Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: pmc on January 04, 2008, 01:00:50 pm

Title: Anyone building mini-ITX boxes?
Post by: pmc on January 04, 2008, 01:00:50 pm
I'm thinking about a PC for the kitchen and figured that some of you may have built a bartop that is constructed similarly. maybe you can point me in the right direction to get started on research, design, and bulding the parts-list? We want it for surfing, email, and reading recipes but I'll extend the functionality from there.

I'm looking for a tiny footprint, slick look, and dead silent. That leads me to this:


or I'll just buy a Mac mini and be done with it. :)

Of course I'll have to throw a joystick in there somewhere....

Any pointers on where to find similar projects or do research? It seems like mini-itx.com (http://mini-itx.com) is the place I keep getting back to, but I'd think that there'd be way more projects out there than what's listed there.

-pmc
Title: Re: Anyone building mini-ITX boxes?
Post by: XyloSesame on January 04, 2008, 02:55:39 pm
Jetto has one for sale in a BST thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=74585.0)...
Title: Re: Anyone building mini-ITX boxes?
Post by: Neverending Project on January 04, 2008, 04:13:10 pm
Quote from: pmc on January 04, 2008, 01:00:50 pm
or I'll just buy a Mac mini and be done with it. :)

I actually have a mac mini that I am using in my cabinet. The problem is what to use as a FE. I am thinking about creating something for myself, but I can't seem to decide what to create it in.

If you are serious about a mac mini, check out the refurb store. You can find a 1.8GHz C2D mac mini for about $100 off, when they have them. They go quick, though, so you need to check often and act quick. Plus it will come with Leopard and iLife. :)
Title: Re: Anyone building mini-ITX boxes?
Post by: SuperGodX1 on January 04, 2008, 04:48:33 pm
I picked up a Jetway J7F5M2G-VHE-PB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813153091 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813153091))mini-itx mobo from newegg.com.  It arrived today, and I will be using it for a new project.

I hunted around a few different sites: mo-co-so.com, logicsupply.com, but eventually ended up back at newegg because they had better pricing.  I picked up an IDE to CF adapter, a 4GB A-Data 266x CF card, and have an XP Embedded image setup for it already.

The motherboard has onboard HDMI and VGA, and also has additional S-Video and Composite connections that mount in a PCI bay, so I think it will be perfect for my project since it will be portable, and made to connect to any TV.
Title: Re: Anyone building mini-ITX boxes?
Post by: Kremmit on January 04, 2008, 10:48:09 pm
These look good, especially for the price:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article780-page1.html (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article780-page1.html)
Title: Re: Anyone building mini-ITX boxes?
Post by: Turnarcades on January 04, 2008, 11:17:54 pm
Go to mini-itx.com and check out an all-in-one package from VIA (Epia series), or similar. I use them in my Box Arcade projects and they are great.

Bit of advice though; I wouldn't use the compact flash option if you intend to use this for many tasks like a regular PC - the read/write cycles are slower and less stable than using a mechanical magnetic disk drive, as I've found out with several corrupted CF drives. If you want to save space, use a 2.5" laptop drive instead. They are larger anyway and still run fairly quiet.

Oh, and grab a nice Cube shell for it with possibly an LCD display and a DVD drive - this makes it a music/video centre on it's own should you ever want it that way.
Title: Re: Anyone building mini-ITX boxes?
Post by: pmc on January 05, 2008, 09:27:27 am
Quote from: samshaw946 on January 04, 2008, 11:17:54 pm
Bit of advice though; I wouldn't use the compact flash option if you intend to use this for many tasks like a regular PC - the read/write cycles are slower and less stable than using a mechanical magnetic disk drive, as I've found out with several corrupted CF drives.

I didn't know that. I'll have to learn a bit more about that. I really wanted to go solid-state but perhaps a quiet 2.5" drive would be OK. More $ though.

Quote from: Kremmit on January 04, 2008, 10:48:09 pm
These look good, especially for the price:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article780-page1.html (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article780-page1.html)

Yah... looks like I can get it for $70 shipped. That's more in line with what I was looking for. I'm surprised that newegg doesn't sell these.

I'll follow up with all the other suggestions on this thread. Lots to consider. I've been using PCLinuxOS 2007 (http://www.pclinuxos.com/) recently and it's nice enough that I may just go that route rather than look for a slim Linux.

Thanks for all the pointers so far...

-pmc