So I went in the local pc store the other day picking up the last of my hardware and they were putting together a pc that seemed a lot smaller than micro-atx form factor. I inquired and it was a mini-itx unit.
New to me.
What's mini-itx? well if you look a couple of posts down you'll see a pc built in to a RC Car. Mini-ITX offers all sorts of creative outlets for building pc's.
If you want to learn more about this try here:
Here's some facts (reprinted from that site):
Whilst sharing much with it's older siblings Micro-ATX & Flex-ATX, mini-ITX is actually quite different in some very important ways
The maximum mainboard size is only 170mm x 170mm, where Flex/Micro-ATX can be much bigger.
A Mini-ITX PSU is less than 100 Watts.
Mini-ITX is backward-compatible with both Flex-ATX and Micro-ATX.
EPIA is a range of highly integrated motherboards from VIA, the current models all feature:
Compact mini-ITX form factor
15-Pin VGA with S-Video & Composite TV-Out
Two 168-pin DIMM memory sockets
VIA 10/100 Ethernet LAN onboard
VIA Apollo PLE133 Chipset - Integrated AGP2X with 2D/3D Graphics Acceleration with motion compensation for DVD playback
Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro Compatible (with S/PDIF output shared with composite video-out)
1 PCI slot
2 USB ports. You may connect an optional 2 port USB module to the motherboard.
An embedded EBGA (Enhanced Ball Grid Array) VIA eden or C3 CPU
You can get processors up to 933Mhz I think.
The applications in the HTPC world have some interesting possibilities. Size being the biggest plus, heat and noise issues are minimal. It's Definately worth looking into as an alternative to the traditional HTPC. You do give up some capabilities in the video department...I imagine.
Price is very reasonable...and it does have a certain "cool factor" 'cuz it's so damn small. One guy stuffed his pc inside his old dreamcast box 8)
For a sense of scale (from TweakNews.net):
check it out.
Gord
New to me.
What's mini-itx? well if you look a couple of posts down you'll see a pc built in to a RC Car. Mini-ITX offers all sorts of creative outlets for building pc's.
If you want to learn more about this try here:
Here's some facts (reprinted from that site):
Whilst sharing much with it's older siblings Micro-ATX & Flex-ATX, mini-ITX is actually quite different in some very important ways
The maximum mainboard size is only 170mm x 170mm, where Flex/Micro-ATX can be much bigger.
A Mini-ITX PSU is less than 100 Watts.
Mini-ITX is backward-compatible with both Flex-ATX and Micro-ATX.
EPIA is a range of highly integrated motherboards from VIA, the current models all feature:
Compact mini-ITX form factor
15-Pin VGA with S-Video & Composite TV-Out
Two 168-pin DIMM memory sockets
VIA 10/100 Ethernet LAN onboard
VIA Apollo PLE133 Chipset - Integrated AGP2X with 2D/3D Graphics Acceleration with motion compensation for DVD playback
Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro Compatible (with S/PDIF output shared with composite video-out)
1 PCI slot
2 USB ports. You may connect an optional 2 port USB module to the motherboard.
An embedded EBGA (Enhanced Ball Grid Array) VIA eden or C3 CPU
You can get processors up to 933Mhz I think.
The applications in the HTPC world have some interesting possibilities. Size being the biggest plus, heat and noise issues are minimal. It's Definately worth looking into as an alternative to the traditional HTPC. You do give up some capabilities in the video department...I imagine.
Price is very reasonable...and it does have a certain "cool factor" 'cuz it's so damn small. One guy stuffed his pc inside his old dreamcast box 8)
For a sense of scale (from TweakNews.net):
check it out.
Gord
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