Semi-Thin clients - Intel Atom sub £100

[CyberNerd]

I wanted to advertise these Atom Motherboards. @1.6GHz
Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF - Overview

they are mini-itx and cost around £35-40 (ex VAT) for board and processor.
1GB sticks of DDR2 are around £12
all they need is a case and these things will happily run XP or can be used as thin or semi thin clients for less than £100.

[PeterW]

Its a nice little solution, stock is very tight at the moment but should free up a little next month. We are waiting for some decent low cost Mini ITX chassis to become available. If we were to sell system based on these what sort of spec would people like to see? Case + Atom board + ram with option of a small hard drive or CF card etc?

[dhicks]

If we were to sell system base dont hese what sort of spec would people like to see? Case + Atom board + rma with option of a small hard drive or CF card etc?

I'm guessing for the "semi thin client" option then a case that could be screwed onto the back of a monitor would be good, or something that would fit nicely just under the monitor stand (think Mac Mini sized).

Do these chips/motherboards come with a fanless option? Hey, does anyone actually make cases to fit old CRT monitors - there must be stacks of those around now, you could convert them all to stand-alone computers... What's the graphics performance of these motherboards like?

--
David Hicks

[FN-GM]

I wanted to advertise these Atom Motherboards. @1.6GHz
Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF - Overview

they are mini-itx and cost around £35-40 (ex VAT) for board and processor.
1GB sticks of DDR2 are around £12
all they need is a case and these things will happily run XP or can be used as thin or semi thin clients for less than £100.

I think it’s a good idea, it could be something that catches on.

[PeterW]

Do these chips/motherboards come with a fanless option?

The CPU is passive but due to the chipset being slightly old hat it needs a cooling fan, some board partners are producing boards with passive chipset cooling but it is unclear if you will need some kind of airflow over the board.

I do know of a chassis which can be used with these and fixed to vesa mounting holes but the cost may be prohibative, I will check next week.

[CyberNerd]

Do these chips/motherboards come with a fanless option?

Nope, I think the closest is a VIA EPIA M6000. But they twice the price of the intel, and only 600MHz

What's the graphics performance of these motherboards like?

It has an onboard Intel GMA950. Ok for general 3d, specs are here:

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Overview

[CyberNerd]

The CPU is passive but due to the chipset being slightly old hat it needs a cooling fan, some board partners are producing boards with passive chipset cooling but it is unclear if you will need some kind of airflow over the board.

Wow, I didn't realise the massive fan I was looking at was for the chipset! I just assumed it must have been the processor! but at 4W I can see why.