Adam John Trickett wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I may have convinced a family member of the merits of a small box home
> computer system. I'm no particular axe to grind regarding Shuttle boxes but
> the requirement is a small, quiet box for a home office setting. Its be running
> a full weight Linux distro and probably Win7 in dual boot configuration.
>
> It will be mostly used for email, web browsing, home office applications,
> looking at/printing pictures and possibly to view autocad files (on Window).
>
> What things should I be looking for? Obviously if it runs Windows then it will
> need more grunt, but my preference is for a case with a passively cooled CPU
> and graphics system and a quite hard disk.
>
> It'll probably be driving a 4:3 ratio LCD at approx 1280x1024 and not used for
> games other than the solitaire type. I'm not expecting it to be used for
> video, other than a bit of YouTube.
>
> As ever thanks in advance.
>
I run my media centre on an ASRock ION-330:
http://www.asrock.com/nettop/spec/ION%20330.asp
It's a dual core ion-330. It's quite slow but adequate for day to day
web browsing, open office etc. I run full blown Fedora 11 with KDE on
it. It's a bit slow but very very quiet (not quite silent as it has a
small fan). They are also very cheap, being available with DVD drive (as
opposed to blu-ray) for about £250. So cheap too. I have mine in the
lounge downstairs and don't notice the fan. Connected via HDMI into our
32inch TV. VDPAU gives hardware accelerated video so I can play high def
content, and sound goes to the TV too.
If money isn't an object and you want a passively cooled but fast
machine then hush are great. They use huge heat sinks with heat pipes to
give you a small box, with no fans and still a fast CPU:
for example:
http://www.hushtechnologies.net/?gclid=CJzF9uW5l58CFeZr4wodzVYzJw
which you can get with a core duo 2 CPU.
It's not quite as compact as the ION-330 but a lot faster! Of course it
costs you - £1100.
