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ASUS Barebones: Multimedia Even Sans Hard Drive
technomegalomaniac writes "This new stylish
barebones combo from ASUS (case+motherboard) is going to outdo Apple in 'the way it looks matters' department. Customizable to your heart content, no OS included (obviously, since you need to buy your own hard drive). Comes with 'Instant On' software that lets you play CDs, DVDs and MP3s without entering the primary OS thus bypassing the long boot process. Definitely a living room toy." Doesn't beat Apple hardware in my eyes, but still looks like a nifty box.
who looks at that and thinks "damn that's fugly"
How do the looks of this thing outdo Apple's?
This thing is just a black box with a handle and a color LCD display. Compare that to the current and previous iMacs.
So I am not sure it looks speacilly nice, as it basically looks like your average stereo. Ofcourse compared to some horrors cases...
I thought ASUS already had the ready to play onm thier motherboards in the past. But this is still a cool little device.
From the article:
The S1-P112 is a pure gaming system tailored for those who enjoy playing the latest 3D titles.
I hope this thing packs a decent power supply, unlike most barebone systems if its going to be running a recent video card. That has been the only thing so far that has kept me off of these things. I find one I like and realize that the 240w PS just isn't gonna cut it with my Geforce 6800.
Is it me or does that look strikingly similar to a gamecube?
I like muppets.
But really, what's up with that handle? And, if you're going to make a system made for the living room, why not make something with the appropriate dimensions. And without a handle sticking out the top, making it harder to fit into a space or stack something on it.
Yes it's Christmas, but it's a bit late to peddle stuff Mr. Editor!
Isn't this about the 5th advert in 2 days?
It was bound to happen sooner or later: an LCARS system had sex with a clock radio!
So it makes coffee, too? Take that, Apple!
A blog like any other.
220w power supply? enough to power the front display.
Intel integration.
Graphics shared memory.
Its a step in the right direction, but that's not going to be a conversation piece to brag about.
Dam ugly.
Now if you want to compete with Apple, make the case transparent.
Anyone have prices of this yet?
Its not in the Canadian channels yet.
Am I the only one that thinks it looks like a microwave? Though, with a name like that, it should be an expresso maker.
On the other hand, is it digitally signed? If not, how can I trust it?
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
is this really front page news? I mean, sure its "news for nerd" and kinda cool but it's not the most innovative thing ever, nor does it have some significant importance. So why is this front page news? is this just a slow news day or something? Just wondering....
it is a rather neat system which I wouldnt mind having in my living room, though comparing it to a g5 tower or such is like comparing a tricked out hyundai with a jaguar....
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Am I the only one that thinks the form factor should look more like a component cd player, or receiver. This doesnt mesh with my current stack o hardware in my living room.
Come to think of it, my DVD player plays DVDs, MP3, and CDs and has no hard drive. Throw in a network card and we're really cooking.
And I'm not so sure this thing would give apple a run for its money in the aesthetics department. The U2 ipod looks more pleasing.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
MSI make something similar and have a few different models. MSI's look better I think but functionally they're very similar.
Here's the link
How do they call it? Slashadvertisement? Slashvertisement? Slashdotadvertsiisfjlasjflasjflas...
I remember several notebooks have such functions long before (Maybe not DVD playing...)... It's a nice product but does it deserve a frontpage slot?
No way does this look better than a Apple computer. Open your eyes!
Am I the only person that hears 'barebones combo' and pictures a full/mid-tower with motherboard and power supply? (Looks something like this )
Aero
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
doesnt look quite right
...a *car battery* had sex with a clock radio. That's the lineage I see. Some clunking noises, a blare of static-filled AM talk radio, a drip of battery acid... and a few QA iterations later the creature was born.
The ivory one must look nicer though, right? I only saw a thumbnail of it before I closed the window.
The colour of the lights remind me of 80's electronics.. or Kitt.
!
Clock-radio. Its not even in the Apple ballpark (and I'm a PC user!).
Whats the deal with PC manufacturers anyway? Its like the technology equivalent of the comb-over. Is it really that hard to design smart, elegant hardware? Beige boxes are great for business, but hasn't Apple already proven theres a market for aesthetics?
Did I already mention that its ugly as hell?
Quack, quack.
It sounds like a gimick to me. The case is nice, but paying 240 for the case plus paying for the cpu + memory + hdd + graphics + decent soundcard isnt worth it. Unless you have decent parts lying around, it is better to hook up your computer (or a slower, silent comp with a good soundcard) to your sound system and put a remote on it.
Haven't industrial designers figured this out yet? Integrated handles stink (especially ones styled like this one). The thing doesn't seem to be intended as a portable device - why make a handle such a prominent part of the design?
With the bulge on the top of the case this unit will need additional shelf height, and prohibits stacking with other electronics.
this design: piss poor.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
.. are we not boycotting ASUS at the moment for their anti open source behaviour?
o ry-01.html
http://www.mozillaquest.com/Linux04/Asus_Sucks_St
I know I am.
I have an A7V classic that's been upgraded to a 2.2GHz Athlon XP-M. Quite reliable and far from obsolete.
But frankly, the S-presso has a long way to go if you think they're going to outdo Apple in "the way it looks matters department." It's too bad the G4 Cube never took off. That is what I would consider a living room toy. Minimalist and elegant. In contrast, the S-presso from the pictures looks like it is encased in cheap plastic made for a 5-year-old. Its shape doesn't look like it will complement components in a home-entertainment rack. If I had one of these puppies, it would probably be sitting behind a chair.
One ugly motherf*****! Piece of crap! These consumer targeted Taiwan (Asus, Gigabyte, etc.) brands are piece of shit!
If you want a real PC with reliable hardware, get Intel mobo with P4.
doing that with a Coolmaster case, DVD drive, old ATI9000 video card and I boot with a Geexbox CD, Plays most media into my stereo and old LCD MM projector.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
that prove Apple stands alone in the market place when it comes to style and innovation. The "S-presso" Looks like an old 1970s AM Radio from Radio Shack and has a name similar to a coffee machine made by Ronco. UGH !
Which brings me to question, is there anywhere one can actually look up the rated/average/expected power consumption of various PC components?
I've an EPIA that runs at under 40W, under 30W I believe (total including the drive)... the board/CPU itself is extremely low power consumption. With the teeny DC PSU's I've attached though, I wonder if I'm destroying my drive by underpowering or if it's still got enough to get by ok.
No seriously though everytime a PC maker does a box that doesn't look like a beige/black tower with a slab of colored plastic on the front people go "OMG it's better than Apple". It's not, Alienware and Shuttle makes better looking hardware than this Azus thing, it's not that it's not of any interest but apart from a good candidate for Win Media Center this thing isn't the Peru.
In the kitchen.
Bad 80's stereo meets a fan forced oven.
This is just sad.
quiet?! i sure hope that's a typo.
Holy shit, a computer that can play music, damn that's so l33t omg0dz0r I have never seen a computer that could play music before!!!
If I'm going to have something like this in my living room, I want it to be quiet. That means I want it to be cool. But this thing has a Pentium 4 motherboard.
I'd really rather have a 90nm Athlon64, with "Cool n Quiet". And whatever 3D chipset has the best performance/heat ratio. (Probably an ATI chipset... too bad the drivers suck in Linux. Are there any nVidia chipsets that can run Doom 3 but don't also heat your room?)
A PowerPC chip would also be good. Hey, Apple -- you ought to make a living-room Mac.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
You don't happen to have one of these do you?
According to an article here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19922
It's instant-on software is an embed version of Linux! Supercool! I want one!
And street pricing seems to be about $250 for it...so it's cheap! Now that's just a bare-bones system, but still, you could have a nice PVR for under $600 USD!
Sweet!
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
will it sit on top of my xbox? I hope the weight of the two wont break my entertainment center.
Free electronics!
Anybody know of such a package? It must be capable of being controlled with just a remote control, with the typical DVD remote's buttons -- not a keyboard. Willing to build it up from components if need be. HDD space would probably be a RAID 0 job, or multiple partitions -- easy enough to re-rip a DVD if a HD fails, so no need for RAID 5.
This thing needs either a P-M or an AMD64 DTR. It does not need socket 478. Why equip it with the most unsuitable processor for its intended application - a mistake, of course, that Apple would never make.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
S1-P111. It needs a few more 1's before I'd consider it buyable. ... Who the fuck comes up with model numbers? Did these retards pay somebody to come up with S1-P111?
Seriously
Anyone else think the case's name, SPresso, is a dig at the old Cappucino PC??
But Maaa! Everyone else has a
why does it always take so long for good stuff to reach the United States? Is there a digital divide between the East and West? Or is the West just too slow to realise they are that slow?
Often we do not have time for our friends, yet all the time in the world for our enemies.
Because, as they keep telling us, "naked PCs" encourage piracy, terrorism, spread avian flu and deprive Bill Gates of another heated driveway for his Porsche 959.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Why the hell did they put a 3.4 ghz proc in something thats designed to run with no hdd/os? whats it going to do besides generate heat? I mean, sure you could install a hdd and os then do more with it; but why bother with such a powerful proc by default in a pc designed to run without those things?
seems like it would make more sense to throw in the cheapest/lowest wattage processor they could get their hands on, i doubt any proc still in production couldnt handle dvd decoding etc.
TIAEAE!
but is it art?
what a dog:
1) no TV out according to the specs
2) Intel P4
3) Only one 3.5" drive bay
4) Intel Extreme graphics
My living room system, an Antec Aria case, Athlon64 3000+, and ATi AIW 9800Pro graphic card has more computing power, better PVR capabilities, and looks way, WAY better. And the Athlon/Aria combo is so quiet (thanks to a Zalman 7000 hsf) that I never have to turn it off - forget "instant on". And, oh yeah, I have 3 x 3.5" bays to add enough hard drives to actually STORE some MP3s, pics, and videos, unlike this poseur of a system...and who wants a touch panel - I want the RF remote of the ATi AIW so I don't even leave my couch...
... because we get everything thousands of times faster here in Europe?
Hi! I'm a musician and interested in G5 PowerMac, but won't get it. Check out the number at the bottom. This is why I won't get Apple for my recording studio.
Summary
Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x512MB
250GB Serial ATA
DVD-R/CD-RW
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT DDL 256MB, 2xDVI
Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel)
Apple Cinema Display (20" LCD)+Belkin ADC to DVI Adapter
Apple Keyboard & Mouse
Mac OS X
One FireWire 800 port
Two FireWire 400 ports
Three USB 2.0 ports
Price: Eur 5.907,58
VAT: Eur 1.299,67
Subtotal: Eur 7.207,25
Holy cow! Let that amount speak fot itself! That's something like 8000$!!
Here is the answer.. Linux based MythTV is the leader of the pack! Check out the features!
How are you supposed to put anything on top of this thing?
Anybody know how much? I bet it's pricey.
evil is as evil does
The Okama GameSphere, sillyhat!
You idiot, moving air is a better heat conductor than still air (achives thermal equilibrium quicker). Thus the "wind chills" you and you can "factor" how much faster you will freeze because of increased wind speed. Stop contemplating your navel and open a physics book.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I personally think MSI's product line looks better.
While I think this is a great idea, I always find these "innovations" are a couple of years behind as soon as they're launched.
Two years ago I would have loved one of these. Today, I expect my HTPC to play DivX/XVid, and stream from a network server as well. DVDs? That's old school!
And embedded also means it probably can't be upgraded all that easily to add these features; it'll mean buying version 2 in a year's time, by which time my requiremens will have moved on...
That said, while I don't consider myself an early adopter, I suppose I am by most (ie non Slashdot readers) standards.
If you really want to get a PC for your livingroom, consider building your own and fitting it to PC cases like these.
Then install Linux and MythTV software. MythTV really rocks! It can act as a DVD jukebox (you can rip your DVDs and store them on the HD), music jukebox, video recorder etc. and it has some really nice features like automatic commercial skipping. Definitely worth checking!
...aesthetics for nerds. Stuff that looks damn ugly.
I'm no Mac zealot but how anyone can claim this compares to the Apple Aesthetic is beyond me.
"What can I say? I'm the queen of java."
subduction.net
I want a grande chocolate mocha to go with my S-presso game machine. :P
It looks like a cheap stereo-set! All those flashing lights! I like Apple because they look clean and uncluttered. If I wanted something similar in x86-world, I would look here.
really: form follows function. Say no to flashing lights!
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
... And I like Asus stuff typically, but...
* LED, not VFD?
* Where's teh Athlon64?
* Must be easy to stack components on top of that lame handle.
* Where's the dual PCIe? Maybe I have a 720p monitor I want to smoke Doom3 on?
And teh verdict? Geh-haay....
Last In, Period.
Yeah, so what it plays DVDs and MP3s? I've got a dozen of these things around the house and what I don't have is something device-like playing Divx.
Or Google for "Nusselt number".
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Come on - that is not style!
one of the special feature listed on the site: Supports Windows® XP only
~Aha~
just to rip that touch panel out Unless someone knows where I can get a similar screen for less than the case?
No sig for you!!
I think I'll stick with Shuttle designs...
Did Aiwa buy Shuttle?
... not only is it, as pointed out by just about everyone, ugly as sin, it's also made by ASUS. I swore never to buy another Asus product again after I discovered how diabolically bad their support is for their products (I basically could not elicit *one* *single* *response* from them over a clear bug on one of their motherboards). Even if this WAS pretty, I wouldn't buy it.
bollocks. you're talking crap: also, you can only fit 2 hard disks in a shuttle. the 250W PSU is 250 REAL watts, rather than the 350W generic PSUs that put out nothing like their rated power.
Apple...that? You got to be kidding me. Honda Cyans look more elegant than that thing.
It looks like some kind of "stylish" breadmaker or something. Or maybe some kind of portable microwave.
Or a prop for a near-future film designed to contain some radioactive fuel or other stuff which needs an active container.
Now that is one UGLY box. It looks just like the crappy "all-in-one" pseudo hi-fi sets they sell in the big retail stores in the UK. Much found in teenagers bedrooms and all featuring a complete lack of style.
But if you really want to see what a hi-fi style case should look like I'd suggest you take a look at the HTPC case range which you can see at:
http://www.quietpc.com/uk/htpc.php
I'm especially talking about the Accent HT-400 (in black naturally) which really does look like a piece of hi-fi equipment !
Now that is something that could sit in my rack (they're all the right fecking dimensions to stack for starters) Having said that they're not the cheapsest of cases but they do look well made.
If only I could scrape the pennies together that would make a damn nice start to a Myth-TV box !
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
So I think these should be "Slashverts"
Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise!
go back to ninety one... ohhh what a nice stereo. the more colorful lights, the better. this thing is just plain ugly. no style whatsoever.
It is not to sit on your desk, it is to augment your home theatre and replace your DVD player / PVR / MP3 player.
As such, I think it looks quite similar to every other hi-fi device I won - black, with a colored LED-ish LCD panel.
A white or ivory pansy mac-like system would not be going anywhere near my home theatre.
Foul quote:
HELMET: I don't see Planet Druidia. Where is it?
SANDURZ: We don't have visual contact yet, sir, but we have it on the radar screen. Shall I punch it up for you?
HELMET: Na, nevermind. I'll do it myself.
SANDURZ: Very good, sir.
HELMET: What's the matter with this thing? What's all that churning and bubbling? You call that a radar screen.
SANDURZ: No, sir. We call it, "Mr. Coffee." Care for some?
HELMET: Yes! I always have coffee when I watch radar. You know that.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
Gingerbread motherboard to dip in your (e)SPresso case!
"A goldfish was his muse, eternally amused"
Yuck! I wouldn't touch that crap with a stick! It ain't nothing like Apple products. That piece of junk looks like lunchbox! Made in Taiwan, the land of plastic junk.
Tron!
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/miniitx-epia-5000.a
From their website:
The only thing I dont like is that strange processor - VIA Eden ESP 5000 Processor
Bypass Compulsory Web Registration -- http://bugmenot.com/
Though the case was nice, it wasn't quite as fit and finished as it looked. The plastic panels were cheap and ill fitting, and behind them were poorly concealed openings.
Worse, their software is bad. Its written in that barely comprehensible language I've taken to calling "allYourBaseLish" and is very clunky to use. Specifically the FM Radio Tuner in the T2 case is neat in the theory, and unusable in practice.
If this is similar, then All your asus are belong to someone else.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
You must have a crappy setup if you can't fit a taller-than-average rack into your entertainment centre. Ever heard of a Game Cube?
My GameCube fits fine in mine, and I am sure this would fit fine filling the space beside it.
If it were recessed, you could say, put something on it, like a USB device, etc.
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
You're not quite correct. Windchill only matters to things that have moisture involved with them.
For a hunk of iron sitting in the cold, its a given temperature, it doesn't care about windchill (it doesn't care about anything technically).
So windchill is a not psychological, but its not a measurement that is meaningful for most non-living things, either.
A harddisk is useful if a LOT of backup/filebase/DB/media/pr0n storage is needed, but in the future it may become less essential as far as the OS itself is concerned.
It looks like something out of the 1970's Buck Rogers show
"Don't waste your time!" ... or your money, and I agree. But then they go on to add:
" Enjoy DVD, CD, MP3 music and FM radio right away without entering OS."
In other words, ASUS thinks entering an OS is a waste of time?
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
So you have that all-new wireless component signal transmitter to get the signal to your TeeVee?
Yeah, right.
My favorite sff machine is the biostar IDEQ. Looks like a shutte... but way cheaper. Newegg has the AMD version for $158.
s p?desc ription=56-115-014&depa=0
Biostar iDEQ Barebone System for Socket A AMD CPU, Model IDEQ 210V
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.a
Very nice layout and sooo quite. In fact, when I was building it up I thought is was broke. The fan would spin up when starting then stop. It was so quite I thought it wasn't running.
I put in an FX5200 dual monitor card, dvd burner, and 120G HD.
Jeff
This isn't competing with Apple. Granted, it looks like someone has put a lot of consideration into the appearance, but in this case, it looks designed to appeal to (a) the "black is cool, lots of nicely-coloured bright lights" boys toys market, and (b) The "ThinkGeek" market, who are more like the latter than they'd care to admit. Actually, I'm not sure it's flashy and superficial enough for (a), but at either rate, its visual "appeal" isn't the same as Apple's.
Personally, I think it's tacky; I wish they'd hurry up and release the Nanode, and preferably in lots of different colours like the Cubit P4 (why on earth did they reduce the colour range for the Cubit? I *want* the choice of Metallic Red or Copper...)
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Repeat after me: 19" wide. If it isn't 19" wide, it is not acceptable in my living room. Fuck, I feel bad enough letting the Gamecube live in the stereo rack; hell if I'm going to add another non-standard box.
Near all components are 19" wide - why is it so fucking hard to find a decent, inexpensive case designed to standard component dimensions? I'm not even asking for integer RU heights; just standard width would be enough for me.
---
Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
"There are too many sevens in that date. I need a smoke."
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
It looks like a cheap stereo-set! All those flashing lights!
Flashing lights masquerading as functionality are the superficiality preferred by aesthetically-challenged geeks who like to criticise Apple owners for being superficial.
You're spot on. If flashing lights are so great, how come there are more of them on the cheap hifis? I was going to say "micro systems", but some of those monstrosities are as big as my old all-in-one "Midi" hifi (record deck, twin cassettes, radio); and they include lots of pointless, contrived and obviously *cheap* moulded detailing.
Nope. Flashy lights -|-> Functional in general...
On the other hand, minimalism can go too far as well, and I'm not going to stand up and defend the boring fugliness of the typical beige PC case (fine for the back office and server room, but they're just so damn *boring*; even light grey would be more interesting than *beige*.)
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Ummm... well, not really. And even if it did look good (which in my opinion it does not), what Apple does well is more than make products that "look good." Their industrial design really takes into account all of the human interaction factors, and they make hardware that's a natural extension of the software. Considering this thing doesn't come with a hard drive, much less software, it's hard to design the hardware/touch interface around what the software will do. I don't think this is really a threat to Apple, but nice attempt at dramatization!
Chris -- http://www.bitter.net/
Congratulations technomegalomaniac! You are going to outdo every crack-head I've had the displeasure of meeting!
This pile of crap ain't got nothing on even the weakest of Apple Designs.
Grow up now son, and stay off the pipe!Too bad the companies like Asus will spend all this money on developing a toy like this, and leave out the hobbiest group, which can tinker with it and take it to new heights.
Why is it that everyone's obsessed with outdoing Apple? The reason why what they're doing works is because they're NOT concerned about competing with everyone else. They let a good idea come to them and run with it.
If I see another post on Slashdot about an "Apple Killer", I'm going to throw my hands up in the air, and cry like a little baby, because I'm pathetic like that.
ShortFormBlog: Writing a little. Saying a lot.
in an I would never buy it kinda way.
"I been called ugly, fugly, pug fugly but never ugly ugly" - Moe Sizlak
I wonder if it would work with mythtv? That would be pretty cool and would look alot better than my beige tower sitting next to my widescreen right now.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?mode l=MEGA_651_w/_DVD_Combo_Drive&class=mega
Stylish, small, and has stereo controls on the front. I could actually pass this off as a small stereo receiver instead of a bloated, ugly, black box. Fits nicely in my livingroom.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
It's shaped like a case of Coke... Not the ideal for stacking with the rest of my equipment.
How about the D-Link Media Player instead? It's about an inch and a half tall, and plays all my media to the TV (wirelessly) and without a hard drive either.
This thing may have a DVD player in rom but my Coleco Adam from 1983 has a world processor in rom.
The Coleco Adam is even better because you can add a rom cartdrige and have any application in rom.
DVD playing included - any 'multimedia' notebook/laptop (thus with DVD player, usually burner even) you buy that has an instant-on feature will play back the DVDs as well. If yours doesn't, check for firmware upgrades.
:)
My acer aspire 2000 does this, and it's quite nice
...but I just had to say that's one of the best laughs I've ever had on /. Perfect description!
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Ah ya.. Good point.
I didn't see any specs for the touch panel, it would be a shame if you could write a decent driver for it under Linux or FreeBSD. Also the power supply is listed at 220W. Assuming you actually put a P4 Prescott in there, you've got about 90W of motherboard, plus another 35 for the video card, and surges of 30 for the disks (15 x 2) It starts to get into the range where the supply better actually deliver what it says or you might be replacing it. I also wonder about the "cool & quiet" vs you can put an AX800/XT in there. Seems not so cool or quiet. All that being said however, it is refreshing to see some variety in the PC market. After so many years of beige bricks a little color and panache from the factory (as opposed to home grown) can only help. --Chuck
black, with a colored LED-ish LCD panel
Some unfortunate news for you -- even if you found a way to make it fit nicely on your shelf (the strange shape and that puffy handle aren't helping on this one...), black is not an option.
That's "Starry Blue".
Asus has some neat SFF boxes, and places like Cappuccinopc.com also have some neat boxes. But will Asus make their Terminator series with a AMD or AMD64 processor? I know that Shuttle and other have AMD64 solutions (which will more or less be my first choice) but Asus has some neat stuff.
outdo apple in the looks department? Are you kidding me? Do you realize how cheap that thing looks?
Ahanix has some nice machines as well with a more living-room-appropriate form factor. My sister has one and says the only drawback is the noise from the CPU fan. So I guess I'll be chalking up for a Pentium M motherboard. Anyway, here's the Ahanix link: http://www.ahanix.com/ahanix_product.asp?pid=8 Another thing that turned me off to the S-Preso is that it only has one expansion slot. If I want a high-end sound AND high-end graphics card.... I'm out of luck.
That is a pretty case, I must admit, but... It will NOT fit in with the rest of my home theater gear. And I don't just mean aesthetically - there's simply no place in my entertainment stand for something of that size and shape.
I've search far and wide for a good case for an HTPC, but there seem to be very, very few that are both the right size and shape for a home theater system and are attracive. Oh, and don't cost way too much, too.
My dog can create more appealing and attractive designs than this. She did so twice on her walk this morning (and one of them was a bit runny). It looks like like a kid's toy toolbox with a microwave oven attached to the front. Still, it should appeal to 8 year old chefs who want somewhere to keep their spanners.
Jesus! When did you geeks start turning into metrosexuals?
"I'm sorry, but my living arrangment is brushed aluminum, this black thing just will not do! And that user interface! who would be seen using that?! Oh my god! someone needs a makeover!"
Ugly things say you're a man. The uglier they are, the more of a man you are. I have a bright orange couch with wood armrests because of this. It lets a woman know you haven't been tamed yet.
I think, like a lot of ppl here, that the s-presso is quite ugly.
.02 euro
I don't undestand why there's an article about that piece of crap instead of digimatrix also from ASUS.
The vcr look isn't all that original but fits a lot better into your average home tv/vcr place. And pay attention to the dimension: it's quite small.
my
If this supposed to be a media componant why doesn't it have the same form factor as all my other media componants? Why is the display large enough to uglify the unit, but too small to see across the room? "Media" computer makers: Give me a pizzabox with a bluetooth remote that has a small display on it. PS:And if use use this idea, please GIVE me the unit along with.. like a million dollars or something. Thank you
It does feel like looking at my cousin. Fugly, but tempting in a strage way...
A warm piece of metal will cool faster in a breeze than in still air, because turbulence will mean more air molecules bump up to the metal, and thus absorb more heat faster.
Thats why blowing on your food makes it cool faster.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"You idiot" is a term of endearment where I come from.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.