll reply to your response.

Uh no, you obviously havn't tried audio editing in this kind of an environment. I personally have tried editing audio with Cool Edit Pro on my home 10/100 network using both VNC and Remote Desktop. Neither worked well at all. When I meen working with audio editing software, I meen working well. Yes, you CAN do it over VNC but your productivity is limited. Latency is unacceptable when trying to get anything accomplished.

Why don't you go work in the productions department of a radio station, take notes, and then get back to me.

Re:Stable, sure,

[computersareevil]

Matt, there must be something wrong with your network. I just tried this over the weekend, using a K6-2 300 machine running Winders 98SE, talking to a P4 1.8 using XP over a 100mb network, through two cheapo switches, using RealVNC 3.3.7. Latency was nonexistant, and I had no trouble using any audio application or editor. I really think you must have a configuration problem somewhere.

Not quite a radio station production studio, but good enough?

Try it yourself

[Rick the Red]

Not to be flip, but why not try it yourself? Surely you have a Windows PC with at least one USB port, so give it a go. From personal experience when I unplug most USB devices Windows gives a warning that I should have told it first, but Windows doesn't crash. You might also try two keyboards (one in each of two USB ports) to see if you don't need to unplug the remote keyboard to use a local one (I'm sure you can find PCs with two USB ports and use one for local, the other for remote).

As for how far you can go, I would think VGA is your limiting factor, not USB.

Re:Try it yourself

[sweetooth]

You can use multiple usb keyboards on a pc. Or you could use a USB keyboard and a PS/2 keyboard at the same time. I've done all of the above with no problem. I believe the max extension on a VGA cable is 25ft and USB is 15' without signal boosting. If you want to spend a bunch of money you can get a KVM extender style setup which lets you extend the keyboard, mouse, video, and audio up to 250ft over CAT5.

Re:Try it yourself

[Anonymous Coward]

Heck, I've got four mice on my laptop: It's a dell 8000 with built-in eraser and touch pad. Connected to it, I have an apple USB mouse (nice adjustable force is easy on my hands) and an old Microsoft scroll mouse in the PS/2 port (for when I need that second button).

Funny thing is that they all work simultaneously, and I can fight them against each other.

Now, if I only could hook up my graphics tablet to the serial port...

Re:Try it yourself

[MrResistor]

You can also use multiple mice on USB or USB and PS/2. It works fine in Linux, anyway, and I don't expect it would be a problem for Windows. I don't recommend having a 3-year-old on the other mouse, though.

Re:Try it yourself

[cookd]

Works fine in Windows, except when each mouse has special features. If you want the special features for just one of them, fine. Just install the driver that came with it. The default driver will kick in for the other one. If you want special features for both, it is a bit tricky to get both drivers to get along with each other in the control panel. The hardware drivers are fine. It is just the control panel that gets confused.

Noise and Heat

[crow]

Once you have the CPU in the room, you're generating more heat. And in most cases, you have fans and a hard drive generating noise. Also, this is an environment where electronic noise may also be a factor, so the RF emmisions may be significant with a computer in the room.

Re:Just use this KVM extender

[ArmorFiend]

Uh, perhaps he doesn't use it because it costs $300!!!!!

usb

[Anonymous Coward]

USB is nice in that multiple peripherals can all use the same port, but it just plain sucks for a variety of reasons

1. It's a master/slave relationship, rather than p2p
   
2. Bandwidth is limited.
   
3. the irq/dma conflicts make people yearn for the simplicity of editting dos/windows ini files
   

USB is good for keyboards and mice (only because hot-plugging is allowed), and simple low-bandwidth usage. However, USB drives (especially cdr) is asking for trouble.

It's a shame firewire isn't more prevalent. It's a better solution for higher i/o peripherals.

Re:usb

[Snafoo]

First of all, I think the question-poster has a really good idea: Computer interfaces *can* and *should* be separable from the beige box. Furthermore, I don't think that implementing this shit in USB **2.0** is such a bad idea. According to http://www.apple.com/firewire/ (hardly a non-partisan source ;) Firewire 800 (the latest Firewire standard) is only twice as fast as USB 2.0, allowing transfer rates of up to 800Mbs, which "delivers more than double the effective bandwidth of the USB 2.0 peripheral standard. That means you can send more than a CD's worth of data every ten seconds." This implies that USB 2.0 can send at least a CD's worth of data every twenty seconds, which is far more bandwidth than your pathetic 52x CD drive will ever put forth.

So, hey, if you have USB 2.0 on your computer, you might as well use it :) (PS. if you don't, then
you can just buy a USB2/Firewire combo card, and just use whatever works best.)

Thirdly, if your USB drive refuses to work with a hub, then simply put everything *else* on a hub and use your computer's extra USB port (it has more than one, right?) for the CDR.

Fourthly, VGA will be a problem --- *if* you're using VGA. Many LCD displays can take DVI, which (AFAIK) means that the cables can be strung somewhat further. If you can't use digital out, or if I'm wrong about the cable length feature of digital out, please feel free to use one 'o them VGA extension devices that, eg, use some multimode fiber-optic cabling and some conversion dongles.

I just googled a nice FAQ about such matters at

http://www.scala.com/hardware/dvi-vga-cable.html

Have fun.

Re:usb

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a shame firewire isn't more prevalent. It's a better solution for higher i/o peripherals.

Firewire's top-end speed is 400MB/s. USB 2.0 has a top-end of 480MB/s. Plus, USB 2.0 controllers are invariably USB 1.0 compliant. as well (11MB/s).

There are micro-usb connectors, even smaller than the 4-pin firewire "i-link" style connectors that Sony pushes. What makes you think USB is not a viable solution for high-speed peripherals? Why not have both available, so any equipment that needs one or the other can connect. If you're designing a new device, use USB 2.0, since there's no Apple-tax on like with firewire, and it's faster....

Re:usb

[Schmucky The Cat]

Nobody cares that it's a master slave relationship. Especially for HID. Why would you want a keyboard that had a special peering relationship with the box?

Bandwidth is not limited for the purpose. He has 400Mbps to play with for hi-speed devices. If he's only got full speed, he's got 12Mbps, which (since it's pretty much dedicated) is enough to stream several uncompressed audio channels.

USB uses a single IRQ for the host controller. Devices don't use any irq or dma resources on the host machine. On any modern machine with a decent chipset (not *cough* via) you've got IRQ steering and APIC. I deal with IRQ issues on USB about once a year. And I develop USB device drivers, so I'm talking about a few thousand test boxes.

Re:usb

[bhtooefr]

Of course, that's 400Mb/s, not MB/s. 1 Mb (megabit) is 1/8 of 1 MB (megabyte).

Mice should work at least

[rmohr02]

I have two mice plugged in right now--an old one in a PS/2 port (through a USB -> PS/2 adaptor), and a cordless mouse plugged into a USB port. Both worked fine right when plugged in, and work together--move one up and the other to the right and the cursor goes up and to the right simultaneously.

Also, "USB 2.0" doesn't mean anything anymore.

Re:Mice should work at least

[acxr is wasted]

a cordless mouse plugged into a USB port

wha?

Re:Mice should work at least

[DietFluffy]

the mouse is wireless, the receiver is plugged into the usb port.

Re:Mice should work at least

[rmohr02]

Yea I guess that didn't make too much sense. The receiver/charger plugs into a USB port and an AC power outlet.

Have you considered Firewire?

[TorgoGuy]

The Firewire spec allows for much longer cables than USB. A bought two 32ft firewire cables that were guaranteed to operate at that distance (www.granitedigital.com) and put a firewire hub to connect the two together. That gave me 64 feet of distance.

I have done CD/DVD burning, printing, and scanning, with no problems over this 64ft distance.

I used a refurb Cybex extender for the keyboard, video and mouse over one CAT5 cable.

Re:Have you considered Firewire?

[GoRK]

You can also buy firewire repeaters that work over fiber optic cable for totally insane distances (read miles).

~GoRK

keyb/mouse work perfectly

[graf0z]

... with my redhat linux 7.x/8/9 (i remember tweaking rc.sysinit in 7.something), also with BIOS (and win2k). No ps/2 needed.

I have a cherry keyboard with built-in 4x usb hub, mouse attached to it (and racing wheel ;-).

I'm thinking about tinkering some more usb connectors and a switch/toggle into that keyboard so that i can connect it more than one pc, easy switching to and fro. Ok, i still need a vga switch ...

/graf0z.

ps: anybody experiances with soundblaster extigy or an audigy2nx and linux?

Re:keyb/mouse work perfectly

[mhesseltine]

No direct experience, but a quick search came up with Creative's official open source site as well as (from that page) an extigy driver

Try diskless with VNC

[Craig Maloney]

Diskless with VNC might get you where you want to be. You can reduce the noise from drives and fans, and you'll be able to control the main machine(s) from the audio rooms.

Re:Try diskless with VNC

[joshuac]

So how are the audio people going to handle the audio and CD-R over a VNC session?

Some mods I'd make

[bluGill]

While I understand the value of putting all comptuers in a server room, I think that you would be better of to just have the computer in a closet outside the room, or in a soundproof (yet well cooled...) cabinet inside. I'm not convinced you will be changing hardware often enough to make pushing a button in each cabin a problem. Software updates are a different issue, and those you might change often.

I strongly recomend you keep most of your disks in a file server, and store all files on that. With SAMBA (windows networking can work too) to share as needed. Keep the harddrive noise far away because it is on the network. Also puts the componants you most want to replace in a central location next to the comptuer they are connected to, and lusers can't touch that machine.

Extended cables work ok at best, but you are introducing potential problems with them. By having the comptuer just outside you can run a few more cables inside the room, and still get off just as good.

Drop the USB cd drives for ieee1394 (firewire). A little more complex, but you have a solution that was designed for data drives from the start. If you have a lot of money fibre channel would be nice, but odds are you don't.

USB in theory allows you to plug multipul devices in. I'd expiriment with a usb hub local to the machine for pluging a second keyboard/mouse into without unpluging the one in the remote room. Dual monitor graphics cards exist, I'd consider putting one in each machine, so you don't have to unplug the remote monitor. Remember unpluging cables is what damages them, so you want to avoid that. Monitor are not always hot-plug, so you don't want to unplug them anyway. Or, instead of the complexities of the above, will VNC or similear solve all console admin needs?

Expiriment first. Try all the technology on one computer (that you can borrow for the purpose) first, to make sure it will work ok. If there is a problem that you can't overcome you don't want to have bought a large setup only to find it won't work.

One other thing I'd be tempted to try is some custom mini-ITX boards in a custom case. Use flash for booting, and set it read-only so that lusers don't go breaking the configuration. (better yet boot from the net, but that isn't easy) Provides most of the outputs you want, and use the network for all your admin. With the right heatsinks and case design they make no noise. When you do have to do a hardware change, you pull a spare off the shelf, make the change, test it, then bring the whole system to the cabin and replace the old on.

Not all these ideas are compatable. Only you know your exact setup, so only you know what will work for you.

Buzzword compliance suggestion

[babbage]

I may be naive, or cargo culting, but have you considered Bluetooth devices? For at least part of the problem, bluetooth seems to have been designed exactly to meet these needs: my impression is that Bluetooth keyboards & mice could take care of at least that portion of the devices you're trying to attach, provided that the connection distance isn't too far (the ranges needed are never stated in the original posting).

As for display, sound card & CD drive, I'm not sure what the best approach is. As another poster noted, the best way to find out would be to test your ideas to see if they'll work. I'm not sure what sound card you're considering; the only external one I'm personally aware of is the Griffin iMic, but the sample of it that I saw only had a 2 foot long USB cable. I have no idea if it would work with an extended cable, or if there's a faster Firewire version; I also don't know if the iMic only works with Macs (the original poster also doesn't give any platform constraints that may exist). I wouldn't be surprised if there are, or will be, Bluetooth devices (or Bluetooth optical drives, or at least housings for optical/hard drives), but again I'm not aware of details, if they exist.

As for VGA, I've set up a PC to connect to a display that was about 100 feet away, using a chain of server room VGA cables. The picture was awful, but servicable -- lots of ghosting & blurriness, but large screen features were clearly recognizable. While this was amusing as a prank on the person who's desktop was showing up down the hall, if you actually want your display that far away you might want to find a more professional solution :-)

The big constraint for all the things you want to attach is range: I'd always had the impression that USB wasn't reliable over distances greater than 10 feet or so, and again it isn't known how far these studios are going to be from the computers. Right on the other side of a wall? A dozen feet away? A hundred? The longer it is, the more work this is going to take.

Taking a different approach, this could possibly be an appropriate application for some kind of "small", self-contained devices, like PDAs or tablet PCs, using some kind of wireless networking (bluetooth or 802.11b/g). That takes care of your input & display issues, but may or may not meet the sound card constraint. I know that PDAs run quiet & cool; I assume that tablet PCs run louder & hotter, but hopefully they aren't as noisy or hot as a normal desktop or laptop. In any case, it's an option to consider.

Veering off in yet another bizarre direction, this could be an appropriate application for a beefy server & a bunch of VT100 terminals. They're quiet & cool, but they force you to use character based interfaces, and you'll *have* to use some kind of separate sound card (which you seem to be planning on anyway).

But again, this is an "interesting" problem, which is to say that the right solution might be sensitive to constraints that haven't really been spelled out (range, budget, hardware & software constraints, etc), and barring more information along those lines it's possible to come up with all kinds of creative, and possibly not very helpful, suggestions :-)

Re:Buzzword compliance suggestion

[Minna Kirai]

For at least part of the problem, bluetooth seems to have been designed exactly to meet these needs:

I can't see how Bluetooth (or more specifically any radio-IO mechanism) can be appropriate for heavy workplace use.

The fact is that unless the mouse and keyboard are on at least one cable, they'll need batteries to be replaced.

A radio-station isn't like an office, where deadlines are measured in days. Seconds count, and if batteries go dead at a critical juncture, that's dead air. Sure, you can mostly eliminate that risk by diligent recharging on a set period, but why take that hassle?

And what does Bluetooth buy you? Not range- chained USB hubs go further than BT can. The only feature BT brings to the tables is the inherent "wirelessness"- faster reconnection of moved hardware. But it's not as if the broadcaster's desk will be moving around a lot. A wired solution means you install the mouse+keyboard once, and forget it. Bluetooth gives more convenience when moving devices around- a meaningless benefit when compared to the annoyance and even *risk* of depletable batteries.

Laptop

[Apreche]

Hey, they got these new things. They call them, laptops. They're great when you want a computer anywhere without a lot of clutter. You can even plug mice and keyboards into them!

Running video cable from the video card all the way over will limit you. USB is iffy, it only goes so far. A Viewsonic Wireless Monitor might do the trick, but then you might as well get a powerbook or thinkpad or tablet or something.

Re:Laptop

[penguinboy]

Trouble is, most of today's reasonably fast laptops generate quite a bit of fan noise - which is the primary problem the OP wants to fix.

Icron Technologies USB Extenders

[Robbat2]

I solidly recommend the USB extension devices from Icron technologies (http://www.icron.com/).

I work with somebody that is one of their former engineers, and we've got one of their Ranger 410 models being used to allow us to locate the station for our SGI Onyx3200 approx. 50m from the actual machine (which is in the server room).

I have it on good advice that they have a USB2 product in the works, which would be suitable for your CD burning.

However I think you still might want to consider providing both USB and Firewire to each of your proposed stations, as firewire provides a much better choice for your cd burning.

The Icron stuff will get your USB to either 100m or 500m depending which module you go with. Firewire will be more of a problem but 20m should be doable.

Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

This solution can't possibly work. It doesn't use Linux.

Noisy, hot computer?

[Kris_J]

Why don't you just build some cool-running, fanless PCs? Some of the Mini-ITX range run without fans and they're pleny powerful enough for audio work. Just get a quiet hard drive and you're set.

Re:Noisy, hot computer?

[Anonymous Coward]

If by "plenty powerful" you mean "slower than a 400mhz Celeron", okay.

You can have them all at the same time!

[djkitsch]

I don't know about any other devices on the same USB bus, but you can have two mice and two keyboards plugged into a PC at the same time with no problems, at least under XP. All the inputs work at the same time - I often have multiple input devices plugged into my laptop at the same time for software demos...

Seperate FullSpeed vs HiSpeed

[swmccracken]

You might want two USB cables - one holding USB2.0 HiSpeed devices only (eg: the CD Writer, if it's hispeed) and the other carrying USB1.1/FullSpeed devices. (Otherwise the CD Writer will be limited to USB1.1 speeds, which wouldn't be as reliable.)

It should in theory work. If you want to do this sort of thing in a big way, look at BlackBox ServSwitch gear - if you want to remotely manage a whole farm of computers.

As others point out, there's no need for your admin to disconnect the remote keyboard when in the server room - just have another USB hub in there or use another usb port - or a conventional ps/2 keyboard.

Digital LCD Displays?

[toddestan]

Have you considered LCDs? I do believe that their cables can go longer than VGA cables, but I may be mistaken there. You also have the bonus of less heat, and no CRT monitor whine too.

Re:Digital LCD Displays?

[Minna Kirai]

It's not correct to compare VGA vs LCD cables. There's really no such thing as an "LCD cables".

Computer video cables can be VGA or DVI. Monitors can be CRT or LCD. Since both LCD and DVI are newer, one might tend to lump them together, but this doesn't have to be the case. LCD screens with VGA connectors are common, and CRTs that use DVI do exist.

try norhtec

[Anonymous Coward]

Try norhtec computers, like the silent server and so on - you mentioned you wanted noiseless computers. These computers have no fans in them, and are completely silent except for a spinning HDD.

vga

[austad]

We had a 50 foot heavily shielded VGA cable in a conference room and it worked great. I think this would likely be your biggest problem. Standard cables are not shielded well and you'll see some "issues" with the image on the screen.

Any company that installs projectors for conference rooms should have a cable that will work for you.

Put the break at a different spot

[leonbrooks]

Use a diskless fanless box in the cube as a thin client; this reduces your cable count to one ethernet cable only (and Andrew's little gems use so little power that you could concievably even power the sucker through the RJ45, dunno about the audio stuff). Get the humming box to do the hard work (recoding, effects et al), the thin client just displays stuff and feeds audio streams to the sound card. 100 megabits box-to-box with nobody else on the cable should be overkill.

If real dinkum thinkum happens infrequently on the humming box, you might like to share one noisy box between several thin clients.

And... it solves the parent's problem.

The Motium boxes are available as a variant with four USB (and two ethernet) ports on the board, so you could still use a USB soundcard and CD-RW, and any mix of USB or PS/2 for the HIDs.

Re:Just use this KVM extender

[PhoenixOne]

When you are setting up a radio station $300 isn't such a big deal.

Have you considered....

[tubabeat]

blade desktops? (assuming you've not already got the hardware?).
I've just read an article about them at ZDNet.
Looks like the main manufacturer at the moment is ClearCube, although HP are about to get in on the act.

Re:Don't think VGA has to be a problem

[enosys]

I don't think VGA has to be a problem. Sure, if you chain a bunch of cheap VGA extension cables your picture will probably suck and have lots of ghosting. However, if you used good quality 75 ohm coax you should be able to get great quality and long range.

itx with no fan

[paxmark1]

You could always go with a fanless computer, some of the VIA itx mobos with the slower processors need no fan. USB 2.0 is not yet enabled in 2.4 kernel to best of my knowledge, but can be put is as a module. But definitely - keep some Firewire options open shalom,

Mac OS X Application

[harveyswik]

Now, I know this is a bit off topic but it just seems easier to put an old (400Mhz, slot loading) iMac in there - cheaper too. No fan, small form factor, etc. If for some reason the propriatary software doesn't support OS X, use VNC to control the PC.