(long post warning: only read if you are a vendor that sells low power, small footprint, mini PC or thin client systems or are like me and are searching for good places to buy them at decent prices)
I am looking for sources to buy low-power (as in watts consumed) small-footprint systems based on processors like the Geode GX1, Via C3, SiS55x LV, Transmeta Crusoe, and STPC. I would like to find a single vendor or at least a small number of vendors that I can either 1) buy whole systems from, or 2) buy the parts to assemble my own systems, preferably #1. My goal is to standardize on a single system or small set of systems that can be very flexible in their applications and used for various thin client and other low-power network applications. Vendors, please feel free to reply to the post or email me, but only if you can meet all of the requirements outlined below.
All systems should use less than 20 watts of power and be under $250 per unit (purchased one unit at a time,) including shipping and everything the system needs to work other than a monitor, keyboard and mouse -- no hidden costs. If they are cheap enough then they can consume a bit more power, maybe as much as 25W, but they ought to be fanless (if possible) and very quiet. Quantity discounts would be nice but I won't be buying more than
10-20 at a time. They should be small -- no more than about 1/3 cubic foot (9 liters) and hopefully much smaller. Need to have connections for at least: keyboard, mouse (except system 3), ethernet (10/100bT), VGA monitor, and at least one printer, serial, or USB port. They should all be capable of booting via PXE or have a bootable flash drive with at least 32MB that emulates an IDE hard drive, or both, and in all ways emulate the PC architecture so that x86 Linux distributions and other x86 OSes will run with little or no modification (except system #3.)Price is a big factor in deciding which systems and/or parts I go with, and no system over $250 will be considered. But, so long as the system is under that price point, then factors such as small size, low power consumption, low noise, extra features (more RAM, more connectors, external audio connectors, etc.) will matter as much as price.
Requirements for 3 different systems I'm looking for:
System 1: under $250
128MB RAM 32MB Flash drive (bootable, emulates IDE hard drive) 10/100 Ethernet port (PXE bootable) VGA port with accelerated 2D/3D engine Audio output PS/2 or USB Keyboard and Mouse ports at least 1 each of USB, RS232 serial, and parallel or extra USB fanless or very low power fan and some extra features to make up for itSystem 2: same as system #1, but under $200 and with no flash drive and no need to be fanless.
System 3: is a color text ethernet terminal supporting at least one printer that it makes available to a unix host via lpd protocol. under $150 (hopefully much less, at least in large quantities) supports color text and at least 25x80/132 and 43x80/132 resolutions VGA port that supports color CRT and LCD monitors emulates at least vt100/102, ANSI, and PC TERM supports telnet/ssh via 10bT ethernet port at least one parallel, serial, or USB port for a printer and LPD (RFC 1179) support
Complete system solutions I have found so far, for those that are looking for the same:
Seems to support all requirements for either #1 or #2, depending on configuration, but I don't know about power requirements or size.
Again, seems to support all requirements for either #1 or #2, depending on config. I haven't verified pricing yet, but website suggests system configured for #2 would be $195.
looks really slick (very small and low power,) but is priced at least $30 more than their other product above (so might not meet my price requirements,) doesn't have external RS232 and parallel, and may have less computational power (as little as half, but that might not matter.)
their SB150 looks like it might meet all the requirements for system #2, but I can't tell for sure, and haven't had a response to my emails.
The NTAVO 6010A looks like it might meet all requirements for system #3 and only lacks RAM to meet reqs for #2, but it looks like it might be a proprietary solution that only works with their server hardware and not with open standards. Anyone know?
has iBox slim and deck mini-PCs. I think an iBox Slim PC could meet the requirements for system #1 (at $209 plus shipping,) coupled with an IDE flash drive (around $30-$40, I think) or bootable USB drive ($20 or so, but the bios might not support booting from USB even if the pen drive does.) It might run a tiny bit over the $250 limit, I don't know how much power it consumes, and it has fans. The iBox Deck PC has no fans but is $10 more.
Build my own:
I've searched around and found a couple places where I could buy VIA EPIA/Eden motherboards and mini-itx cases at decent prices. It's just amazing how many places there are that have outrageous pricing -- like more than double the lowest dealers. The best price I've found so far is at
-Tim Wilfong snipped-for-privacy@techslinger.com