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Hardware Software Linux

Mini-Box M-100 195

Posted by michael from the too-many-products-named-m100 dept.
Craig Mctavern submits this link to a blurb about the Mini-Box M-100 small form-factor computer. Looks tailor-made for a home audio/visual system.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Mini-Box M-100 More

Mini-Box M-100

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  • Put that on a robot! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tcd004 ( 134130 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @05:52PM (#5812001) Homepage
    I'd love to add one of these m-100's to one of these personal robots [personalrobots.com] and have my own autonomous drink caddy.

    Of course, I'd prefer if the hardware was made by Jesus. [lostbrain.com]

    Tcd004
    • You'd drastically cut the run time of the Cye Robot, since a full blown micro like the m-100 will generally use a mind boggling amount of current.

      Ok, maybe not mind boggling, but a hell of a lot. Then, of course, you'd have to get the voltages correct.

    • How would that work? The robot is controlled by software on a computer, wirelessly. If you attached the robot to the computer then you'd need a keyboard monitor and mouse to use the software but it'd all be attached to the cye, which is kind of pointless.

  • Bugger (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jonathonc ( 267596 )
    Looks like the Mini-Box online store [ituner.com] is down even before the Slashdot Effect hits.
  • Mini-box runs at only 12V

    anyone got a spare battery lying around? seriously, though, 12V is some crazy low power consumption. you gotta admit, that's pretty cool.

    • Re:power consumption (Score:2, Informative)

      by gbjbaanb ( 229885 )
      go back to high school, do not pass go, do not collect £200 :-)

      Voltage is just the 'speed' the current 'flows' at - power consumption is measured in Watts, or voltage multiplied by amperage (the 'amount' of current)

      • Re:power consumption (Score:3, Informative)

        by unitron ( 5733 )
        "Voltage is just the 'speed' the current 'flows' at..."

        Wrong, wrong, horribly wrong. An interesting analogy, but fatally flawed. Even if you start from the premise that the "speed" at which current flows varies with variations in voltage, that's still not the definition of voltage.

        Voltage is the expression in units (Volts) of electromotive force (the E in E=IR, Ohm's law). It's how much difference in electrical potential exists between 2 points. If a conductive path is established between those 2 points

    • Re:power consumption/size (Score:4, Informative)

      by luzrek ( 570886 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:08PM (#5812150) Journal
      Power consumption is measured in watts, not volts. I think that you'll find that most computers run with even lower core voltages. The 12 volt input means that you can do the AC to DC power conversion outside of the case saving yourself volume and heat required for said conversion. Another major advantage of the 12volt power input is that it is easy to regulate your Automobile's voltage output to 12 volts and run the computer there, perhaps for an MP3/OGG server.

      The power for the computer is apparently about 10 watts, which is impressive. 6 of those watts are used by the EPIA-M motherboard + Eden 600 Mhz processor. The faster processor uses quite a bit more energy. Interestingly, a desktop harddrive consumes about 17 watts in typical operation. So the 10 Watt figure is likely optimistic and/or when no peripheral devices are being used.

      Just did some checking, the other really small case is from casetronic which is 5.1cmx17.8cmx25.4cm is about 400 mL larger than the 20cmx4.4cmx22cm mini-box case. They both take a 12 volt input. Form factor wise, the casetronic case is actually exactly the same size as most car stereos, guess what market it is aimed at.

      • Interestingly, a desktop harddrive consumes about 17 watts in typical operation. So the 10 Watt figure is likely optimistic and/or when no peripheral devices are being used.

        Maybe I'm nitpicking but I think 17 watts is a bit high. A Seagate Barracuda V [seagate.com](typical harddrive for a homebox/mediabox setup; high capacity, low price and low noice) has these power requirements:
        +12 VDC +/-10% (amps typ operating) 2.8
        +5 VDC +/-5% (amps typ operating) 0.844

        Power Management (watts)
        Seek 13
        R

    • Re:power consumption (Score:5, Funny)

      by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:29PM (#5812294)
      12V is some crazy low power consumption

      That's nothing. My Athlon CPU uses only 1.75 volts of power! I'm taking the ugly heatsink and fan off of that sucker right now because a chip at this low voltage just doesn't need them. From now on, I'm going to run it bare to the world!

      Wait a minute... I've almost got the heatsi3nk lo4ose*A#]]x(++ .=-

    • The computer that you're using now probably runs at 12V also, regulated by that 300W+ power supply that you plug into the wall.

      Duhh??

  • 3 words: Car Ogg Player (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mhesseltine ( 541806 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @05:55PM (#5812025) Homepage Journal

    This would be ideal. It has an LCD display, programmable keypad, and does floating point, so Ogg is possible.

    Now all I need is a job and some $$$ :(

    • Re:3 words: Car Ogg Player (Score:5, Informative)

      by insecuritiez ( 606865 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:15PM (#5812210)
      "...and does floating point, so Ogg is possible."

      If you will recall, the XIPH team re-wrote the Ogg decoder so that it can run on systems that can only do integer math. "Several optimizations were made that resulted in the decoder being twice as fast. We've also tuned the code to be tolerant for those who implement Vorbis using integer-only math. This allows hardware and embedded devices to more easily support Ogg Vorbis playback." http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4416 [linuxjournal.com].

      • Re:3 words: Car Ogg Player (Score:5, Informative)

        by TeknoHog ( 164938 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @08:09PM (#5812823) Homepage Journal
        I assume we're talking about Vorbis, the audio codec of the Ogg family. AFAIK, the integer-only codec is separate from the main Vorbis code and called Tremor (I hope the name has nothing to do with sound quality). There are good reasons why these codecs are mainly developed for FP math; for example modern processors are faster with FP as they are optimized for modern software (a kind of reverse chicken and ogg problem :-).

        • Tremor (I hope the name has nothing to do with sound quality).

          I can assure you the quality is just fine.

          modern processors are faster with FP as they are optimized for modern software (a kind of reverse chicken and ogg problem :-).

          You lost me there... You think processors can do float calculations faster than int? I've got some news for you, float is much slower. One look at the numerous hacks added on top of i386 should reveal that. We wouldn't have MMX, 3DNow, and all the others if float was faster

          • Actually he's right, newer processors do float better than integer from what I've seen. Typically though, Intel has been worse at float and better at integer and AMD's have been the exact opposite. Might be my imagination, but I believe ugly hacks like MMX and 3dNow were designed to make up for the shortcomings in older x86 chipsets.

            I challenge you to find 4 apps that require and/or excel with MMX. MMX was just never really utilized. SSE and SSE2, that's a different story.
            • I challenge you to find 4 apps that require and/or excel with MMX. MMX was just never really utilized. SSE and SSE2, that's a different story.

              Well, looking at my processor, I don't even have support for SSE/SSE2, just MMX/MMX2, yet mplayer works quite well, and does quite well on older hardware as well.

              4 then? Xine, MPlayer, Avifile... pretty much any media application.
          • And so, now that the chips have them their float enignes are even fast. On intel chips, integer multiplication actualy uses the floating point hardware, IIRC.

    • This would be ideal. It has an LCD display, programmable keypad, and does floating point, so Ogg is possible.

      Now all I need is a job and some $$$ :(

      Sounds like you've got one: incorporate, make, build, and sell. And yes, the next step is profit!

      • Well, most people are going to want to play MP3s, and that means paying license fees before you can sell your first unit.

        I don't think an Ogg-only player is going to sell well enough.

  • Openbrick anyone ? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by theefer ( 467185 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @05:55PM (#5812028) Homepage
    How is it different from the OpenBrick [openbrick.org] ? Mh this mini-box seems to run a 800 Mhz x86 processor (OpenBrick has a 300 Mhz Geode processor). I heard the OpenBrick could not play DivX smoothly, maybe this is the solution ?

    Sounds interesting, has anyone gotten one already ?

    • Re:Openbrick anyone ? (Score:5, Informative)

      by luzrek ( 570886 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:12PM (#5812191) Journal
      The Minibox seems to run the EPIA-M motherboards from VIA with either their 600Mhz Eden or faster C3 processors. The EPIA-M motherboards support direct MPEG-2 playback so DVD playback should be no problem. For more info on Mini-Itx stuff check out mini-itx's website [mini-itx.com].

    • Re:Openbrick anyone ? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have an 800 MHz Mini-ITX computer and it does not have the juice for a consistent smooth DivX/MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 playback. It is very acceptable as a hobby computer, but not yet there for true home A/V. Someday this form factor of a computer will be the solution, but not yet. It is great for audio, though, and basic game playing!
      • > I have an 800 MHz Mini-ITX computer and it does not have the juice for a consistent smooth DivX/MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 playback.

        This is certainly true if you use BUILT-IN VIDEO on many of these mini-PC's.

        More CPU will help only a little.. faster video hardware's where it's at. A Shuttle mini-PC with an add-in GeForce2 makes all the difference. Built-in video is usually marginal for movie viewing (especially divx).
        • Today's graphics cards have quite a lot of processing power and onboard memory. And for a home entertainment system you need to do video playback, maybe recording too, but very little else that is computationally intensive.

          I wonder if you could port Linux to run on the video card and do without a motherboard?

  • Good but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Valiss ( 463641 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @05:55PM (#5812029) Homepage
    The main lure for me is the size. I mean that thing is tiny! For some special project or around the house type things (i.e. an mp3 player for the front room) it could be useful. BUT, the $495.95 definately would make me thing twice about buying this over another (barebones-esque)system. Would the savings in my electric bill cause this to pay for itself over time?

    • Without a HDD, what sort of storage options could you go with on this thing? Is there room inside for a 3.5"?

      • Re:Good but... (Score:3, Informative)

        by kavau ( 554682 )
        From the website:

        M-100-A configuration (add $150)
        256Mb PC133 RAM
        128Mb CompactFlash with Embedded Linux
        40Gb 2.5" IBM drive

    • Re:Good but... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Uber Banker ( 655221 )
      Yes, why pay more for a small computer that ca have some dedicated function when you can get custom hardware to do it smaller for less with less redundancy.

      I think the real use for these (and low power CPU mini-itxs etc) is for a multi-use function, perhaps as a flexible terminal to your main computer in the closet.
    • "Would the savings in my electric bill cause this to pay for itself over time?"

      Not unless it'll give you electricity instead of using it ;)
    • ...an mp3 player for the front room [for] $495.95

      You mean like an iPod? The 20 GB model is exactly that price, smaller, much lighter, and quite a bit more stylish.

      The zero noise version of the M-100 makes an obvious home web server, but the hard disk will take it to $550 or maybe $600. The TV out makes it an interesting set-top box, or video game console. Either application will have difficulty justifying its price tag, though. An MP3 player is an even more unnecessarily expensive idea.

      What might

      • You just gave me a great idea. I've been looking for a mame-friendly tiny box to hook up to the TV, and this may just be the thing.

        Better yet, with a tiny backlit, full color lcd display, I could haul around a 1/2 din sized arcade. No hard drive necessary, as I could load all the roms I want onto a compact flash card. I was thinking about getting a GamePark32 for this but I may change my mind now.

        Then again, the GamePark is $300 cheaper. Oh well.

  • Car Computer. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Hodr ( 219920 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @05:55PM (#5812033) Homepage
    A friend of mine has been researching small computers for his car. He wants to run an mp3 jukebox application as well as control a scrollbar in the back window (for when you would like to express yourself to those driving to close behind you).

    This computer would seem to fir the bill perfectly, now we just need to find a nice cheap source for a 8x3 inch or so lcd display for the dash.

    • Re:Car Computer. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by tfriedlich ( 610874 )
      Why not just use a Zaurus? Throw a 1GB IBM Microdrive in the CF slot and a wifi card in the SD slot and transfer files from your home system wirelessly to the car when you pull in to the garage. Ok, prbly not the best use of technology, but I am just loving my new Zaurus.

  • Not a web server (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bakobull ( 301976 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @05:59PM (#5812071)
    The online store must be using one of these as its server.

    I think I smell something melting...

  • home network storage (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Adler ( 131568 )
    a box this size, and silence and low power use would be great for home network storage. just what i've been looking for, for sometime now. now if it was just $300 cheaper. seriously, why isnt there a cheap HD in a box that oen can use for home netowrk storage, at these prices for $500 i can get a huge new HD setup and my problems would be solved, but for a small networked HD with like a web interface, i'd sell my soul. anyoen seen somethign liek that? for around $200 ? anybody?
    • i'd sell my soul. anyoen seen somethign liek that? for around $200 ? anybody?

      Walmart has an Athlon 1.1ghz box with Linux on it, hardrive, cd, kb, mouse, for 199.99

      Please reply back with your email address, and I will forward you an address to send your soul.

    • Re:home network storage (Score:5, Informative)

      by luzrek ( 570886 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:19PM (#5812235) Journal
      I'm not sure about doing it for less than 200$, but I recently made a silent miniitx system for home to use as an MP3/PVR/Fileserver and it did run about 500$. However, if you wanted just a harddisk/case/processor you could probably build it for about 300$. Here is the breakdown:

      EPIA-M with 600Mhz processor - $150

      Ugly but quiet case - $50

      Harddisk - $80

      128Mhz RAM - $30

      total - 310$. Note that I left out the CDROM/DVDROM drive. This is because the EPIA-M supports boot from network. If you really want one you could spend another 20$ for a generic.

  • No smooth movies... (Score:5, Informative)

    by EdMack ( 626543 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:02PM (#5812093) Homepage
    The Mini-ITX boards were reviewed on Tom's Hardware not long ago here [tomshardware.com]

  • Optical Drive (Score:3, Insightful)

    by verloren ( 523497 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:04PM (#5812112)
    Looks tailor-made for a home audio/visual system.

    Unfortunately it lacks an optical drive, so its use in that context is limited (but only by money of course, buy an external drive!)

  • Small form factor roundup on Ars today (Score:5, Informative)

    by Wee ( 17189 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:05PM (#5812122)
    This is probably spill-over from the small form factor roundup [arstechnica.com] on ArsTechnica today. There's a lot more info over there about the M-100 and a few others (including the Netdrive, which was on Slashdot a while back).

    As for me, next week the birthday elf is gonna bring me a Shuttle SN41G2 [shuttlegroup.com] and a Athlon 2800+ Barton core CPU -- or I'm going to hunt that little shit down and kick his ass. Santa didn't bring me a tiny PC and it nearly cost him his life. He got to walk away with only having lost two reindeer. The elf ain't going to be so lucky. So pony up with the SFF computer or watch your back...

    -B

    • If you want to run Linux, think seriously about getting the Intel mobo version. Linux nForce support is not great. Too many things don't work. It's a nice Windows box, if a little loud with the Athlon space-heater inside.
      • I had wondered about both of those things. The noise I might be able to handle. My main workstation has a Turbo-Cool 2X [pcpowerandcooling.com] on it which is pretty loud. Very loud, actually. But it's under the desk, which helps a little.

        As far as drivers, I'm primarily thinking of a Windows-only box, since I want my dual-boot machine (the one with the F15-sounding fan in it) back on Linux full-time. Nvidia released fairly new drivers for linux [nvidia.com]. Do therse have missing features as well? I was thinking of making a little

        • Ditch the 2800+ and get a 2500+. The price just nosedived to about $125 and I'm overclocking mine to 2080Mhz, as fast as the 2800+. :)
          • Damn. I almost bought one last week (kind of a "buy the holster, have to buy the gun now" thing my uncle taught me). I glad I held off. Can you O/C them if they are in a SHuttle? I imagine those thigns have pretty strict heat requirements. Although if it'll cool a 3000+, it'll cool a 3500+ which has been bumped up.

            Since the last CPU I overclocked was a K6/150, how does one go about it these days? Did you just bump up the multiplier? Can you mess with the voltage as well?

            Off to do some googling.

            • Props to the low user number. :)

              And honestly, nothing has changed since the good old 300A to 450 days of the Celeron. Bump the multiplier, bump the voltage if necessary. Every good motherboard will provide you with incremental settings for everything. My Soyo Dragon Platinum lets me bump voltage by half-steps and all that jazz.

              If anything, overclocking has gotten better over the years. The only drawback is that Athlons run hot to begin with, so overclocking isn't always an option unless you're positiv
            • As long as you can set the FSB multiplier on the motherboard, you can do it. I've set mine to 166Mhz FSB with a 12.5/13x multiplier. (ABIT IT7 motherboard) I've heard of people setting the FSB higher, up to 180, with the right RAM. (I'm only using PC2700, though, so 166 was about the best I could do. Any higher than that was unstable...)

  • If they could drop the price down below $300, maybe by getting rid of the keypad and flash card reader, I would be damn tempted to try to make a couple of X terminals here at the office.

    • Re:X terminals (Score:2, Informative)

      by satterth ( 464480 )
      Run, don't walk, to your nearest computer store and ask them to get Mni-ITX style motherboards for you. Via makes a few of them. Check out viavpsd.com [viavpsd.com], its whats in this little box.
    • MWave.Com, and a few others, sell the motherboards that go in these babies. The 500 and 800MHz jobs will run you just shy of $100.00, that includes dual IDE buses, built in video (nothing spectacular, but runs Windiows okay), audio, TV-Out, 10/100base T, serial, parallel, USB and CPU. Not a bad deal at all. I've got three different models in my house.

      Oh, and these are Via EPIA motherboards. You can even get external 60 watt power adapters for them that remove the need for a fan and PSU in the system.

      T

  • Seems pricey, & how to do it (Score:4, Informative)

    by danlyke ( 149938 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:09PM (#5812162) Homepage
    It isn't that much smaller than the iDot mini-ITX machines [idot.com] (I'm just a customer, I've bought a bunch for various embedded applications), which, by the time you stuff in some RAM you had lying around anyway are under $200. If you're going to spend an extra $295 for a display and a few buttons, going super small and super low power with one of the gazillion PC104 [pc104.org] vendors seems smarter.

    In my house we have two laptops with 802.11b that are almost always close at hand, so running the whole thing headless and just using one of those laptops with a web browser to control the media center seems like the obvious choice.

    I need to finish up with code for the web server and media play control, but I've got some instructions on building one of these to boot off CompactFlash into stripped down Linux [flutterby.com] if anyone cares.

  • HUGE sale on just the motherboard (Score:4, Funny)

    by binaryDigit ( 557647 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:11PM (#5812178)
    From the site:

    VIA EPIA V, 800MHz Motherboard
    Regular price: $115.00
    Sale price: $112.00

    At savings like that, buy two, or four. Start that beowulf cluster NOW!
  • If they only made one with a good video card it'd be perfect for lan parties. Not the best computer you can buy, but my and 2 other friends are going to Quakecon in Texas, our main issue is size. The trunk in a '69 chevelle is large but we need a months worth of clothes, 3 computers and 3 monitors. It looks like you can easily fit 3 of these on your lap or in the glove compartment or anywhere besides the trunk while leaving tons of space in the seating area of the car so you don't need to sacrifice comfo
    • Each hard disk takes about 17 watts, so that is more than half. The EPIA-M motherboard with an Eden processor (admitadly slower and less power consuming than the 800Mhz C3) draws about 6 watts, leaving 60 - 34 - 6 = 20 watts for the RAM. The figure is probably more like 10-15 watts left for the ram because of the difference between the C3 and Eden.

      I've been running an EPIA-M with a 600 Mhz Eden + CDRW/DVD drive + 7200 RPM harddrive + TVEncoder off of a 40 Watt power supply for about a month and there hav

    • The trunk in a '69 chevelle is large but we need a months worth of clothes

      Dude, you're going to a lan party. Skip the extra clothes and the hygiene supplies. You'll fit right in.

  • Router (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Dante ( 3418 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @06:22PM (#5812255) Journal

    I wonder why no-ones talked about using this as a router? My biggest problem with a regular pc is size noise, and power consumtion. price would be the limiting factor no?

    • Re:Router (Score:3, Informative)

      by GlassHeart ( 579618 )
      I wonder why no-ones talked about using this as a router? [...] price would be the limiting factor no?

      Maybe because routers cost $50 to $100, and come with easy configuration tools? This thing costs five to ten times more, so it doesn't make much sense to use it solely as a router.

      • "Maybe because routers cost $50 to $100" Not in my world what routers are you talking about? would you trust a $50 with shiny GUI, on a commercial site, like a clients?

        Imagine maintaining it? would your shiny 50$ router be a dependable firewall? with 2.5.x how about world class VPN/IPsec?

        • what routers are you talking about?

          $50 routers, obviously. :)

          would you trust a $50 with shiny GUI, on a commercial site, like a clients?

          No. I'm not sure I'd trust a PC either, though.

          Imagine maintaining it? would your shiny 50$ router be a dependable firewall?

          They tend to be easier to maintain than PC firewalls. Most home users simply use the default setting, where all ports are shut down.

        • You read my mind. I paid about $500 bucks (well, traded work for equipment really) for the Cisco ethernet router I have in my apartment. It's a little on the geeky side, but it's nice having Cisco equipment laying around so what little knowledge I have about IOS doesn't get lost.

          I would prefer doing this with a PC and OpenBSD at some point in time because, well, it'd be cool -- but I don't want another fan running. I never even thought of taking a mini-itx or similar system and building a router out of
  • Is there room for an HDTV tuner card and a DVD drive? Didn't think so.

    But then again, who cares what your HTPC looks like? You're watching the TV/projector screen, not the PC. Stick the whole thing in your equipment closet and run cables. And with a big enough case, you can add extra cooling fans, prolong the life of your equipment, and not worry about noise at all.

  • Along the same lines - Hush Mini-ITX (Score:3, Interesting)

    by henele ( 574362 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @07:07PM (#5812502) Homepage

    Which you can check out here [hushtechnologies.net].

    It comes with a hard drive, and uses the 933Mhz Epia solution without needing a fan. Granted, the case gets a little warm (as the whole thing effectively acts as a heatsink), but that doesn't stop it from being very cool :)

    For a review of the gold version, click here [mini-itx.com].

  • Nothing Revolutionary (Score:3, Informative)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @07:15PM (#5812532) Journal

    Don't get me wrong, this is a nice application for VIA's mini-itx boards. Of course, it suffers all the problems of any mini-itx based solution: too slow for video (see Tom's Hardware review) and no DVI or LVDS output. That's something that's been lamented on mini-itx.com. VIA keeps teasing us by putting an LVDS header on the board without any socket. I suspect it's the laptop keiritsu or some other industry mafia that is preventing us from getting a good cheap board with digital video interface, but of course I can't prove it.

    When they have fanless MoBos that can drive digital displays directly and play DVDs properly, then we'll start to see some really cool low power media boxes. Until then, what you've got is early adapter technology, with all the attendant shortcomings.

    What's really sad is that this is something that Transmeta could have done pretty well, but the management has its head too far up you-know-where to realize it.


  • I have been looking for a very low cost x86 microcontroller or board for developing simple thin clients for education in poorer countries. So far all offerings are more expensive than traditional desktops including all the incarnations of PC-104 that Ive come across.

    This thing is $500+ and openbricks link is broken. I wish elan-486 was still around, I cant even find a distributor to send me a single sample of any elans. And I really have to check out geode, wish someone would offer a complete system on

  • Get one of these :
    http://www.casetronic.com/Product/PCcase/2699/C S-2 699.html
    [Very very small case for about $90]

    and one of these :
    http://shop.store.yahoo.com/kmexpress/mb-epia-1 g.h tml
    [Same type of the product as in the mini-box but
    faster processor]

    You'll have a better computer at about half
    the cost.

  • get a better tailor, it doesn't fit (Score:3, Interesting)

    by frovingslosh ( 582462 ) on Friday April 25, 2003 @08:56PM (#5813054)
    Looks tailor-made for a home audio/visual system.

    Hardly. At $500 for a tiny box that can't even hold a CD or DVD drive, and extremely restricts what else you can do with it, it seem a very expensive tiny toy.

    For not much more you can get a decent laptop, which would include a DVD drive/cd writer, an LCD display, hard drive, TV out and all the rest and take up about the same amount of space while the laptop is closed. Or just get a much less expensive small desktop system or put together your own.

    There might be some valid use for this little thing at that price, but only in very specific dedicated applications, and certainly not for a home audio/visual system.

  • For a home-entertainment system, this MSI system [msi.com.tw] looks a LOT nicer.

    It has a lot of audio stuff built in, and you can even power it on separately from the PC. And it has a remote.

    I think this is going to give the shuttle systems a run for the money.

  • Forget it with Linux (Score:2, Interesting)

    by subStance ( 618153 )
    I have exactly this motherboard (EPIA-M series), and have been trying to run linux on it as a home a/v pc. It runs really well under Win2k, but for linux there's no X DRI driver, and the mpeg2 decoder hardware is inaccessible (and VIA won't release specs to OSS devs).

    VIA's linux support for this thing sucks *seriously*. They have binary only drivers that don't work, and don't respond to open-source developers (even VIA's own forums are filled with people who complain about not receiving any reply to linux

    • Re:Forget it with Linux (Score:5, Informative)

      by WasterDave ( 20047 ) <davep@z e d k e p.com> on Saturday April 26, 2003 @12:02AM (#5813637)
      There's a castlerock driver [viaarena.com] in xfree 86 [xfree86.org]. Now. Finally.

      We're talking five days ago, mind. So don't feel so bad :)

      Two things of interest:
      1, The driver is a result of via and Alan Cox working together.
      2, Alan has been using an epia as his main box, and I quote:
      "I have two boxes with the relevant hardware. One of them is my desktop box and I've been running the driver as my main desktop for a couple of weeks now."

      Seal of approval, if ever I saw one.

      Dave

  • mini-itx (Score:3, Interesting)

    by g4dget ( 579145 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @03:33AM (#5813915)
    Go to mini-itx.com [mini-itx.com] for dozens more case designs. Case Outlet [caseoutlet.com] is one company that ships these with cases. The Hush [mini-itx.com] case is really nice if you want something that looks good and has no fan.

    For a video system, you want something faster than the old 533MHz fanless version. The newer mini-itx boards have on-board MPEG2 decodes for smooth video playback.

  • I don't get it. I would love a small form factor computer like this for various tasks but this is simply to expensive for most tasks compared to other options. Task specific devices for MP3 are already in this price range or less.. someone already mentioned IPOD. The video playback ability is questionable which might make it worth while but TiVO is in this price range and certainly does a better job. Granted for an all in one wonder its not bad but capability vrs price is pretty marginal when you consider

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I've noticed several design suggestions in your code.

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