Having used one of the C3 -800Mz boards in a slim-line case as a print server (see my previous post), I was mostly impressed with the concept of such a small board and a compact slim-line case.
But, having tried out one of these "Mini's", I think my next one will be a Flex or Micro-ATX system, for several reasons; 1) The price for a Flex motherboard is a little less than the Epia boards, and so is the case and cdrom drive. By using Flex factor hardware, you can save about $100.00 (Canadian), before you invest in a CPU, and have you seen the price of Durons lately? But this also means that you can buy Asus, MSI and other big name boards, and in most cases you can choose between AMD and Intel CPU's. This means that your end result could be a P4-2.4 Ghz.system in a pretty compact profile! 2) Whether Mini-ITX or Flex/Micro ATX form factor, these things make great Thin-Clients ! (Can you say LTSP?), or a secondary PC for the kids without cashing-in your RRSP's! That seems to go hand-in-hand with earlier posts about kids desktop managers. 3) Oh, yeah, I spend a lot of time doing hardware research for my company! Who needs a better reason? ! I Love it when a plan comes together! Now if they can only find a way to make floppy drives faster. Lanman On Mon, 2002-12-02 at 18:51, RichardA wrote: > On Monday 02 December 2002 19:57, Tom Brinkman wrote: > > On Monday December 2 2002 11:12 am, Anne Wilson wrote: > > > On Thursday 21 Nov 2002 3:59 pm, Derek Jennings wrote: > > > > Agreed. I have just bought one of those Via Eden motherboards from > > > > www.linitx.com in the UK £63 for Motherboard and processor with > > > > 5.1sound/video/TVout/lan, even better it is passively cooled - NO > > > > FANS Runs KDE3 just fine (although there is a trick to get 9.0 > > > > installed) > > > > > > I don't think you ever told us what the trick was? This sounds such > > > a good bargain I would be interested to know how you fared. > > > > > > Anne > > > > The trick is VIA. The VIA-Cyrix3 processors try'n pretend they're > > i686 cpu's. They're not. They're not even i586 compliant, reverting to > > some i486 characteristics. Their 800+ cpu's perform at 400mhz levels, > > and it's not all due to their small L caches. IMO, anyone researching > > the capabilities of these cpu's ....would avoid them. I have a similar > > opinion of any mini-ITX Hardware. 486's didn't need fans either, and > > ran like ...well 486's ;> Which is why there's "a trick to get 9.0 > > [i586] installed". > > > > http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/errata.php3#viac3 is a start, a > > Google on 'VIA C3' or 'mini-ITX Hardware', a search of the cooker ML > > archive, and reputable hardware sites, I believe will backup my > > opinions. The old adage applies 'you get what you pay for'. In this > > case I believe quality, currently capable hardware can be had for > > similar (if not cheaper in the long run) prices. Just needs a fan > > here'n there ;~> > > -- > > Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas > > > > > > "you get what you pay for" is an interesting comment to make on a Linux > mailing list! > > A PII 400MHz equivalent is hugely over specced for many tasks, especially > without a gui, or on a low-usage home network. And the fact that it's silent, > rather than just quiet, means a lot to me in terms of domestic harmony. > > RichardA > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > > Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? > Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com -- Lanman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
