Mini PC Loveliness
I've just discovered the AOpen MP965-DR mini PC, and blimey it's lovely. Does anyone out there run have one? If I got one it would be under the television and always on, so heat and noise are important factors to me.
Posted by Bastien at Sun Aug 19 13:18:28 2007:
Sole by Evesham in the UK:
http://www.evesham.com/products/info.asp?e=D43C04C9-9029-4DF5-883B-3E912FDDAAE6
And it's bloody expensive. Buy a Mac Mini instead...
Posted by infodroid at Sun Aug 19 13:38:45 2007:
Posted by Ross at Sun Aug 19 14:11:51 2007:
http://www.evesham.com/products/info.asp?e=D43C04C9-9029-4DF5-883B-3E912FDDAAE6
And it's bloody expensive. Buy a Mac Mini instead...
Bastien: barebones they are £299, add a hard-drive and RAM and it's cheaper than a Mac Mini and a fair bit faster. Evesham are a rip-off. :)
Posted by Benoit at Sun Aug 19 14:28:37 2007:
You should have a look at the Zonbu ( www.zonbu.com ). I've got one last week. It does not make any noise (no moving part at all, not even a hard drive).
Moreover, it's cheap, I have got mine for 215€, shipping included (~£150).
As it uses only 15 Watt, I'm going to get a nice decrease on my electricity bill (compared to my 300 Watt former desktop machine).
Of course, it's not a war machine:
CPU: Esther 1.2 Ghz
RAM: 512 Mo
Storage: 4 GB Compact Flash
Misc: 6 USB Ports, 1 T-base 10/100, PS/2 connectors, ...
But it does work really nice and quietly. And as I use network base storage, the relatively small Compact Flash is not a problem.
And of course, Debian works like a charm on it.
Posted by Chris Jones at Sun Aug 19 15:54:21 2007:
Moreover, it's cheap, I have got mine for 215€, shipping included (~£150).
As it uses only 15 Watt, I'm going to get a nice decrease on my electricity bill (compared to my 300 Watt former desktop machine).
Of course, it's not a war machine:
CPU: Esther 1.2 Ghz
RAM: 512 Mo
Storage: 4 GB Compact Flash
Misc: 6 USB Ports, 1 T-base 10/100, PS/2 connectors, ...
But it does work really nice and quietly. And as I use network base storage, the relatively small Compact Flash is not a problem.
And of course, Debian works like a charm on it.
I've not used that specific one, but I have built my own PC for a TV using a micro-ATX i945G motherboard. Basically you can make it very very quiet and really not very hot. The reason being that so much is onboard, but none of it needs cooling.
It might be trickier in a tiny box like that, but with some room you can cool a lower core2duo with a larger, quieter fan. If you have lots of room you can cool them passively (e.g. Scythe Ninja), but that's no good for a TV box!
I went for an Antek NSK-2400 case so I could have PCI cards and it's only audible if all else is silent, but unless they have made really poor fan choices, I would expect that the AOpen you link to would be very well composed too.
Posted by Matt Brubeck at Sun Aug 19 17:36:25 2007:
It might be trickier in a tiny box like that, but with some room you can cool a lower core2duo with a larger, quieter fan. If you have lots of room you can cool them passively (e.g. Scythe Ninja), but that's no good for a TV box!
I went for an Antek NSK-2400 case so I could have PCI cards and it's only audible if all else is silent, but unless they have made really poor fan choices, I would expect that the AOpen you link to would be very well composed too.
System76 appears to sell this with Linux pre-installed: <a href="http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=53">http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=53</a>
I agree with Bastien though; the new Core 2 Duo Mac Mini is a much better value for essentially the same hardware.
Posted by Hamish Moffatt at Mon Aug 20 04:55:07 2007:
I agree with Bastien though; the new Core 2 Duo Mac Mini is a much better value for essentially the same hardware.
Hi Ross,
I bought the previous model, the MP945D. It's very nice. All Intel kit including 945GM graphics, so it's all well supported. Very quiet.
It cost almost as much as a Mac Mini, except it has Core2 Duo. Also the AOpen has component (YPrPb) video output which the Mac does not (DVI/composite only).
Hamish
Posted by Janne at Mon Aug 20 07:51:39 2007:
I bought the previous model, the MP945D. It's very nice. All Intel kit including 945GM graphics, so it's all well supported. Very quiet.
It cost almost as much as a Mac Mini, except it has Core2 Duo. Also the AOpen has component (YPrPb) video output which the Mac does not (DVI/composite only).
Hamish
Seriously: why not get a Mac Mini instead? It seems to cost less and you would be buying from a company that does not "recommend Windows Vista".
Also, the Mini looks sexier ;).
Posted by Ross at Mon Aug 20 08:04:48 2007:
Also, the Mini looks sexier ;).
Well, Apple recommend OS X, which I also don't want to use. The price difference is not that great, the AOpen doesn't have a tricky bootloader, and better video out options. I was just comparing my options, not expecting a Apple fanboy attack. :)
Posted by fizze at Mon Aug 20 08:22:07 2007:
That Zonbu stuff looks very interesting. That might replace my other computer some day. :)
I've been looking for a silent computer to put next to the TV too.
While a mac mini would be nice, I actually wonder why there is no device with at least some half-decent graphic chipset. First, for HD video even a core 2 duo seems weak, and additionally even for the occasional gamer playing in 720p is very hard on the 945 gfx.
Are there actually some silent, small boxes out there with non-onboard graphics?
Posted by Ross at Mon Aug 20 09:03:19 2007:
I've been looking for a silent computer to put next to the TV too.
While a mac mini would be nice, I actually wonder why there is no device with at least some half-decent graphic chipset. First, for HD video even a core 2 duo seems weak, and additionally even for the occasional gamer playing in 720p is very hard on the 945 gfx.
Are there actually some silent, small boxes out there with non-onboard graphics?
The AOpen MP965 has a Intel 965GM GPU, which is pretty powerful really. It won't play the latest games, but it will happily handle HD video.
Posted by Janne at Mon Aug 20 13:41:04 2007:
"Well, Apple recommend OS X, which I also don't want to use."
true, but you can always erase OS X from the machine and run Linux instead. And the upshot is that you would not be sending one dime of money to Microsoft neitheras well. Besides, Apple DOES support various open-source projects, so it's not that bad.
"I was just comparing my options, not expecting a Apple fanboy attack. :)"
No attack at all :). It's just that when compared to other SFF-PC's, the Mini is a pretty good deal.
Posted by Paul Cooper at Mon Aug 20 15:24:04 2007:
true, but you can always erase OS X from the machine and run Linux instead. And the upshot is that you would not be sending one dime of money to Microsoft neitheras well. Besides, Apple DOES support various open-source projects, so it's not that bad.
"I was just comparing my options, not expecting a Apple fanboy attack. :)"
No attack at all :). It's just that when compared to other SFF-PC's, the Mini is a pretty good deal.
As well as the TV-out option you also can choose exactly which processor you want, how big / small hd, and I according to aopen site there is an optional TV-card for it (although it's unlikely to have Linux support and I can't find anyone in the UK selling it). Mac mini's are nice (I have one under my TV) but these are nice too and give a little more choice.
(Aside: technically, since Microsoft are shareholders, you are sending dimes to them when you buy apple stuff - not that should be a major motivator either way).
Posted by Numpty at Tue Aug 21 13:07:41 2007:
(Aside: technically, since Microsoft are shareholders, you are sending dimes to them when you buy apple stuff - not that should be a major motivator either way).
+1 for the Mac Mini, most reliable machine (not just the most reliable Mac) I've ever had, period; current uptime around 400 days. But hey, if you'd rather run Linux...
Posted by Janne Ojaniemi at Tue Aug 21 13:37:07 2007:
"(Aside: technically, since Microsoft are shareholders, you are sending dimes to them when you buy apple stuff - not that should be a major motivator either way)."
Microsoft sold their Apple-shares years ago.
Posted by NSK at Tue Sep 25 04:39:19 2007:
Microsoft sold their Apple-shares years ago.
It has an ICH8 controller. How well will it support GNU/Linux? I think ICH7 is more mature, but I'm not sure whether ICH8 is well supported nowadays. Except for that, the machine only takes a 2.5" HDD, which I find a disadvantage, as with 3.5" you could have higher capacity and faster disks as well (eg you could put a Raptor 10kRPM in it). There are some 10kRPM 2.5" disks but they are hard to find. The presence of DVI is useful, though. Note that Shuttle manufactures some very interesting barebones as well. Personally, however, I think that for a little more money you could just get a nice subnotebook, like a Flybook, which takes about the same space and has the added bonus of being able to play with it out of home (and GNU/Linux works on it). If upgradeability is important, then you can think about a microATX box, but it will make more noise than this little puppy. For me the lack of a 3.5" disk bay in this AOpen machine is a considerable drawback, but if you just want to plug it on the TV then I assume a 7.2kRPM 2.5" disk will do fine as well.
Posted by Ozymandias at Mon Oct 8 03:38:28 2007:
I took the leap and bought one of these and am installing linux on it.
You can follow my progress here:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/MP965-DR#Progress
Posted by John Holland at Wed Nov 21 10:41:42 2007:
You can follow my progress here:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/MP965-DR#Progress
I bought the Fujitsu-Siemens equivalent, the Esprimo Q5020. It seems to be technically the same as the Aopen MP965. The design of the lid of the enclosure seems to be the only difference.
It has BT2.0 (USB) and WLAN b/g (PCIe) preinstalled and I put an additional 1GB and a 200GB Seagate 7200 in it. I rigged it up to my LG32LX2R TV with a standard resolution of 1360x768 over DVI.
I then installed Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon using the textual installation procedure. Worked like charm out of the box. After a turning on iec958 switch in the volume control of the HDA Intel (Alsa Mixer), even the TS-Link (optical SPDIF) woked properly. The volume is then controlled directly with PCM.
The system does seem to have atleast one problem though: heat. During normal operation the HDD had 53 degrees Celcius as read by the hddtemp utility. After turning the device on it's left side and taping closed the upper third and top cooling slots located on the bottom of the device, the operating temp of the HDD sank to 48 Degrees. In my opinin still way to high. I have not taking the HDD out of the enclosure to test operating temp while not in the enclosure, but that's next on my list.
It has BT2.0 (USB) and WLAN b/g (PCIe) preinstalled and I put an additional 1GB and a 200GB Seagate 7200 in it. I rigged it up to my LG32LX2R TV with a standard resolution of 1360x768 over DVI.
I then installed Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon using the textual installation procedure. Worked like charm out of the box. After a turning on iec958 switch in the volume control of the HDA Intel (Alsa Mixer), even the TS-Link (optical SPDIF) woked properly. The volume is then controlled directly with PCM.
The system does seem to have atleast one problem though: heat. During normal operation the HDD had 53 degrees Celcius as read by the hddtemp utility. After turning the device on it's left side and taping closed the upper third and top cooling slots located on the bottom of the device, the operating temp of the HDD sank to 48 Degrees. In my opinin still way to high. I have not taking the HDD out of the enclosure to test operating temp while not in the enclosure, but that's next on my list.
