I need one of these.
 

I like it. I think that PCs for the most part are boring and ugly. It's ok if you can hide them. And it doesnt take up much space either.

There is also an aluminum version, if you don't like the Cube Mac plastic look. I like the AMD one though... it has a kick ass cooling system.

LoL I used to have an Acer that was not much bigger than that... :p

Unfortunately I don't think there is much support for the smaller mobos yet. The PCI slots are smaller and require special cards, which are still hard to find. On-board sound and video means not being able to upgrade, so you basically have a computer version of a dixie cup: disposable.

I think it's a great idea to have the smaller machines. Hopefully the industry will make the shift and provide larger support.

Check out the second link. flexATX uses a standard PCI slot. The particular setup that Tom's Hardware built features a wrapped PCI adapter, so that the machine can keep a low heigh profile (about page 4 or so, you'll see photos). They also added in a Soundblaster Live. If you read the first article, they mentioned that Shuttle has plans to release an AGP version as well, so video can be upgraded.

But that's missing the whole point. These are not designed to compete with a full-blown full tower PC. They present an alternative; something suitable for an office environment, or college student on a low budget. Someone who only needs word processing, internet access, and basic multimedia capabilities. That, or as a secondary system primarily for use as a multimedia jukebox (networked to the primary computer for audio files, and hooked up directly to a TV to play DiVX and DVDs). Expandability is not the main goal. These are legacy-free machines.


btw, this kind of machine is ideally suited to Windows XP MCE, which will be released shortly.

What's with the dummies head sitting on top of it?
Some deep meaning I guess...:confused:

yeah, but can you overclock it? :D

Something that small would be nice.
I'd wonder about heat buildup inside it, though.

wow, that looks good. but, the heat might kill you.

plus, you can get hella nice cases for Pc these days :)

Heat you say? This looks like a beefy enough cooling system:

http://www17.tomshardware.com/howto/.../heatpipe2.jpg

Details here. Because the soundcard and video card is integrated directly into the motherboard, you don't have to worry about heat generation from those two sources. The only one I'd worry about is the hard drive, but even then, this quasiwatercooling system seems powerful enough to deal with that. It would definitely not be as bad as in some OEM minitower systems (Compaq). Also, the case fan is regulated to sync it's speed to the internal temperature. Less wear on the fan, cooler CPU. Win-win situation.

edit: Tom's hardware sucks... they don't allow image linking.

I was looking around and damn they can make those things small. Besides not being able to really upgrade them, I like this one the best. Its really small and has a fairly nice look to it. It's too expensive for me though. I would go with a standard sized PC if I had that much money to spend on a PC.

Wow... that's uberleet. Looks smaller then the Shuttle models. It's nice, but it's lacking DDR RAM, and a network card. Based on the case schematics, it doesn't look like it would be upgradeable, so there goes any plans for a networked music jukebox. Plus, it's way the hell more expensive.

if you ask me (which i notice no one has) i say all of these look suspiciously like microsoft's x-box and nintendo's gamecube. hmmmmm...

While that may be true.... they are not well suited to games. They're good for pretty much everything else though :)

Here's another one: http://www.boldata.com/html/minipc.cfm

sick.

i was just pointing out that this micro-sizing seems to be a trend that has hit other areas too. (i still want my gigantic tower, though... the bigger the better)

They are nice, and woudl certainly be more suited to certain tasks than the big ol box we are used to now, but i find that ther is a certain niceness to being able to get inside and upgrade all of those components when you want to.

Here's another really interesting solution: http://www.transmeta.com/everywhere/...personal.html#

It's great to see that they finally put the Crusoe chip into something viable.

That looks cool but those SiS chips are a nightmare :eek:

I dont mind micro ATX computers but I prefer the mini- or ATX computers as I'm used to them.

http://www.morphedmedia.com/new_comp.doc

that is my new computer, as it stands now.

what do ya think?

broken link

*fixed*

I must, I must, I must have an OQO.... imagine, Quake3 on something the size of a GBA

Achtung! Huge image!

lm- still won't load... why don't you convert the document to html?

that does look nice rm`.

the link is working fine for me. i wonder why it doesn't work for you guys...

hmmm...

i'll see about the html :) keep trying.

Well, the Mac philosophy is about making things pretty. Being small doesn't necessarily always fit into that. The standard G4 case is definitely not small.

Of course, I'm all for making computers look nicer. I definitely won't be using one of those little cases any time soon, though. I don't think they look nice.

The problem with making stuff really nifty looking is that it has to be proprietary. Standards almost always result in ugly, boring-looking components.

By the way, my ATC 410 is absolutely beautiful. I'd mate with it if I could. ;)

flexATX isn't proprietary... everything is standard, from RAM and PCI slots, to AGP. They just smush the components in closer together. I guess you can say the only proprietary thing in the standard is the cooling system; it must pass much more rigorous criteria then ATX/Mini ATX in order to certify.

And I'd say the Mac philosophy is more about lifestyle the purely looks. Getting things to fit the way you use them. Only do word processing and internet access? Then why have a monster ATX case?

Here's the flexATX specification, if you want to read it: http://www.formfactors.org/developer...ATXaddn1_0.pdf

I didn't say that it was. It's standard, which means that pretty much everything built around it is ugly as sin. I hate those little cases. I think they are hideous and badly engineered.

ok, here's the comp, for those of you who couldn't/didn't want to get the file.

Case : SOHO full black dragon 420Wt case W/ Side panel window and Cold Cathode lighting
CPU : Amd XP2100+ w/ Heatsink and fan
MOBO : Soyo dragon ultra black
Memory : 512Mb PC2700 333Mhz OCsystem w/ Heatsink
Video : Chaintech A-GT60 Geforce4 TI4600
Sound : Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live 5.1
Hard Drive : Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200 RPM X 2=120GB
DVD-RW : Pioneer INTERNAL ATAPI DVD-RECORDABLE MODEL DVR-A04SPK3
CD-RW : TDK 48X16X48
Speakers : Creative Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 Speaker
Mouse : Microsoft Intelli-Mouse Explorer Version 3.0
Keyboard : MICROSOFT NATURAL KEYBOARD ELITE
Monitor : Dell 19" Flat Faced .21 DPI Black
Modem : Creative Labs 56K V92
Network Card : Either Dlink or Intel **
Video Capture : ATI TV WONDER USB EDITION RETAILUSB
Free Shipping/ Cold Cathode lighting/ case fans

$2275.00

sound ok?

My apologies. I read your post wrong. I disagree though; standard components don't always have to look ugly. Like Alienware. Or your case. Or the first Shuttle PC I linked too. Check out the rad glazed look on the CD drive, and the blue HDD LED :cool:

I think the reviewer/decorator (Tom?) is hopelessly stuck in the 80's. I'm sure his house has large areas of flat color and grotesque geometric furniture.

ewwwww. let's try not to relive the 80's :)

I don't really care about the case as longs as it's big enough but the rest would be excellent :D

No apologies necessary. :) I know that it is possible to build something nice around standard components, but it can be hard to do. There are very few cases that I would say are nice looking. The shuttle is not one of them. :)

P.S. My case has bright blue leds for both the power and the HDD. :D (To be honest, though, my case fills a far different niche than the shuttle, and it falls in a far different price range as well. I couldn't have bought my case without some parental help.)