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KLOSS KL-I915A - SFF With An Edge
Kez writes "Shuttle have been synonymous with SFF for a long time now. It would take a lot to make them topple from the top spot, but that doesn't stop companies from trying. Take TriGem, with their new KLOSS KL-I915A system. The interior of the chassis is cleverly partitioned to aid cooling and installation. It has a front display which shows everything from CPU speed to which particular device failed the BIOS power-on self test (which beats a sequence of beeps or LEDs any day.) Add to that an LGA 775 motherboard, and TriGem just might be on to a winner. HEXUS.net have a review."
I had to read the whole story to understand what this was about... a pc box, that is.
Does it come with KDE?
Arrrrgs acronym overdose with nothing to even entice me to open the article...
who you have to pay to get slashvertised...
http://mirrordot.org/stories/814566c08722527337ce3 69e9e854020/index.html in case it gets /.ed
got sig?
WTF?
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
Well this seems to be a smaller PC with nothing good to offer. One PCI slot for expansion. No AGP or PCI-X. Also they only support Pentium 4s so you're looking at a portable toaster.
I thought it was about Science Fiction & Fantasy. Disappointment as it turns out to be about a PC...
Based on what I already know about the Shuttle brand, I'm taking a wild guess that "SFF" stands for small form factor. I go RTFA, and the first sentence confirms my suspicion: "The small-form-factor PC market feels like it's in a comfort zone."
Henry Kloss might have a pretty big problem with this -- I actually assumed this was a Henry Kloss designed or endorsed product until I noticed the TriGem branding, and the fact that KLOSS appears to be an arbitrary fake acronym seems like some pretty sketchy marketing to me.
It would take a lot to make them topple from the top spot
MacMini?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
I think I'd rather get another 512MB of RAM then get a new case for my computer. I wonder how many people actually have Small-Form Factor cases.(did that take that long to read instead of SFF?)
Make your computer faster: rm -rf
Hexus.net has an handy review of stuff no one cares about, makes the headlines on Slashdot, submitted by... Kez at steve.kerrison@HEXUS.net. I mean, a new case model? News for nerds. stuff that matters?
Honestly, is Slashdot becoming just a traffic redirector for its partners?
If so, please redirect yourself to my sig. No crap products review, just Biology news.
Eureka Science News - automatically updated
Okay, I reread the article very carefully, and if, like I and evidently most other people did, you read the first two or so lines, go "what the fuck?" and skip to the last sentence or two, the whole thing is gibberish.
Something about a 'chassis, cpu display, and motherboard' in close proximity just gets missed.
Dear article submitter: Your job is to attract attention from outsiders who will read the attached article, not to drive them off in the first five words.
It's so bad that I've spent five minutes laughing about it (while doing other stuff in another window).
but did they HAVE to make it look like a clock-radio?
I'm afraid I'd toss it across the room when I'm half-asleep.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
In the past when something failed people were pissed. Today they are delighted and say: "Wow, it's recognizing that it's broken!"
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
...this article was concerning space shuttle contract bids cockpit layout / design. Either that, or new discussion on Enterprise weapons systems.
Help me, help you. - Jerry McGuire
Shuttle has a huge range of form factors, including ones with support for AMD processors which are pretty popular in the user built market.
There are a ton of case reviews already out there, wouldn't mind one with a bit more of an overview perspective then the "next" case review.
Considering how much heat a P4 generates, I'm curious as to why the majority of SSF PC's insist on using Intel motherboards and processors. You'd think that an Athlon64 system would generate much less heat and thus generate much less noise. Or am I just wrong in assuming that these are intended to be used as home theatre PC's?
Overall, it's a specification to absolutely kick Shuttle's recently released SB77G5 into touch, the KLOSS better specified in nearly all areas. On-board VGA means KLOSS is useful for those on the PEG16X graphics upgrade path, and it makes it appealing to corporates too (although the facia style negates the GMA900 graphics advantage to that market in some respects as you'll see).
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Well, that was a decent overview for a review. My nit with reviews these days is that they tend to leave out some critical information; namely, the BIOS booting options.
Does the BIOS *actually* support booting over the Ethernet and/or a USB device??? Both are now critical IMHO, especially for a serious IT environment. And for the home
environment, where one has lots of systems. Doing installations, and customizations, by hand is just too primative.
PXE boot is required for automated imaging (for example, via Kickstart). USB is darned useful in that regard as well. But the motherboard manufacturers just don't seem to understand this.
The BIOS manufacturers do, to a certain extent. But all too often I've found that the mobo manufacturer will ship a stripped down version of the BIOS, which makes the board useless to me.
So, please, if you're going to do a review, kindly include this information. It is very, very useful. Thanks.
So, somebody comes out with a small form factor case designed with heat flow in mind and a LCD displaying system stats. Why is this front page news? I really think Slashdot should have a Review section where people can submit links to reviews of stuff. That way, at least people can choose to block those stories.
If a blurb does not generate at least 200 comments, it does not belong on the front page. This is not conversely true. Any blurb can generate 300+ comments when one of the *cough* "editors" *giggle* puts some flamebait in it. Sometimes I wish Slashdot would use Kuro5hin's system, but then the front page wouldn't get updated for months at a time.
I know this may be off-topic, but I find those sponsored links horribly distracting. To see the page (and many others) as it is supposed to be:
1) Install Adblock
2) Add the filter: *intellitxt.com
Sanitary Femanine Fermentation?
Shit-Faced Friend?
Hello???
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Shuttle have been synonymous with SFF for a long time now.
That was before SFF was redefined on 11 Jan 2005.
The linked article (and quite a few other pages) contain intellitxt sponsored links.
Any AC who uses the redundant phrase "close proximity" should be hunted down by IP and banned from ever posting on Slashdot again.
proximity (prk-sm'-t) pronunciation
n.
The state, quality, sense, or fact of being near or next; closeness: "Swift's major writings have a proximity and a relevance that is splendidly invigorating" (M.D. Aeschliman). See Usage Note at redundancy.
Usage Note: Some locutions, such as close proximity, have been so well established that criticizing them may seem petty.
What kills me is that excess(ive?) heat was the primary reason for most Intel-biased folks to stay with Intel chips and not consider AMD chips.
:)
Now that the shoe is on the other foot, I'm vastly amused to see variations of AMD's former defensive lines used in defense of Intel's products.
Are these things really that unreliable that this is necessary? I mean, yes, BIOS beeps are a little cryptic, but the frequency with which they should need to be used doesn't really warrant the expense of putting anything more friendly.
Usage Note: Some locutions, such as close proximity, have been so well established that criticizing them may seem petty.
There was no criticism, merely a statement that people using this phrase should be hunted down and banned from Slashdot. This isn't criticism so much as recognition that these peoplemay now be ready to return as productive members of society.
It may be 'cleverly partitioned to aid cooling' but overall, having two fans sucking air out at the back (one of them just 40mm, plus a hole for one more), a large CPU fan, and possibly another one on the graphics card doesn't strike me as very clever. When will they start sticking one large 120mm fan in the back and cool everything - including the power supply, CPU and graphics card with heat pipes and ducts?
Although I have to admit that the front display is seems nice.
Is here, for now.
Looks like a nicely-thought-out little case. But what would I do if my tower wasn't sitting here acting as a fashionable end table?
which shows everything from CPU speed to ...
Must not be a lot in that 'everything' range.
Because the world has long had the misunderstanding that PCs have an Intel CPU and run Microsoft Windows.
The only Intel CPU in my house is in a laptop. The other PCs have got various Athalons. There is a Pentium system in my shed. I think some mice live in it...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
The article starts off supposed to be a review of a small form factor case. Most of the 'bragging features', like displaying which device failed a POST, only work with the recomended motherboard or maybe a few others, and there are some small form factor boards that will fit this case but won't let those features work. Someone shouhd have just started off writing a review that covers a bare bones system and not wasted time trying to just review the case and having to straddle the line.
Who is John Cabal?
IMO of course.. :)
,
This thing has tons of wasted space inside.
The CPU location blocks the use of higher performance
video cards and there's all this empty space up on the CPU board area.
Yeah, it's got a nice VFD (vacuum florescent display)
but it only works with the latest OSs from Microsoft.
This is still a desktop form factor machine, you cant put it into your stereo rack,
and it wont go on the floor either.
You cant put anything on top of it because it will block the CPU fan.
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
I used to have a Shuttle PC until the motherboard died. The thing about these small PCs is that they are proprietary and heavily integrated. So if something goes wrong, thats pretty much the end of the PC.
Yum. Must be lunch time.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think 915 is the first desktop chipset that is supposed to use special hardware to lock you out from seeing a specific encryption key, so that only a trusted partner (not you) can use the key to encrypt "media" files.
It will start with media files, but what is there really to stop them from encrypting word processor files, tax data... all of the rest of your data? It makes it possible to charge you even to have access to your own data, if you were careless enough to use a DRM-enabled application.
Does anyone else find the "Sponsored Links" in TFA unbelievably annoying? I stopped reading after the second page because of this. This story is out and out ad-spam.
Jesus, this thing looks like a cheap-ass clock radio.
Why are PC's still so damn fugly? You'd think at least one vendor could make a computer that doesn't look like it was designed to appeal to teenagers who pimp out their Honda Civics with neon, spoilers and rims. Apple hit a homerun on their first at bat with the Mac Mini - these other clowns can't even find the locker room, let alone home base.
And does this thing have enough fans in it, or what? Probably sounds like a bloody hairdryer when it's up and running. I'd rather have a box the size of a coffee table that's quiet than a toaster-sized box that sounds like a buzzsaw.
The only "SFF" PC's I've seen that get it right are the Hush models, and they're outrageously expensive. But at least they'll fit in a rack with stereo equipment and are silent. With the rest of these systems, I think you'd be better off just buying a laptop with a docking station. They're typically better looking, come with their own nice LCD display, are quieter, smaller and with wireless you can use them in any room of your home or even on the road.
It's very extremely dissapointing that the form factor chosen for these small PC's has pretty much exclusively been something toaster-sized. I understand that it fits well for a little luggable for lan parties and whatnot (especially with the top mounted handle) but they certainly don't make the most ideal HTPC. This one is really going for it and if it weren't 7" tall or so, I might consider it. how do you expect to fit this into an AV stack reasonably?
(Yes I know there are a few other manufacturers making the pizza-box sized units, but why shuttle refuses to produce one that holds their same latest-chipset, high performance cooling, etc. amazes me.)
At what point does the nescessarily functionality of the unit outweigh the space efficiency of the unit?