Pentium M Goes SFF 191
Jonesy writes "The folks at The Tech Report have reviewed an interesting new small form factor box (a roughly toaster-sized desktop PC) from AOpen based on the Pentium M. As expected, performance is on par with a Pentium 4, but noise and power consumption are much lower. The reviewer says, 'Subjectively, the EY855-II was simply amazing. At one point, I sat with the system at ear level two feet away. I closed my eyes and strained to hear it, but was unable to do so.' The one fly in the ointment: relatively high prices still on Pentium M processors, although that could change soon."
It's about time! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's about time! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:It's about time! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It's about time! (Score:2)
No, no... (Score:3, Funny)
Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:5, Funny)
Crow T. Trollbot
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:4, Interesting)
-psy
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:4, Insightful)
But your right, its nothing more then a "narrow" shuttle
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:1, Insightful)
Re: Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, and that's apart from the fact that parent poster is probably right. DOS compatibility isn't a selling point anymore, the huge, bulky white boxes are out, and the maintenance troubles of spyware-plaged W**s systems make many people look for alternatives. From what I know most people do with their PC's
Re: Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:2)
Nope, but Windows compatibility is a MUST. So no, the poster was completely WRONG when he said a Mac Mini is good for 99% of all people.
More than 1% of the people in the world need a computer that can run Windows software. Not to mention, the thing BY ITSELF costs the same as a brand new Dell of equivalent speed (2x processor speed) including a flat-panel monitor! I'd trust the Mac's stability WAAAAY more, but if it can't run any software I need, what
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:5, Funny)
People want to "run the internet", send and receive email, and sometimes type a report for school. Some of them are advanced enough to know they want to play music or store/email/print pictures. Let's see... that's Safari, Mail, Pages, and for those "advanced" newbies, iTunes and iPhoto.
All of that is included on a system that isn't as susceptible to "viruses" (or malware of other sorts) and "just works" without needing to worry about pressing [random key on keyboard that they're sure was the one] and the DVD-Floppy-Modem quit working.
There are also about 2759023845908750923854 (as of last week) versions of solitaire available for the Mac, and they're ALL better than MS's version, though none of them are as ubiquitous. They usually cost $20 and come with 8 trillion variations, along with an editor to make your own types of solitaire. And don't forget Bejeweled and Alchemy to keep them addicted (and thus out of your way) for a good long time.
For someone who's already "broken" their Dell and thus has the keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer/scanner/fax/copier, and USB-enabled kitchen sink, the Mac Mini is perfect. It's also perfect for those of us who don't want to fix relatives' computers anymore.
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:2)
Why bother cracking open the case? The Apple upgrade to 512 is $50. 512megs for OSX is plenty for typical computer usage. If someone wants a bad-ass video editing machine then they are buying the wrong base model. SUV buyers dont price-shop in the micro-econo lots.
I'd write more but I can't hear myself think because my wintel box is so loud. That's with an Antec quiet system fan and a low-noise CPU fan. Perhaps a zeldman zero-noise fan is next. Funny how
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:3, Insightful)
The other difference is the mini has an old but competant video chipset (Radeon 9200)... the AOpen has "Intel 855GME". Since they didn't even mention it in the review and used an AGP video card, I assume it's not up to much.
Of course it's a lot more expandible. It's really not in the same ballpark as the mini. It's more like a step up from the Cube.
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:2, Informative)
Apple did the first small-form-factor PCs, like, EVAR, but somehow the mini traces its lineage back to the clunky ol' Shuttle lunchboxes?
I mean, I guess you could make that make sense, but I don't know why you'd want to...
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:2)
"First" small form factor was the G4 Cube?! You kids these days! Ever heard of the Sun IPC [obsolyte.com]?
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:2, Insightful)
You said, I said...both wrong (Score:2)
Fact of the matter is the Mac mini will be credited with bring small form factor to the AVERAGE consumer.
As for AOpen's execution...Kevin Rose proved a SFF x86 machine could happen in a case the size of the mini(minus an optical drive). Until someone comes out with something that small and pretty with an x86-based processor, "
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:1)
*coughcoughMAC PLUScoughcough* So quiet you can hear the capacitors venting(smoking). Or, as was once said: "So quiet you could hear a mouse peeing on a cotton ball"
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea! (Score:2)
Crow T. Trollbot
Probably from the already existent small-form factor Intel/AMD market. If I had to guess.
From looking at the box... (Score:2)
In short, it's not even anywhere close to being inspired by the Mac Mini.
I had that once... (Score:5, Funny)
The primary use I see for (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a musician, and I know I'm getting one for that.
Re:The primary use I see for (Score:2)
how much cpu power you need on stage anyways? plenty of quiet options.
Re:The primary use I see for (Score:2)
Philip Glass, OTOH, probably wouldn't need this much power.
Pentium M? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pentium M? (Score:2)
That would be a huge step back from the Pentium 2010 (MMX).
So the difference? (Score:5, Informative)
So somewhere in between the two, then.
Re:So the difference? (Score:2)
So what we have is , a pc notebook in the shuttle form
perhaps im too harsh , as i can imagine a silent x86 system would be lovely.
The problem is , i dont see intel building the amd64 extensions onto the pentium M anytime soon ( unfortunatly) or even duel core. and they will contiune to beat the dead p4 horse for a long time to come
((on a side note , does
Re:So the difference? (Score:1)
Re:So the difference? (Score:2)
Yea, it's not pretty: http://barefeats.com/al15b.html [barefeats.com]
PM beats G4 per-clock in CineBench. Keep in mind that the PM is 500Mhz faster than the G4 now, and has twice as much cache as it did when that test was run.
Re:So the difference? (Score:2)
Re:So the difference? (Score:2)
However i found some photoshop comparisons today and dammed if i can remember where , but that really did turn the tables on the pentium M
so i guess it looks like its the same comparison as AMD to intel , in that it depends what you want to do
Uh,... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well... (Score:2)
Basicly, the summary is that mobile chips are often limited by memory bandwidth etc. The Pentium M is stunning, and an even match for PIV/A64 under those conditions, and with lower power consumption to boot. But when you remove the constraints and move to a desktop, it does not perform as well as the desktop chips. E.g. it has a large cache to deal with a slow memory bus. Give it DDR400 (or soon, DDR2-667)
"Interesting new small form factor box" (Score:2)
PS/2? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:PS/2? (Score:1)
Re:PS/2? (Score:2)
Re:PS/2? (Score:2)
Simple reason for that...
"Hit F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup"
Yes, most BIOSs include some degree of support for USB keyboards at boot-time. But, having dealt with a good number of different PCs and USB keyboards at work, I would consider such "support" sketchy at best. Most commonly, they don't work at all. Right after that, in a bizzare, horrible twist of fate, everything works except the function keys (actually I'd image any extended key sequence wou
Re:PS/2? (Score:2)
I know there is a company that makes M replicas with a USB connector. But I paid $10 for my M, whereas the replica is around $100. Another solution I looked into is a PS/2 to USB adapter. The ones that do true hardware conversion are also quite expensive (the c
Goes to show... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Goes to show... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Goes to show... (Score:2)
WRONG.. the TWO problems are: 1) Price and 2)Mobo availability (and price).
Athlon64 wins primarily because it is faster, costs a whole hell of a lot less, and is much more available.
Intel fucked themselves over with the P4 and have still yet to learn from it... lets hope they learn in time to recover from an AMD marketshare majority.
Re:Goes to show... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Goes to show... (Score:5, Interesting)
They didn't really underhype the Pentium M, the M is for mobile, and that's exactly where it was aimed and designed for. They hyped it as the "Centrino platform", and it has sold like hotcakes in most modern laptops.
The real issue is why it took so damned long for Intel to move Pentium M to *desktop* use. The minute they cancelled Itanium's whole branch, they should have moved Pentium 4/Xeon up to its role as the server processor, and moved the Pentium M to the desktop; instead they waited and let AMD get the competitive edge on them with the Athlon 64.
I commend AMD for their forcing the market to keep moving, but I also hope Intel becomes more responsive and keeps its wheels spinning so that we can see technology keep moving, and not stagnate as it has the past two years.
Errr... canceled Itanium? (Score:2)
Sorry, but the Itanium2 [intel.com] is alive and well, though relegated to a relatively small market.
Re: Errr... canceled Itanium? (Score:2)
Besides all of that, it's simply not worth the money, as an array of IBM's 970's is faster (as Apple has shown through their G5 platf
Re:Goes to show... (Score:3, Insightful)
So if/when you say "they re-released a Pentium 3 as a Pentium M", you are wrong. They took out a schematic for the P6 archetecture (probably the Tualatin's last spec), found a way to add in some of Pentium 4's technology (branch prediction unit update, SSE2, micro-op fusion), some a
Bad hearing? (Score:1, Interesting)
My question is then if he has bad hearing. Because any harddisk and the PSU fan will be hearable!
Re: Bad hearing? (Score:2, Interesting)
Only if you have a loud PSU or harddisk. In my own system, there's 3 noise sources, in order: CPU cooler, PSU fan and harddisk. The latter is a single-platter, single head, liquid bearings, recent Seagate model. These are very quiet. And mounted on rubber vibration-dampers, almost inaudible. PSU fan speed is varied depending on load, and mostly very quiet too. Its noise only goes up during long compile jobs or
Re: Bad hearing? (Score:2)
Paint two black slots on the top ... (Score:5, Funny)
This is not exactly a new idea (Score:3, Interesting)
The 855 chipset is a little dated though, not great for gaming. I wonder how well supported it is in Linux.
Heat Dissipation? (Score:3, Funny)
Noise factor (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Noise factor (Score:1)
Re:Noise factor (Score:2)
Hell, I'd buy a silent computer too if I could get one with the same amount of power as my current desktop. It definitely would help with my sleep as it now sounds like a fully qualified Hoo
Silent Computing isn't so great (Score:2)
Now it'd be nice to have a silent system at home, but i usually have music on when i'm working so either way it's good.
Re:Noise factor (Score:2)
Re:Noise factor (Score:5, Insightful)
What if you're using the computer to learn how to speak foreign languages?
What if you're using the computer in a library?
What if you're using the computer in a soundstage?
What if you're using the computer in a recording room?
What if you're using the computer in a theater?
What if you're using the computer in a home theater?
What if you're using the computer in a bedroom?
There are lots of noise sensitive places. In fact there are more 'quiet' places than non quiet, so the lack of a 'quiet' PC is probably hurting more than you suspect.
Re:Noise factor (Score:2)
There are lots of noise sensitive places.
Depending on what one uses it for, I'm not sure the bedroom is one of them.
Re:Noise factor (Score:2)
Noisy harddrives are really annoying though. Nothing like the wweeeeeooooeeewwwoooowooeeeeee to keep me awake. It seems that just about every HDD manufacturer has made major progress in the noise department in the last couple of years though. It's mostly the older 10-80GB drives that I have that are the most annoying.
But usually, I turn the comput
Re:Noise factor (Score:2)
Your bedroom is your livingroom is your office. Think college dormrooms. Perhaps it has to do something overnight.
You happen to have an iPod in your bedroom playing music or charging or synching.
An iPod is a computer too; memory, display, port, storage, CPU, and it's fanless.
There are millions of uses for computers, many undiscovered because until now fans and noise kept them out of many places.
Re:Noise factor (Score:2)
An iPod is a computer, and it has no fans
A Palm or PocketPC is a computer, and it has no fans
A cell phone is a computer, and it has no fans
It's not that fans, or lack of, are the strong point, but there is a correlation with size, heat, power, and noise that keep some things out of some markets. You can't sell a cell phone with a fan, it interferes with
Re:Noise factor (Score:2)
how about a server farm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:how about a server farm (Score:2)
Sad but true. That said they probably don't use P4's either.
AOpen Does not Equal Quality (Score:3, Informative)
As an AOpen customer I reccomend agaist any product of theirs that cannot be self serviced, as AOpen has had poor relations with resellers and endusers. My current laptop and dealings with AOpen have lead to now 7 months of no solution to my problems, initially the firewire port broke which was not a problem as I do very little editing, then a key fell off the laptop keyboard, and now the screen mount is broken at the point where the LCD meets the laptop, attempts to open or close the screen damage the laptop casing.
I attempted to go through my reseller only to find that they were sued by the California Better Business Bureau for fraud and were no longer in business. AOpen provided no option for repair and has ceased to return communications.
That said, I do know people who have had success with cases by AOpen, however I have yet to talk with anyone who has had success dealing with AOpen for customer service, including retailers.
AMD Geode NX... (Score:2, Interesting)
This mobo is purely a microformat web/mail/office unit, no AGP or PCIe, but it could make a pretty slick little microserver or homebrew blade..
Old legacy junk on it ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Would have been neater to just go fully USB, Firewire and have DVI, ah well.
Re:Old legacy junk on it ... (Score:2, Interesting)
"a roughly toaster-sized desktop PC"? (Score:1)
Review Lacking? (Score:1)
These sort of topical quotes really frustrate me. The reviewer is trying to get some of the psuedo-hip language that the technically incompetent magazines try and sprinkle around to make their reviews readable to the technically incompetent.
Wasn't calling someone a "girley man" a common insult of the Satruday Night Live characters Hans and Frans rather than one of Arnold Schwarzenager's? No
Just Laptops in another package (Score:2)
Companies hype small form-factor Desktop PCs or Thin Blade Servers as if they invented something new. All it is, is a laptop in a new package. That is why the prices are high.
What the companies do is take out the Pentium M motherboard and other small components from a notebook, dump the LCD and then package it all in a small thin box and call it the latest, greatest thin desktop/blade server.
Except only one company has done that (Score:5, Insightful)
Many of the SFF PCs use m-itx, rather than laptop, motherboards and components. As such they use regular desktop CPUs, hard drives, heatsinks, and optical drives.
The Mac mini, however, uses a laptop hard drive, laptop optical drive, a laptop heatsink, and a laptop CPU.
Re:Except only one company has done that (Score:2)
These [cappuccinopc.com] guys have been at it bit longer. Even have the option of a PCMIA slot so you upgrade it with laptop expansion cards.
Re:Except only one company has done that (Score:2)
They were first that I can tell; followed by the cheaper Mini, and the larger Soldam Lepty.
Re:Except only one company has done that (Score:2)
So you are right, there are more than one; three that I know of now, in order of age that I can tell:
Cappuccino which sells systems comparable to a Mac mini for $800
Apple which sells the $500 Mac mini
Soldam sells a $700 system that uses a regular desktop hard drive, but otherwise has laptop components
Re:Just Laptops in another package (Score:2)
Needs to be stable at 310degrees (Score:1)
Next noise target (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Next noise target (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Next noise target (Score:2)
DBZ (Score:2)
I can just imagine it turning bright yellow and crackling with electricity. Actually...thats what happened when I spilled orange juice on my processor one time...that's not so cool.
Still waiting for a good SFF.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Still isn't what people are looking for. Wintel folks: look to the Mac Mini for inspiration.
Re:Still waiting for a good SFF.. (Score:2)
my SFF (at work, which I built at home and brought in to use at work) has a dual-dvi video card (matrox g550). try finding dual-dvi on a SFF. good luck.
I also want decent hardware raid (sometimes). enter the 3ware pci cards. you can also fit 2 slim line drives in a SFF for raid redundancy (I hate it when my always-on workstation crashes due to a drive seize or head crash).
what about onboard ethernet? most are pitiful. I went with an ethernet card by intel (pro 1000) that is bes
Re:Still waiting for a good SFF.. (Score:2)
Yeah, when your on-board video-chip burns-out, you can just plug-in a USB videocard.
When your gigabit ethernet burns out, you can just plug-in a gigabit USB NIC.
I'm considering this AOpen system, but I sure as hell wouldn't even consider any system designed to your ideal specifications...
Speaking of the Mac Mini, history has shown desktop compute
Re:Still waiting for a good SFF.. (Score:2)
When your gigabit ethernet burns out...
If something on my motherboard burned out, I don't think I'd be trusting it at all anymore, with or without expansion slots!
Anyways, this would be my logic if such a problem actually happened:
Re:Still waiting for a good SFF.. (Score:2)
Well, that's your own opinion, based on a completely lack of info I might add.
I've had an Apple PPC machine, where the built-in NIC stopped working, but with a PCI NIC, it kept on functioning for YEARS. I've had the same experience with many PCs, who's on-board video, sound, ide, etc., crapped-out, and just adding one PCI card took care of the problem, and the machines kept on runni
Convergence of Laptop parts and desktop (Score:2)
Laptop and desktop parts could converge, leaving what we currently think of as desktop parts (and their like) in the server realm. Meaning we might have a little burp in Moore's law (that the average macine bought in 2006 will be SLOWER than the average one bought in 2005) and the number of hef
Re:Convergence of Laptop parts and desktop (Score:2)
Speaking as a working corporate desktop sysadmin, I certainly hope that doesn't happen.
For some reason, people refuse to believe that trade-offs exist in nature. Everyone wants Small & Cheap & Fast & Reliable.... laptops!!!
Except that the reality is that laptops are much l
Re:Convergence of Laptop parts and desktop (Score:2)
One -- the hardware in them changes constantly. Every year is a major redesign, as makers try to cram more into less space/weight.
Two -- They're more complicated, integrating non-standard mice and such as well as that scree
What a breakthrough! (Score:2)
Someone's finally invented a notebook computer without an integrated keyboard and LCD panel?
The hell you say!
No AGP but (Score:2)
In particular, look at some of the designs coming out of Soldam, such as the Alphia [soldam.co.jp], Lepty [soldam.co.jp] and Rhapsody [soldam.co.jp].
On the other hand, if you're looking for 3-D gaming with the best performance in the smallest possible package, it's hard to go past something like Iwill's ZPC64 [iwill.net].
Re:steps (Score:1)
Re:Toaster PC (Score:2)
Re:Just dont show this guy an Apple computer!! (Score:2)
Re:Still a lot bigger than a Mac Mini (Score:2)