Build Your Own Mini-PC for $80

[Guest]

Hmm. An Addonics SATA to CF Adapter and a Gigabit PCI Card could make this real interesting. Maybe even run ESATA for the other port and shrink the box.

 

[RaymondDay]

I have this board with Ubuntu 8.04.1 server running on it. It works very good for that. I made my own case out of sheet metal. It's as small as the board and about 3 1/2 inch. tall. It only uses 35 Watts of power with a 750 GB SATA hard drive and a picoPSU 90 Watt power supply. That runs off a 12 volt brick. I was using this for Win XP home. It was a little slow for that. I got the Atom CPU one for that and Win XP home is working real good for Internet and email stuff. Internet video good too. Tested WoW game on it and gets about 10 FPS. It's neat how it's small and takes little power. Can run it 24/7 for less then $1.00 a month.

-Raymond Day

 

[misosoup7]

Can this motherboard/cpu combo handle say hidef media codecs like h264 at 1080p with AC3 audio decode and direct sub?

 

[KyleSTL]

Can this motherboard/cpu combo handle say hidef media codecs like h264 at 1080p with AC3 audio decode and direct sub?

No, not without a discrete graphics card (read: HD2400 PCI). Even with the UVD taking away the load of the video decoding it'll be riding the ragged edge and will probably stutter and drop audio like crazy.

Edit: The processor in my HTPC (Celeron 420 1.6Ghz @2.6Ghz) was a stand-in for my dad's computer before the Q9450 came out, coupled with a P35-DS4, 4GB DDR2 800, HD 2600XT and a X-Fi sound card and it couldn't play certain BluRay movies (concerts mainly - other movies would play well).

 

[Guest]

Misleading title. $80 does not get you an operable PC.

 

[Guest]

Aren't these types of boards/cpu combo's used in many point-of-sale systems to run a touchscreen display for a cash register? I seem to remember running across older versions of this when I worked in that field.

 

[genored]

[citation][nom]randomizer[/nom]Ok I understand what you are saying now. But what would be the point of putting the 4850e into the benchmark suite? It isn't even in the same league as any of these processors. I don't know why they added it in for the sake of power consumption comparison either when they are comparing a mid-range chip to low-end and bottom-of-the-barrel chips. I doubt this has anything to do with fanboyism, and I don't see how the review shows AMD has nothing to come back with. They compared the lowest end to the lowest end and threw in the E2140 for comparison to a "real" CPU, otherwise you could argue that it wasn't fair to Intel to throw in the superior Sempron with only the Celeron to compete.[/citation]

Well here is a site that does a reall test

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article807-page8.html

Here they under volt the 4850e to 1.5ghz and get it to draw 58W under load instead of 101W under load at 2.5ghz.

Want i actually wanted to say was that a 780g system with an 4850e draws less power under load and also idle compared to a e2140 with a G33.

When they test the CPUs later in the review they test e2140 celeron and sempron. WHY not the 4850e?

They are in the same league. If you are gonna do a full test on e2140 do the freaking test on 4850e

 

[Master Exon]

Where can I build this computer for $80?

The Mobo and Video are about $125 together on newegg...

 

[Shez]

Thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

I have this board, loaded with 1GB of RAM, running XP and simply love it. The desire for the board was 2 fold: 1) to be small enough to fit into a custom built case (a similar custom case for an ATX would be ungodly huge/ugly) 2) to be an HTPC who's only responsibility is to stream internet content.

I can't say enough good things about the board. It's quite enough to be silent if there is any sort of ambient noise in the house (AC running, fan on, etc), powerful enough to handle what I needed it to do and to top it off it's at least $100 cheaper than similar boards that would be overkill for my need.

 

[chuckt]

Where can this be bought at $80? Where is a list of parts I need? Where can I get a case? What does it mean when it says that the bios won't accept a USB drive when it has USB ports? What are the steps to build this? I looked on the web and I can't find the combination board and video card for under $80.

I think that we need a different operating system that isn't bloated and we probably need something other than Linux or Microsoft.

 

[gwolfman]

It's funny how people keep comparing this system to uATX boards which are quite a bit larger and also to the VIA boards which are 3x's more expensive...

 

[nukemaster]

There are also cheap via boards too.

The only thing i think ALL those boards need(IMO) is S-video out(some have it), For DVD , pvr and ripped dvd's SD tv works just fine.

 

[palladin9479]

The VIA boards are modular in that there is a dozen+ different configurations. Each of these configurations have different prices and features to go with those prices. SATA RAID / Gb Ether (or 3x Gb ether), Component out, DVI/HDMI out, Fiber audio out, TV decoder, Built In CF Card reader, eSATA, you name it, they got it in some form. Some of their CPU/Board combos don't even need an active cooling solution. The only thing they don't really have is a powerful 3D unit, but if your going to be needing that then your better off getting a stronger rig.

The EPIAs are designed to be application systems. Each would have a different function/purpose and you would built it for. So rather then have a "one platform fits all", they built many different boards to fit different needs. The guy building a linux based firewall doesn't need HD / digital multimedia capabilities, but does need heavy network ability.

 

[cc3d]

[citation][nom]goonting[/nom]Via mini-itx boards got better features than this one... with 4 sata ports[/citation]

but it's almost $300?

 

[Raphael]

I tried out the Intel D201GLY2A in a Mini-ITX case. The D201GLY2A is the version with a small processor fan. I was very disappointed.
With 25 degrees Celsius room temperature and the processor fan it overheats in less than 60 minutes. The result is that the computer stops immediately to work and the BIOS shows a "Overheat detected" message.
With an additional 60 mm case fan it is the same problem after 4 hours.
It is not possible to mount a standard 120 mm fan in the case - the Mini-ITX case is too small.
I would really appreciate if there would be options to underclock the
Celeron 220.
Now the Intel D201GLY2A runs happily in standard ATX desktop case - but that was not my initial intention.

In my opinion the Intel D201GLY2 and D201GLY2A are wrong designed.
Intel should give the possibility to underclock to 1 GHz.

 

[nukemaster]

sounds defective. should be able to run with its own fan as enough to cool it. What about a large chipset cooler on it? maybe that would give you the needed cooling. I wonder if a Zalman ZN-NBF47 would cool it, even if you give it a side fan or something. I would RMA it to be honest it looks defective.

 

[3thom]

The specs say this board maxes out at 1GB RAM, but this article says 2GB RAM works - which is true? The Intel site blows monkey-maggots.

 

[nukemaster]

There are many machines that say a "tested" max and still take more memory.

 

[gwolfman]

I landed in the same boat. I read/saw 1GB written everywhere, so I bought a 1GB stick of RAM, but ppl say it'll take two. Sux for me

Btw, I installed vmware-server on it and am running a slip-streamed/cut-down WinXP Pro on it as well, and it runs well.

 

[Master Exon]

I have this board with Ubuntu 8.04.1 server running on it. It works very good for that. I made my own case out of sheet metal. It's as small as the board and about 3 1/2 inch. tall. It only uses 35 Watts of power with a 750 GB SATA hard drive and a picoPSU 90 Watt power supply. That runs off a 12 volt brick. I was using this for Win XP home. It was a little slow for that. I got the Atom CPU one for that and Win XP home is working real good for Internet and email stuff. Internet video good too. Tested WoW game on it and gets about 10 FPS. It's neat how it's small and takes little power. Can run it 24/7 for less then $1.00 a month.

-Raymond Day

And that's WoW without the HD2400 PCI?