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Mini-ITX as audio pc

post #1 of 7
12/13/05 at 12:40am
Thread Starter 
I once saw someone build a PC with moderate gaming capabilities in an ammo can, with all the ports in a panel at the top so when closed it looked just like a 50 caliber ammo can; ever since I have wanted to rip off the concept, even if its only to the extent of have a small fanless PC.

Right now I have a sweet laptop that is great for listening. What I would like is a desktop just for ripping, storing and encoding, and burning. It would need to be quiet and be able to wirelessly network with my laptop.

Could a Mini-ITX build be flexible enough, or would it be wasting effort?
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post #2 of 7
12/13/05 at 12:55am
triple poast
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post #3 of 7
12/13/05 at 12:55am
triple poast
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post #4 of 7
12/13/05 at 12:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by trains are bad
I once saw someone build a PC with moderate gaming capabilities in an ammo can, with all the ports in a panel at the top so when closed it looked just like a 50 caliber ammo can; ever since I have wanted to rip off the concept, even if its only to the extent of have a small fanless PC.

Right now I have a sweet laptop that is great for listening. What I would like is a desktop just for ripping, storing and encoding, and burning. It would need to be quiet and be able to wirelessly network with my laptop.

Could a Mini-ITX build be flexible enough, or would it be wasting effort?
If it's just for that, it should be all right. Wireless is not a problem - most boards should offer some kind of expansion slot, if not built-in WiFi. The encoding may be slow with a 1GHz Eden or something of that ilk, however.
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post #5 of 7
12/13/05 at 1:09am
Thread Starter 
Yeah you can get them all the way up to 2.1Ghz Pentium M, but those get pricey fast.
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post #6 of 7
12/13/05 at 2:29am
For encoding, it would not be good at all. Figure a VIA is about 2/3 as fast as an equivalently-clocked Athlon or Athlon XP. Not good.

If you want speed and quiet, you'd probably need to look into a Turion or Pentium-M (Turion + Thermalright heatsink* = possible passive cooling) SFF.

...or you could use another PC for ripping and encoding, and just the VIA for actual listening and light desktop use.

* Thermalright heatsinks were made with the mobiles in mind, so should offer good enough pressure on the chip, and installation that will not really risk chipping the chip.
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post #7 of 7
12/13/05 at 4:25am
Thread Starter 
Thing is I have a superbadass laptop that I use for 99% of listening.
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