all in one motherboards

[rudeboymcc]

hi. at the moment i have my pc near my tv so i can watch divx on tv. but it's very annoying and doesn't look too good with the monitor there as well (wasite space). so i'm trying to build a very small pc.

i'd just like to know what all in one motherboards are like and if they are stable. i've just roughly searched on eBay and found one. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3402612046&category=30137

(btw, i'm not selling it, just want people to know what i'm talking about).

it has a video card, sound, lan, modem, and all the standard usb +parallel. all i'd have to do is buy a processor and a case, a cordless desktop and that's it!

so i'd like to know how these compare with atx motheboards with everything seperate (ie all on pci cards). will the all in one be more stable seen as all the stuff is made to be in one?

[DaveEL]

Take a look at this
http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=163
sounds like what you want.

Im not sure about the sis chipset on that mothboard you pointed out but ive heard a lot of good things about the nforce2 chipset (which is what this thing has), but it is still relatively new.

BTW this really should have been posted in the hardware section.

DaveEL

[rudeboymcc]

thanks for the link, but i've already looked there. it's USA based, i'm in the UK.

btw, why should it be in the hardware section? it's an avi player i'm trying to make.

anyway, i really want to do this myself and have been doing a lot of research abaout it.

[DaveEL]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
thanks for the link, but i've already looked there. it's USA based, i'm in the UK.


im in the uk too i found it at http://www.overclockers.co.uk.



btw, why should it be in the hardware section? it's an avi player i'm trying to make.


this forum is mainly about software players and your question was basically is this motherboard any good.


anyway, i really want to do this myself and have been doing a lot of research abaout it.

all this box is is a motherboard with loads of stuff built in (like the one you posted) and a nice small case the rest is up to you.

DaveEL

[rudeboymcc]

thanks they're really cheap on that site.

[avih]

i bought exactly the same board (the sis 730 one) for my gf. it's a decent one for office activity. it plays films ok (on the monitor). no tv-out. don't expect to play games with this display chipset. other than that, it's working. regarding the 64M on board, it uses some of the main memory for the agp chipset. again, i would buy this board for "plain" users. for gaming or tv-out, use nvidia or ati card and not the onboard one.

cheers.

[rudeboymcc]

i've decided to go with the shuttle mini pc. i've looked everywhere, and noone has said anything bad about them. thanks for all the info guys.

[DaveEL]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
i've decided to go with the shuttle mini pc. i've looked everywhere, and noone has said anything bad about them. thanks for all the info guys.

See i told you it sounded like what you wanted :D

DaveEL

[theReal]

I guess you already bought that PC now, but if not, why don't you take a look at the Kiss standalone players:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=3601

Seems like they play all kinds of Divx, also 3.11

[DaveEL]

The thing is although the kiss machine will play most things (it doesnt play some of the mpeg-4 advanced simple profile features i believe) a pc will play them all. Plus the pc is easy to upgraded to support new stuff. divx6 for example is it is supposed to be released in 2004 and a pc willl get instant support. hardware players will 1) need to be replaced 2) divx6 wont be supported by hardware players till 2005 according to divx networks.

DaveEL

[tobo99]

http://www.mini-itx.com

The Epia M cards plays DVD/DivX just fine and are really small (17x17cm), there are several cases fit for the mini-itx standard that are really sweet and smaller than a normal dvd player. Put a nice frontend like www.myhtpc.net on it and you will have the neatest dvd player in town.

Well that is what i have done... ;)

[rudeboymcc]

they're so small!! the size of a car radio!!!

can you check that second link it says it's just been registered but there's no website.

[tobo99]

previous post edited

[theReal]

From what I've read, it seems you definitely need one of the boards with a new Nehemia-Core C3 processor to play DVDs.

The other C3 variants are hardly powerful enough to play medium resolution Divx. The Nehemia Core seems promising, though (good performance in the range between a Pentium III 750 and Athlon 900 with PC100 SDRAM, at least for memory performance, look here (http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=77&page=2))

[rudeboymcc]

tobo 99 thanks

the Real ,i've currently got an Athlon 800 mhz pc on an ATX mobo with 384mb SD ram, and i can play Divx no problem. some of via's all in one "micro-itx" mobo's go up to 1ghz, so i think it's enough. it should be faster than m yone right? along with 512 mb DDR.

[rudeboymcc]

@tobo99, i don't understand what that program is for. it looks nice, but what does it do. can i boot that program so i won't need windows? or is it run in windows?

[theReal]

the Real ,i've currently got an Athlon 800 mhz pc on an ATX mobo with 384mb SD ram, and i can play Divx no problem. some of via's all in one "micro-itx" mobo's go up to 1ghz, so i think it's enough. it should be faster than m yone right? along with 512 mb DDR. The new C3 systems only feature DDR RAM because it is already cheaper than SDRAM nowadays.

Look at the benchmarks from the link in my last post: the new 1GHz Nehemia C3 is now about as fast as a 1GHz P3 with PC100 SDRAM - the older C3 systems (Ezra Core), even the one with 933MHz, were hopelessly slow - more like a PII 400 with slow RAM...

[tobo99]

myhtpc can work as a frontend when you boot up your machine, it runs in windows but you don't need to see windows at all, it's made to run on a tv and is very configurable, you can also make it to work with a remotecontroller.

The Epia M 933/1000 is enough to run dvd/divx and emulators, sure the new core will run faster but i guess it will also be more expensive.

[rudeboymcc]

@tobo99,
can you still access other programs in windows, like if you wanted to type a word document or something?

@theReal
thanks for clearing that up. i think i'll wait until i find a mini-itx with a p4 slot.

[theReal]

thanks for clearing that up. i think i'll wait until i find a mini-itx with a p4 slot. The problem with that will be that you'll need a stronger PSU and a better cooler for a P4. That means it's all getting louder and you probably need a bigger case.

btw. VIA doesn't make the ITX boards with a CPU socket, only with onboard CPUs because a socket takes up too much space on the small ITX design...

[tobo99]

ofcourse you can access regular windows programs, it's still windows...

[rudeboymcc]

good point the real. thanks tobo.

well if i'm going ok now with an athlon 800, when i'm riping dvd's ok and easily playing them, then i don't htink i'll have any problems withe via's 1ghz mini-itx. to think this mobo can fit in a car stereo!! i may try and make the whole pc fit in. all i'll need is a slimline dvd crwriter combo, and an external psu. correct? hek i may even take a sony car stereo and use that as a case.