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Pico-ITX, Because Size Matters

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the on-the-head-of-a-pin dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It's not every day that a new form factor comes out, especially not one that is 10cm x 7.2cm. Despite its size, Pico-ITX is the hottest new thing in the rapidly changing small form factor market. It is considerably smaller than Mini-ITX (17cm x 17cm) which has proven itself to be quite versatile and though some sacrifices had to be made to shrink the platform, Pico-ITX is surprisingly complete. The system was tested with Feather Linux but the PX10000 has the power to run Windows XP or Ubuntu if you want to add on a hard drive."

3 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. pirce & why not fanless? by pimpimpim · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I like this kind of stuff, but after comparing what building a system with this material would cost me, a mac mini would be way cheaper, and with the core duo in it, a heck of a lot faster as well.

    So it might be practical in embedded applications where the size matters (that thing is so small, incredible). But for those things, having a fan is big downer! Fan means: can break down, means: will break down, means: maintenance costs! Will there be a fanless version?

    --
    molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
  2. Add a radio card by transporter_ii · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Add a radio card, an outdoor enclosure, and an antenna, and this might make a good access point that has a little more horsepower than your average AP.

    I wonder if Mikrotik will run on it? I think it should...

    --
    Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
  3. For comparison... by pla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's not every day that a new form factor comes out, especially not one that is 10cm x 7.2cm.

    Just as a basis of comparison, a typical full-height PCI card measures 15.5cm[*] x 9.5cm (not counting the external dangly bits or the actual PCI connector), making this entire motherboard half the area of most graphics cards.

    Or to put it another way, a laptop HDD measures 10cm x 7cm, making this MB just a hair bigger (Too close to call coincidence, I suspect Via chose the size based on that exact match).

    Not bad, as long as you need no expansion capability.



    *) They can actually get longer than that, I have an ancient one measuring 19cm long, but a quick glance at my box-o-obsolete-PC-parts shows 15.5 as the most common size for full-height cards).