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Hardware

Digital-Logic Microspace Mini-PCs 109

Posted by CmdrTaco from the little-his-better dept.
frozenray writes: "Digital-Logic AG, a Swiss company, sells two rather cool BX-based mini PCs, the Microspace-PC30 and -PC31. Most notable features are: very compact size, passive cooling (<35 dB according to the manufacturer), an impressive collection of interfaces (including 2xUSB, IRDA, TV Out/In, FireWire, 2xEthernet 10/100, optional smartcard reader, line in/out, microphone), CDR or DVD, 20 GB 2.5" harddisk. The downside: Those are definitely no systems for power users (current processors are 700 MHz Celeron and 700 MHz P3, 1 GHz mobile P4 systems are planned according to this [German] article), the SMI721 graphics controller is nothing for UT addicts, and they're quite expensive (CHF 2'549.- and 3'199.- according to their Swiss distributor, which amounts to approximately US$ 1'517.- / US$ 1'904.- at the current exchange rate). Another caveat: The power supply is external, but I didn't see any pictures of it on their website. Readers may want to compare this design to the TX2 version of the 'Cappuccino' PC which is similar in concept but has a rather loud CPU fan."
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Digital-Logic Microspace Mini-PCs More

Digital-Logic Microspace Mini-PCs

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  • underpowered, overpriced (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cygnus ( 17101 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @12:45AM (#3005261) Homepage
    at those prices, you might as well spring for the new iMac.
    • Hmm. . .for just under $2k, I could get a 15" flatscreen, 800mhz G4, 256meg RAM, 60GB HD, Superdrive (w00t), Geforce 2 graphics, all running OS X.
      Or, I could get a p3-700, 256meg RAM, a weak-ass graphics chipset (judging from the 4mb(!?) of VRAM, a 20GB hard drive, a 24x DVD-ROM, all running on Windows Me. No monitor included.

      Hmm. . . this is gonna be a hard one. . .

  • Can you feel it? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14, 2002 @12:45AM (#3005262)
    Can you feel the floor around that NT server shaking as it tries to build that ASP page for all of us at once?
  • Why would you buy something like this when you can get a notebook that is faster, quieter, cheaper, smaller, and more power efficient for half the price from Dell [dell.com]?

    Maybe the article explains more, but it seems to be /.'ed.
    • The devices I've seen billed as "Mini PCs" [xycom.com] are a bit smaller than normal laptops, I'd say about 8" x 8" x 3" (it's late, don't jump on me if I'm off.)
      People in "industry" buy them, with 286 chips, because they want to make embedded devices but don't want to deal with firmware. I have some friends who make scientific instruments, they use them for this purpose as well.

      The only use I can think of for something with about 1 Ghz of power - and it's a pretty strange one - is as a control system for really outre field analytical devices, if I wanted to make them portable. I'm talking about a device with really a lot of intelligence that is basically built into a laptop casing, with room to spare to make it a bit tougher.

      The big problem with this, of course, is that anyone who is thinking of carrying around such a device (parts alone upwards of 30 grand, depending on what exactly it is, plus value added from being custom made by multiple PhDs) can get a laptop. It would seem to be much simpler to control the device from the laptop, like we allready do for the few devices that work this way.

      For one thing, there is little point in doing sophisticated analysis in the field if you don't have a moniter to view the results.
  • It seems technology is advancing past us once again. Remember when the first 25 mhz laptops came out? Of course, the prices for these micro-machines are a bit outrageous, but, given time and practical application, these new wonders might just become as commonplace as a ThinkPad or Inspiron.

    I can see it now... "Honey, have you seen where I put the computer? I thought it was next to my car keys!"

  • Wow, that's nifty (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Microlith ( 54737 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @12:53AM (#3005289)
    I wonder what it's shock tolerances are. That looks like something you'd stick in your trunk, hook up a few wires, and have a car mp3 player with all of an hour's effort.

    As for replacing laptops... no.

    Laptops are much more convenient, an entire display and input system integrated into the casing. This thing looks like a super-small replacement for that big box on most people's desk. Get the CEO that nice 19" flatpanel, nice mouse, keyboard, everything, and mount one of these things under his desktop. Much easier to handle upgrades, and cheaper.

    Now, hopefully prices will come down sometime soon.
    • when you could have a LAN in your car, where NFS box is in the trunk, 4 or 5 workstations for all passengers, switchrack in the middle console, mailserver and uplink/remoteaccess boxes under the front seats! wow!

  • How is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Have Blue ( 616 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @12:59AM (#3005318) Homepage
    I'd expect to read this in an ad banner, not an article. Is there anything that even remotely "matters" about this thing?

    • Re:How is this news? (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by 2Bits ( 167227 )
      Come on man, your ID shows that you are an early /.er, and you should know better. /. is not really about news. It's about anything considered geeky, cool, neat. It's about a religion called Linux^H^H^HGNU/Linux, and it's about bashing MS. It's also about testing web server load and capability.

  • Honey, have you seen the computer.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ooblek ( 544753 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @01:08AM (#3005344)
    Me: "Honey, have you seen the computer laying around anywhere? I need to fire up Quicken and pay some bills."

    Wife: "I think the dog ate it. You better take a plastic bag with you when you take him for a walk."

    This makes portable MP3 player take on a whole new meaning.

  • Swiss-based Company (Score:4, Funny)

    by Indras ( 515472 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @01:16AM (#3005366)
    Digital-Logic AG, a Swiss company, sells two rather cool BX-based mini PCs...

    Both fully equipped with such powerful swiss inventions as a built in nail filer, toothpick, three different sized knives with replacement blades, tweezers, scissors, hair brush, cooking stove, VCR, TV, AM/FM radio, penguin food dispenser...

  • Go PowerPC (Score:3, Informative)

    by gouldtj ( 21635 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @01:20AM (#3005377) Homepage Journal
    For that price I'd rather have a BriQ [terrasoftsolutions.com] from the Yellow Dog Linux guys. It runs Linux, has a PowerPC inside.

    Doesn't have the firewire though...

  • PC-104 also (Score:3, Informative)

    by MrResistor ( 120588 ) <peterahoff.gmail@com> on Thursday February 14, 2002 @01:29AM (#3005403) Homepage
    Digital-Logic AG makes the most reliable PC-104 video card I've ever used. I never tried to use it for gaming, but it certainly held up to a lot of other abuse :)

    Too bad they seem to be /.ed, I'd like to see what else they have.

    • I never tried to use it for gaming, but it certainly held up to a lot of other abuse :)
      You know, wanking to pr0n will not hurt you video card.
      • Sure it could...

        I was using it to test motherboards. I averaged about 4 or 5 a day, 5 or 6 days a week, for 8 months, and I don't even know how many the night shift guy did. Do you have any idea how much pr0n that is? Not to mention that since I was "testing" I had to have easy access to everything, so it was just laying there on the bench next to the monitor fully exposed to whatever might come flying it's way! I don't think it gets much more perilous than that for a video card!!!

        Of the 3 that I started with, the Digital-Logic was the only one that survived. It was also the only one that never had any compatability problems (and yes, it works in Linux (SuSE 6.3 and Mandrake 7.0, which were unfortunately not part of the official tests), as do ELO touchscreens, though you have to hunt down the drivers).

  • Well.. its slashdotted. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Restil ( 31903 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @01:31AM (#3005414) Homepage
    But at those prices, I'm unlikely to buy one.

    And from looking at the specs provided by the summary, it appears I could build an identical system for 1/4 the price, the only downside being size and perhaps power consumption.

    As someone previously posted, for the lack of video options, a laptop would do just as nicely, although there aren't too many laptops with two ethernet adapters (but you could add an extra one via a pcmcia slot).

    -Restil
  • I can see that an external power supply might run cooler outside the case.

    I dont remember fans on external power supplies for things like the old Apple //c....

    Is there anyone wise in the benefits and costs of external power supplies and whether you can use them for your own projects.

    Bo

  • How is this remotely news and/or interesting? (Score:5, Informative)

    by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @01:57AM (#3005477) Journal
    Call me a troll if you want, but this is at least the third or fourth low footprint PC that has been featured on /. in the last couple of months of so.

    And, as far as I can see, there is nothing special about this me-too box. It has no unique selling point at all - no low cost, no silent operation, no performance boost (relative to other mini PCs), no nada.

    Now if there was something this box could do that other mini PCs couldn't do (especially those that have already been covered by /.), then I could see the point of posting this article. But, as it stands, this product is about as revolutionary as your grandma's apple pie.

    Was it a real slow news day? Were there no better stories to submit? (I doubt it, as every other post seems to have at least one comment in which someone moans about the cool story that they submitted being rejected.)

    Give us news for nerds. Give us stuff that matters. Don't give us re-runs.

    (Sorry but I had to get it off my chest and it had to be said.)
    • Give us news for nerds. Give us stuff that matters. Don't give us re-runs.
      That's the difference between slashdot and kuro5hin. I cannot imagine anybody on k5 screaming "give us this and give us that". You just vote for the stories you like and write your stories.

      As for the device, it could probably serve as a good host-based 802.11a access point. You don't want to hang a laptop on the wall of your office, do you?

    • Actually, these boxes run without fans, so they are near-silent. I visited Digital-Logic at the Internet Expo [www.iex.ch] in Zurich, and they look quite cute. And according to the guys there, those Saintsong [saintsong.com.tw] Cappuccino's sound like helicopters compared to these!

      And for once, a mini-PC comes not from South-East Asia, but from Switzerland (developed and produced there!) Yay!

      Anyway, I want one.
    • The question I have: what would be so bloody hard about creating a MiniPC with the cost profile of an iOpener? The parts cost on those things was about $400 IIRC, and I'm sure that it wouldn't be all that hard to put together a P3-class MiniPC that would sell for ~$700 or so profitably.

      /Brian
  • Yeah, it won't play UT, but I'd much rather have this [soekris.com], especially with some 802.11 luvin and a crypto card [embsd.org]... uberkludge.

  • not powerful? what are you smoking? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Splork ( 13498 ) on Thursday February 14, 2002 @02:30AM (#3005549) Homepage
    since when is a 700Mhz P3 not a powerful system? last i checked it was still running just as fast as that 700Mhz P3 that you were drooling over two years ago.
    • Well, for US$1900 I would at least like a 1 GHz P3 (if not more). The price difference between a 700 MHz and 1 GHz is less than $20, which IMO would be worth the slight performance increase. Now maybe they didn't want to go higher for this model b/c of power consumption limitations, but I don't think that could be too much of a problem. I am no engineer however, so maybe it is.
  • Another caveat: The power supply is external, but I didn't see any pictures of it on their website.

    The specs are a bit confusing, but it looks like the thing takes 12-24V DC, and there is an optional AC adapter that can supply this (the detailed spec sheets were slashdotted). It's probably cutely packaged in a form factor similar to the PC. Here are the specs:

    Input Voltage:12V - 24V DC-Input
    Powersupply: 110/220V (60/50Hz)
    Powerconsumtion: typ. 40W (700MHz)

    For a general idea of what this external power supply could look like, check these power supplies from digikey [digikey.com]; look for the specs above.

    Here's one possible example (the surge/max current may be more, so to really pick the right supply you'd need more data):
    FW50 (12 or 24v, 50W) 5"x3"x1.3" $54
    EPS169-ND (24v, 50W) 4.1"x2.1"x1.2" $82.80

    Think notebook power supply size.
    • That's awesome. I wish all boxes were like this. No more needing to pay gobs of cash for a UPS. Just buy a couple of marine batteries with a charger and you can handle black outs days long.

      t.

  • To really save space, I'd rather spend the money on an LCD. As for this thing, it's small alright, but what if you need to add a hard drive? or an 802.11 card? Sure it has a smart card slot, but I'd rather go with a laptop with CF slots.

    I don't see any great future with this thing, especially for the price, and the butt ugly nerdy looking design. If you're a nerd, u won't need a small computer, if u like small PC, u probably are not a nerd.

    :P

  • pricy (Score:1)

    by xavii ( 92017 )
    the cappuccino is a cool grand on thinkgeek. also, think about the other uses a laptop could have, a fujitsu P series could be hauled around with a full OS on it with a long battery life for a full PC experience rather than all this mini-pc hype.

    we need to go away from desktops with monitors into mobile PC's with larger screens at the desks or HUDs. oh a perfect world. we can dream can't we?

    xavii aka bob
  • Exspense aside (and the no monitor thing) this thing is cool. It looks like it would fit in my dashboard just fine. Looks like it might come out easy ,too. Use the GPS with a GIS program like Arcview or something and never be lost. Adjust my ECU on the fly in case I run across a punk in Civic who thinks his exhaust tip is bigger than mine. I can log travel info, fuel consumption, weather data, update my weblog while getting a ticket, whatever. Save 5GB for my mp3s. Take it into the house (or friends house) and use it like a briefcase for pr0n/music/anything. You get the idea.
  • Well, that's lame. There are several examples of more attractive micro-PCs at more attractive prices. Here's some:
    • EZAV [ezav.com]: smaller form factor, similar power, about $900 configured reasonably. Advantage: has a video port. Disadvantage: only one NIC.
    • American Portwell [portwell.com]: little server appliances. No video, but three NICs, two USBs, and a serial port.
    Crispin
    ----
    Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
    Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc. [wirex.com]
    Immunix: [immunix.org] Security Hardened Linux Distribution
    Available for purchase [wirex.com]
  • Hooray for progress!

    Finally! A PC with the meagre performance of a laptop/notebook, a heftier pricetag and it carries around as well as a small japanese car.

    Oh wait ...

    Seriously though, I recently had to decide between a notebook and a new PC. After giving it some serious thought, I came to the conclusion that I need to be able to move my machine easily from one place to the next every few weeks, but I do not need to use it while in transit between those places...

    You'd be surprised to how many people this applies that think they need a notebook.

    I opted for a 1Ghz Duron in the smallest quality case I could find, mx2-400, 256Megs of RAM, 100Gig WD drive, a combined DVD-Read/CD-Burner plus assorted other goodies including foremost a very good 15" TFT screen (for easier transportation than a CRT) and paid a mere $1k.

    A notebook with the same specs would have set me back pretty much by $2k.

    No contest there...

    In all fairness, there are some downsides:
    For one, I opted for a powerful but not very silent CPU cooler, since I don't trust to AMD CPUs playing nice in small cases. Also, I've sacrificed a bit of performance by chosing the ECS K7S5A mobo, but I couldn't resist on-board network and audio for $75.

    I'm all for building smaller PCs, but not if I could build a pyramid of notebooks for the same money...
  • What is the definition of a power user these days. Yea, the chips and systems have steadily increased in power but they've outpaced the software and OS's available.

    What does one have to be doing then to be a power user?

    I have a 600mh Duron computer that I primarily use and I usually have no less then 4-5 programs running at a time.

    I thought a power user was someone who used a computer extensively and to it's fullest. Since when is it measured by the power of there processor?

  • I look at this article and feel slightly dismayed, The reason for this is because I really would like to have a small/quite PC or my lounge room to plug into my TV set and clearly we are there with the technology of the hardware.

    This seem's be the only practical application for this, rather then a small server to take to lan parties, from reading the what's the point thread anyway, (fav quote, "It's so kewl I wish I could think of something to do with it""

    However, nobody seems that interested in making one, which is funny since the only thing you would need to do is create a new GUI like that used on DVD's like Nox, For example.(not something lame like Interactive TV or WebTV). Esp considering the millions that have been wasted on things like Webpads or WAP.

    It's like there is a truck load of money sitting on the curb and all someone has to do is drive it off.

    I think that there would be a demand for this type of thing based on the number of people who brought the XBOX thinking that they could turn it into a 3vix/Mp3 Player, open Tivo, or MAME terminal (The thing seem's to be proving a right bastard to hack).

    The only thing on the horizon is M$ vapourious Homestation, and some project's like the Nokia's media terminal.

    Could someone please try to market a alternative before the end of the year, based on linux. with a simple DVD interface and NIC for my LAN, just so I don't have to buy a Homestation, (Sony might with the PS2 or PS3).

    • I look at this article and feel slightly dismayed, The reason for this is because I really would like to have a small/quite PC or my lounge room to plug into my TV set and clearly we are there with the technology of the hardware.

      If you have cash to spare, some skill with power tools, lots of spare time and a German-English dictionary, the German c't magazine may have what you're looking for:

      The c't S.V.P. is a multifunctional "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" living-room device which can record and play music in nearly any format known to geekdom, is a digital video recorder, plays DVDs and VCDs, has network connectivity, supports a plethora of IR remotes and whatnot. Geek heaven!

      The original article appeared in c't magazine 20/2001, p. 146. Here's the link to a shorter online version (in German, and unfortunately they left out the images). Use WorldLingo [worldlingo.com] to translate into English (although poor Christof Windeck will probably cringe at seeing his last name machine-translated to "Christof wind-hit a corner" :)

      Raymond
  • Try this one [soldam.com]
    It's not very small, but does look good. Especially that black case, which should go very well with your new black flat panel :-)
    And for those who remember Shuttle SV24 [slashdot.org], it uses the same MB, Shuttle FV24.
    • Check for linux compatabilty first!

      Shuttle released a SVGA driver for their crappy Savage4 onboard video, they even give you a nice little utility called s3switch or something to control the TV out THAT DOESN'T DO A FSCKING THING!

      The best I could do was 256 colors @ 640x480, and I only got that once. After restarting the server it just bombed over and over again.

      Video in Win2K isn't bad, but the TV out doesn't work either! I'd like to be able to watch my new Robotech DVDs on da big screen (bigger than 15", andyway) but I can't because Shuttle can't ship drivers that work.

      Before I'm modded down for being off-topic...

      My point is that some manufacturers cut serious corners when it comes to ultra-small form factor PCs. Unless it's being done by a company w/ enough experience building laptops to be able to miniaturize and consolidate all that crap into a really small form-factor, don't trust their products to support linux (even if they claim it does) until you see it for yourself, cuz if something sounds too good to be true...
  • Actually, NZZ [www.nzz.ch] the Swiss newspaper equivalent of TWJ in the U.S. covered the story [archiv.nzz.ch] five days ago. Unfortunately by nature, the story is in German, but is very worthwile reading since it gives some information about why a small (120 people), rather unknown Swiss company wants to enter the Mini-PC market.
    • The company is small, but has been around for 10 years selling embedded PC's (compact PC modules) used to build ATM, electronic ticketing machines. (Actually, I live about 10 miles away, but have never heard of them.)
    • Primary markets are Germany and Switzerland.
    • Swisscom, the dominant Swiss telecom, as an example, uses such embedded PC for their electronic phonebooks in public phone cells, etc.
    • They don't want to compete with low-end Mini-PC, but see their Microspace-PC as a high-end products, designed and built from scratch in Switzerland. Yes, Made in Switzerland still holds as a unique selling proposition (USP in MBA slang).
    • They only want to sell 5000 units in the first year, so they don't want to be a big player.
    • The option to have an embedded smartcard reader is actually something which might distinguish the product from other Mini-PC. Note that especially in Switzerland, almost all people carry an EC-card with them. An EC-card is not a smartcard, but has a little chip that functions like a purse. You can load it via an ATM, and use it to pay withouth cash. The second, and traditional use of the EC-card is to allow cashless payment. The difference to a credit card, is that your bank account is charged on the same day, and no credit card company takes 5% commission.
    • My guess is, that Digital-Logic will base their marketing efforts on this option to attach a smartcard reader, and sell it to small and medium sizes business. The NZZ article mentions the example of a hotel that offers Internet access whereby the customers can instantly pay via the cash-card.

  • My local Crack/d/d/d/d/d/d computer dealer just recieved a "cappuchino" look-alike recently. $395.00 for the unit without processor,HDD,ram,or cd drive. (cince it uses a special laptop Cd drive a 24X cdrom drive costs $199.00 and it get's worse from there.)

    Basically you can buy a working unit at the max 256meg ram and a 20gig hdd,cd,1ghz PIII for about $899 now you need a monitor (if you buy a 21 inch crt for this I believe goons will come and beat you from behind the counter) so add a cheap 15" LCD - $399.00 and keybd+mouse. I can get a laptop for the same or lower price, not have the 256Meg max ram limit and can use it places other than my home AND get a decent video chipset. (Compaq EVO's are coming with radeon chipsets with 32 meg video ram)

    Until they slash the prices of these tiny pc's in half or do a redesign to make them slightly larger but use normal parts. (if the cappuchino computer was the same size as a cdrom drive but twice as high, It could use a regular drive, normal ram and probably use a P-4.)

    These computers are obviously gimmick devices for rich prissy snob women that cant stand the sight of a normal computer, or artsey freaks that can't allow the compter to clash with his all glass desk and imported German leather chair.. " I am gunther, this is the part in sprokets where we dance!".



  • Don't be discouraged by their prices.


    ARP-Datacon has a reputation here (Switzerland) for massively overchanging for everything (up to 1000% overprice for things like serial adapters)
    so it's not really reflective of what they're worth.

  • I need machines for X terminals.

    TCSX-1 [disklessworkstations.com] is the cheapest what I've found, but still $400 for 66MHz x86 with 16MB RAM is just too much. For that money I can buy a terminal server for them.

    On the other hand, few weeks ago I bought an old Fujitsu ErgoPro X PC with Pentium 133MHz, 32MB RAM, PS/2 keyboard & mouse ports, 2MB SVGA, floppy drive and 100Mb/s network adapter, all for $25. It's a great machine, but I need something smaller.

    Do you know where to find something smaller than that Fujitsu (a compact horizontal desktop case) but cheaper than that TCSX-1? Maybe building it from parts is the way to go?

    • IMHO, someone needs to build a little box like this for about $400-$500 with Gigibit over copper (like linksys eg1064 or something) and decent video (like 32M 4xAGP VooDoo or something)....

      Until that happens, there's no reason I see for not just building a box from parts myself...

      • 32M 4xAGP VooDoo is way to much for me. It won't generate accelerated 3D graphics, so the memory for textures would be wasted anyway. 1024x768@16bpp, which is more than enough for me, fits in 2MB of video RAM. The gigabit ethernet is unfortunately not an option for me because of hubs prices, so I'll stick for 100Mb for some time.

        The NIC [thinknic.com], which AC told me [slashdot.org] about, is currently the best box of this kind to my knowledge. I would prefer, however, if it had no CD/modem/flashdisk and was cheaper without any stuff I don't need. I would love to see a box which is able to act as an X terminal, booting from network, without any moving parts, for something like $100. If the NIC [thinknic.com] cos ts $200 with all of the features, it would be possible to build a stripped version for $100.

        I generally nead exactly TCSX-1 [disklessworkstations.com], but four times cheaper... If only there was a TCSX-1 [disklessworkstations.com] priced as optimally as the NIC [thinknic.com], it would cost below $100... Oh, well... I'll try to find out where and for how much I can buy parts which they use. If anyone has any experience with buying and using such integrated board, similar to this board [linuxdevices.com] (I don't know what exactly it is, they only say in the spec [disklessworkstations.com] what it has, not what model it is), please let me know. Thanks.

        Another related topics,
        What are the cheapest stand-alone:

        • x86 processors (50+ MHz)
        • mainboards
        • ethernet adapters (100 Mb/s)
        • VGAs (1+ MB)
        • sound cards
        available to buy as new today?
        How does it compare to the same stuff integrated on one board?

        It's very hard to find a low-end PC parts today, they don't sell processors with clock rates not measured in GHz in computer stores, you know...

        After a quick Google search [google.com.pl], I see there are lots of different single board PCs. I'll try to read about them and post the most interesting suff. If you know any of these boards, especially if you have used one of them with Linux Terminal Server [ltsp.org] or something similar (generally the most important is if you can run Linux on them without any problems) then please post it here. Btw, are there any cases available for them?

        • Just a thought, but go to pricewatch.com and search for 12.1" TFT. You can get a laptop for about $250 used that should meet all your needs, plus allow you to put a wireless card in it and have a nice "roam around the house" X-terminal...
  • MicroCenter was selling these http://www.deltanetworks.com.tw/products/SYSTEM/sy stem_barebone_detail.htm for $99.00 about a month ago. Can't beat it. I suspect they were mispriced. The Santa Clara store sold out in a day or two. It's about the same size as the SpaceWalker ($250 at Fry's) but not so cubic. It makes an awesome MP3/DIVX/MAME machine. Fits right in my stereo cabinet (ok, closet). My only complaint is that it could be a little quieter but that's mainly due the the hard drive I installed.
  • For those wanting a cheaper solution for their tiny computer needs, search google for PC104. The options are numerous, and one could construct such a device as this post indicates for less coin. Of course, such a project wouldn't be as easy, but hey, this is slashdot, not MSN. Besides, you'd learn volumes about embedded systems.
  • The downside: Those are definitely no[sic] systems for power users (current processors are 700 MHz Celeron and 700 MHz P3,

    I don't know about anyone else but I can run a very nice web/file/print/mail server on a P-III 700MHz. A 700 MHz Celeron makes a good desktop. Are we getting so power hungry that we need to have frelling monster servers just do read mail?

  • How about the Datalux Databrick? This compact computer has been around for years, with periodic updates.

    http://www.datalux.com/databrick/default.asp
  • If you're not sure whether your environment is dusty enough to require a PC with passive cooling, use this to find out: Dust Flux Monitor Instrument [nasa.gov]

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