Hi Folks,
Apologies for cross-posting b A project I'm involved with -- setting up an educational display at a local museum, with (modest) Royal Society funding: see
http://www.prickwillow-engine-museum.co.uk
involves installing a wall-mounted screen for animated display under touch-screen control. The cost needs to be reasonable (euphemism for "as cheap as poss, subject to acceptable quality").
One of us has poked around a bit, and found:
[A]"The MSI Wind top AE1900 is the most expensive at £465 ex VAT but has a 19" screen and Windows XP home. Availability is uncertain and it has no wall mount." [PCworld review at http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/61134/review/wind_top_ae1900.html ]
[B]"The Asus ET1602 is 15" widescreen and £355 ex VAT including Windows XP home and is wall mountable though it requires a difficult to source adapter." [PCpro review at http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/desktops/256873/asus-eee-top-et1602 ]
[C]"TheShuttle X50 is 15" widescreen and is available "bare bones", no memory, hard drive, or software. It does have the dual core version of the Atom processor, the others are single core, and does have the industry standard VESA wall mount fixings. With 1GB ram and 160GB hard drive, no operating system it's £379 ex VAT. With Windows XP home it's £415 ex VAT." [PCworld review at http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/55884/review/x50_aio.html ]
There is willingness to use Linux (and some of us know our Linux)!
One issue is that a 15" screen is probably too small for wall mounted display to (e.g.) visiting school groups, so there's interest in the larger screen. Reviews of [A] and [B] are critical of display quality ("the ropey screen" for [B]) and no great enthusiasm overall for any of the three.
If we do go Linux (which I'd like) there'll be an issue of adequate touch-screen drivers for the hardware we actually get. I see that X11 now has quite an array of touch-screen modules, so it possibly might work "out of the box". The reviews (and the home pages) for the three above don't seem to mention what cards/screens they have, so I haven't been able to identify these to the point of being able to cross-check with X11.
So I'd be most obliged is anyone who has experience of any of the above could comment or advise, in the context of our intended use.
Also, advice on Linux-based solutions to the general question of touch-screen boxes with wall-mountable screens, preferably larger than 15-inch, and broadly in the price range £350-450 (we prefer the lower end ... ) would be most welcome.
The guy who poked around wrote: "I would favour the Shuttle X50, we will want a secure wall mount."
With thanks, Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Nov-09 Time: 20:25:11 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
So is having a once piece machine preferable here to something like the Acer Nevo + a separate display ?
For touchscreens, given this is a one off you may want to look towards either surplus EPOS equipment (although size there could be an issue) or displays from surplus pub style quiz machines (which tend to be PC based inside anyway) as a source for the screen...the latter of course will be an internal screen module which would require effort to wallmount/enclose
Most touchscreens I have dealt with tend to behave as a standard mouse with either right click events dealt with in hardware or software as a touch and hold....although I am guessing for this application you could escape the need for right click anyway.
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Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk -
Wayne Stallwood