Small Form Factor Comparison Matrix

Giggles Of Doom writes "With small form factor PCs, such as the Shuttle XPC line, becoming all the rage these days for office and gamer use, it can be a daunting task to find the model that is right for you. With more and more manufacturers getting on the SFF bandwagon, the selection is growing rapidly. How do you compare each one? You could spend hours combing manufacturer sites and reviews, or you could be thankful that someone has done all the work for you already! The Small Form Factor Comparison Matrix is just that, a chart listing over 30 of the most popular SFF boxes, their features, and price. Sort by any field, and limit your search to things like "Pentium 4 Only" or "Under $200 Only." If you're looking into getting a SFF box, this is the place to start." (Sudhian Media and mini-itx.com are also good sources for information on small PCs.)

Comments

Multi-CPU SFF?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone know of a small dual-CPU capable motherboard?

Something like a micro-ATX form factor but with multiple CPU's would be great.

Hey Shuttle, how about a flex-ATX system with dual Xeons, Opterons, or similar?

Is this really a true statement?

[Liquidrage]

"With small form factor PCs, such as the Shuttle XPC line, becoming all the rage these days for office and gamer use"

I got to LAN parties, work in IT, and I don't see anyone looking for smaller form fctors for gaming.
Bringing a full size ATX tower to a LAN party just ins't that hard. Maybe if you're trying to take it on an airplane I could see the need. But otherwise, with all the heat and the size of video cards, I don't see small form factor being the rage in gaming. In fact I see the opposite. People wanting lots of room in their case.

I dont go to big name contests or national LAN parties, so maybe I've just lost touch.

non x86 small format machines.

[questamor]

Anyone know much of the non x86 small machines or boards? I know of pegasosppc and their micro-ATX boards, and an upcoming (hopefully) AmigaOne that's a full G3 or G4 Mini-ITX board, and rumours of ARM Mini-ITX.

Any PPC Mini-ITX boards that won't be lumbered with Amiga licensing fees?

Re:Sort by Volume Needed

[Giggles Of Doom]

Saddly getting db levels for all the units is next to impossible. Very few review sites can measure it, and they wouldn't measure it in the same manner anyway. Same with manufacturers. I would love to have it in there though. If they all want to send me a test unit I could do it, but I don't think that's going to happen.

Small Form Factor - Here I Come

[mr_lithic]

I have been looking at one of these for a while. I make up dream configurations using the Shuttle Barebones system and then price out the components from Overclockers or TekHeads.

They seem to solve a lot of problems that conventional systems are plagued with. Cooling a large box, noise generated by the cooling systems, space used by the server sitting under your desk. I was originally looking at rack mount systems but these Small Form Factor PC's have the added advantage of portability. Perfect for LAN Parties.

In addition they retain standard PC components, so you are not thrust into the expensive world of laptop computing. I did that for a while and got tired of paying double for everything.

Howver, currently I have the server under the desk. The major problem is the storage space of these boxes but if I can find an external storage system that suits, I am definitely going small form factor.

stupid geek chic = people coming to their senses

[psxndc]

I have a P1-166 as my firewall. Not exactly sure about the dimensions, but it's probably 3' long, 1' wide, 2' high. This speaks more to "network appliances" but why should I keep that around when I can get the same functionality in a 3"x6"x2" firewall from linksys/netgear/etc? It will take up a lot less room. Repeat for my fileserver, webserver, and mailserver and I could end up saving some serious space by consolidating the three boxes to one beefier SFF box. It's called common sense. Why waste all the space and power? Maybe it's different for games, but as far as I concerned, SFF is the way to go.

psxndc