RE: Smallest possible PC components?

["Alistair Watkins" <ukha@xxxxxxx>]

Hi!

I think what your thinking of is microitx, VIA show stuff off all the
time but never release it to the general public, there is a petition
somewhere to get them to release all their form factors.

What are you going to do with the machine, apart from run windows XP
pro?  I have the VIA 800mhz board, it has a small fan, and it runs winXP
really slowly (with 512meg ram), I have it in my loft now, with WiFi as
my main home server for emails, http, xAP etc (running red hat Linux 8).


I had a look at the cases, and gave up, I built a few myself and now my
board is merely bolted onto a bit of perpex in the Dremel case I hacked
up to build the other cases, its really small, and functional.  I did
find that with the small PSU (50W or something) I have problems running
a CD ROM, PC and a Cold Neon, haven't done the maths, but I run it
without the CD ROM in normal operation.

Good little boards, depending on the app, especially if your going for a
slower fanless one.

YMMV

Alistair Watkins  mail@xxxxxxx
http://www.infinitefunk.co.uk


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Gordon [mailto:paul_gordon@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 02 January 2004 22:45
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Smallest possible PC components?


Hi peeps.

I want to start putting together the smallest possible PC to live in the

kitchen, so obviously I'm looking at the mini-itx stuff....

I have a few questions though...

Wasn't there mention recently of something even smaller? - is any such
format available yet?

What's currently the "best" fanless option? - is it the VIA EPIA
CL6000
or
the VIA EPIA ME6000?..
the "CL" appears to have a slightly faster CPU (677 as opposed to
600 on
the
"ME"), and both appear to have the integrated MPEG decoder...
much of
the
rest of the spec appears to be similar, except the CL has 2 x LAN ports,

whereas the ME has 1 x LAN plus 1 x Firewire.. - the latter would be
more
useful to me, but not crucially so... I wonder just how much a
difference of
a mere 77MHz would make in practice though? (It will be running XP Pro)

Just about to start researching the small cases, - anyone got any
thoughts/opinions on the cubid or Travla ranges? - is there anything
available off-the-shelf that's even smaller?...

Note, that I have no requirement for an internal optical drive of any
description, nor a floppy, nor any LCD/VFD screens.... I have a couple
of
2.5" laptop HDD's available, everything else can be external via
USB...
I
also don't need to accomodate a PCI slot

Greatfull for any thoughts & opinions...

TIA

Paul G.

_________________________________________________________________
Sign-up for a FREE BT Broadband connection today!
http://www.msn.co.uk/specials/btbroadband


UK Home Automation Meet 2004 - BOOK NOW! http://www.ukha2004.com

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
Post message: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subscribe:  ukha_d-subscribe@xxxxxxx
Unsubscribe:  ukha_d-unsubscribe@xxxxxxx
List owner:  ukha_d-owner@xxxxxxx