Slashdot Mirror
MINI-ITX and the Future of PC Case Design?
An anonymous reader writes "One of the interesting things to come out of the recent Computex electronics show in Taiwan was striking new PC cases — in particular systems built around tiny Mini-ITX boards. What may have once been regarded as the weird little brother of the more common Micro-ATX, the popularity of PCs built with these boards seems to be gradually building. This year at Computex saw the first Mini-ITX boards to support USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps, and a variety of new shapes and styles in both Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX case design. This photo gallery shows some of the more striking examples of these new PC cases from Computex, including one that appears to be modelled on an Xbox 360, and one with a VESA mount for strapping to the back of a monitor. Interestingly, while these designs have usually been associated with home theatre system PCs, or for saving space on office desktops, there is also now a trend towards pushing 'gamer' features like windows and multiple fans into these small form factor cases."
Or put to it this way, if you have to put it in a large case to allow for enough air flow, what the point in having such a small motherboard?
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
These boards are getting very close in size to some of the microcontrollers I've worked with in the past (HC12, etc) It was just for college, and I've no real world experience in them, so I was wondering if some of the more advanced hobby builders or professionals could comment on this:
These boards are getting much lower in power-consumption and seem to offer a lot more in terms of flexibility, and by providing the ability to run standard operating systems through the use of SSDs you have available to you a vast number of open projects which you can tailor for your purposes. The cost is now around $100 or so, which is what I remember the microcontrollers costing.
So, given the choice between some of the newer mini-ITX systems, what are the advantages that a basic microcontroller would offer?
(Again, it's been a while since I did anything with them, so I might be missing something big)
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
I thought the first picture in the gallery was a joke for a couple seconds. The angle of the shot makes it look like it's the size of a coffee table!
Be sure to take a look at the [H]ard|Forum worklogs, there are a lot of active, small form factor projects going on right now. One guy has a SUPER awesome mITX rig in the process of being built, complete with custom case and watercooling solution.
Also, for kicks, my (non-impressive) [H]ard|Forum sig:
Display: Asus VH236H | Dell 2005FPW
Foundation: Cooler Master Storm Scout | OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w
System: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM | AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ @ 3.2 GHz | Corsair XMS2 4GB DDR2 800 | ATI 4850
Internal Storage: Diamondmax 21 system | WD15EADS archives
External Storage: 1.25TB in a KINGWIN DK-32U-S | WDMER1600TN
Input: Kensington 64325 Expert Mouse | Saitek Eclipse II | M-Audio Axiom 25
Headphones: non-amped Audio Technica ATH-AD700
Living With a Nerd
...to building my own laptop? Ok, I can technically do this now, but parts are often motherboard specific, with ITX and smaller form factors it might be possible to buy generic laptop cases/batteries and swap parts as it ages.
Well, I can dream anyway...
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
I fail to see what's so striking about rectangular boxes. These aren't really any different from what we've been seeing for the last 10+ years or so. Some of them are a bit stylish, but I don't see any new innovations in the photos posted in TFA. What's so striking about these, exactly?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Micro-ATX is the little brother of ATX, and Flex-ATX is the little brother to Micro-ATX. ITX is a different nuclear family (call them cousins). Mini-ITX, micro-ITX, nano-ITX, and even pico-ITX boards exist.
ATX was initially designed by Intel and the official updates to it have been specified by them as well. The original design was as a replacement for the dated AT boards as a general-purpose desktop and server role. Smaller versions have become popular as more circuitry has been built onto the motherboard, requiring fewer expansion slots. ATX, EATX, Micro-ATX and Flex-ATX use the same mounting hole layout (except that EATX uses a few extra holes).
AMD designed DTX to be hole-compatible with ATX cases, BTW.
ITX was initially designed by Via, as are the updates. ITX was initially designed as an embedded or industrial form factor where size, cooling, and energy efficiency were key factors. The smaller sizes (mini, nano, and pico) have been around for some time, but have been slow to become popular for general desktop use as they have been primarily built for Via's own low-power processors.
The industrial and embedded form factor PC/104 is actually smaller than all of these form factors, with mobile-ITX (which requires an additional I/O board) being the only open standard board smaller. PC/104 was developed by AmPro and has been around since 1987.
The Beagle Board is smaller still, but is not x86/x86_64 compatible. The only current ways to get smaller that I'm aware of is to ditch the motherboard altogether and go with a computer-on-module or system-on-chip design or to pony up and design your own motherboard standard.
If you want toolless, your best bet is actually soulless corporate drone-boxxen. They tend to be crushingly ugly; and slightly more expensive per unit spec than gamer homebuilds; but they are explicitly designed so that a monkey could replace pretty much FRU(with the possible exception of the motherboard, which is often screwed down) with its bare hands, and an experienced tech can replace all the FRUs in ~5 minutes.
Generic whitebox cases have gotten somewhat better in the toollessness department; but corporate drone-boxes have always been two steps ahead in that department.
Looking at the "striking examples" I have to ask, does anyone other than 14-year-old gamers build computers anymore? Whatever happened to six flat sides? A basic cube-ish design is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to open up and get into, minimizes wasted space (are any of your components curvy? no? then your case shouldn't be either!) and you can easily lay it down, stand it up, or put things on top of it. I can understand no one wanting to put together a gallery of beige boxes but it would have been nice to see at least one clean example.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
These smaller form factors are overdue. Tower PCs the size of a labrador retriever are 90's technology.
I have a BTX style Gateway case, and I still love it. Its spacious with a good amount of open bays, ample USB and Firewire connections. All while running quiet and cool (although the Northbridge puts off a bit of heat). I would love to upgrade it, as the box currently runs an older single core P4. However, there are only a handful of BTX mobos out there, and they dual core is the best you can get with a Socket 775 (I believe thats what it run, memory a bit hazy). I even thought about rigging something inside to attempt to upgrade a bit to something newer (tri or quad core), while keeping the same tower. After doing a good amount of research, it doesn't seem very logical to do, I suppose I will have to just find a case that I like as much as my Gateway.
No, not a hot topic. A home theater personal computer is a PC connected to a TV monitor, used in part for watching video and playing games.