Does anybody know anything about Stowmarket based Linitx.com? A Linux company that does mini-ITX stuff.
Tarquin Mills wrote:
Does anybody know anything about Stowmarket based Linitx.com? A Linux company that does mini-ITX stuff.
Never heard of them, but I do know (now) their website doesn't work in Mozilla...
Cheers, Laurie.
Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com writes:
Tarquin Mills wrote:
Does anybody know anything about Stowmarket based Linitx.com? A Linux company that does mini-ITX stuff.
Never heard of them, but I do know (now) their website doesn't work in Mozilla...
(It seemed to work OK for me though I didn't scratch very deeply.)
I've been wondering about a mini-ITX system for a while now - some particular things that would be important for us would be:
* plenty of disk space * sound supported in Linux * play DVDs, preferrably to a TV * ability to connect some kind of backup device and use it from Linux (in particular I have travan tapes already)
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/hush.asp looked interesting but a bit of Googling for the chipset used left some doubt in my mind about sound support from Linux. (I suppose I could use a separate sound card until Linux catches up if that's really a problem, but I might want to use the PCI slot for something else - for instance to connect a backup device.)
If anyone has any recommendations for or against given the above requirements that'd be interesting.
Hi Richard
Apart from concerns about the availabilty of useable drivers for the Castlerock video chipset, you might also want to check out the status of the network drivers. I have been in communication with someone using one of these mini MoBo's and we have concluded that the via-rhine (and similar) drivers do not work at present.
I would strongly recommend doing a hands on evaluation using one of the latest Live CD distros to see if there are any problems with the drivers.
Regards, Paul.
On Tuesday 22 July 2003 9:59 pm, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
If anyone has any recommendations for or against given the above requirements that'd be interesting.
Alternatively have a look at Shuttle PC's Their bear-bones kits are some of the best I have ever come across.
This is going to be in a different price range to the Mini ITX stuff, but you get a lot more horsepower, the ability to add an AGP graphics card (if the pretty impressive intergrated graphics don't suit) 6 ch sound and almost every interface you can think of.
Not tried it myself yet, but apparently Linux plays nicely with almost everything on the Shuttle (I heard that RH 9 just "goes on and works")
Two versions, one supporting up to 3.0 GHZ HT P4 and one AMD version based on the nforce chipset (this one is probably not as Linux friendly at the moment)
I just built two for a client, and while not AS quiet as an epia mini itx the temperature controlled heat pipe thermal system for case/processor fan does an excellent job of keeping the noise down to the absolute minimum.
The via/epia Mini ITX machines are very cheap to build and as a web browser/media server do a reasonable job, but the processor absolutely sucks at floating point and AFAIK there is not enough go to do Tivo like activities.
The Shuttle on the other hand gives you Desktop PC performance in a nice quiet and neat form factor. All be it at a much higher price (than a Mini ITX system).
Sorry that sounds like an advert, but honestly they are good.
Regards Wayne
>
Alternatively have a look at Shuttle PC's Their bear-bones kits are some of the best I have ever come across. ....... The via/epia Mini ITX machines are very cheap to build and as a web browser/media server do a reasonable job, but the processor absolutely sucks at floating point and AFAIK there is not enough go to do Tivo like activities. <<<<<<<<
All very true, but mini-ITX was never designed to replace regular desktop PC, more as an appliance where a modern PC is way overkill. I'm about to take a pile of them to central China for use in a radio station to control digital audio switching; thanks to Linux they'll never even announce their presence.
The VIA boards, being small and quiet, have sparked a lot of interest in small, quiet PC, but that's really another story and not a fair comparison. Compare them instead with industrial PCs costing many times as much and offering no more. For example, the Geode-based boards from Arcom at £350 or so each. That 300MHz processor really sucks; it feels more like a 486/50.
-- GT
The shuttles are nice we use them for Win2k and Linux Webservers, no problem. We also use the iWill machines which are a lot cheaper than the Shuttles (try http://www.redstar.co.uk/) they sell the iWills and the Shuttles.
Regards,
Michael
-----Original Message----- From: main-admin@lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main-admin@lists.alug.org.uk]On Behalf Of Wayne Stallwood Sent: 23 July 2003 10:13 To: main@lists.alug.org.uk Subject: Re: [Alug]LinITX
Alternatively have a look at Shuttle PC's Their bear-bones kits are some of the best I have ever come across.
This is going to be in a different price range to the Mini ITX stuff, but you get a lot more horsepower, the ability to add an AGP graphics card (if the pretty impressive intergrated graphics don't suit) 6 ch sound and almost every interface you can think of.
Not tried it myself yet, but apparently Linux plays nicely with almost everything on the Shuttle (I heard that RH 9 just "goes on and works")
Two versions, one supporting up to 3.0 GHZ HT P4 and one AMD version based on the nforce chipset (this one is probably not as Linux friendly at the moment)
I just built two for a client, and while not AS quiet as an epia mini itx the temperature controlled heat pipe thermal system for case/processor fan does an excellent job of keeping the noise down to the absolute minimum.
The via/epia Mini ITX machines are very cheap to build and as a web browser/media server do a reasonable job, but the processor absolutely sucks at floating point and AFAIK there is not enough go to do Tivo like activities.
The Shuttle on the other hand gives you Desktop PC performance in a nice quiet and neat form factor. All be it at a much higher price (than a Mini ITX system).
Sorry that sounds like an advert, but honestly they are good.
Regards Wayne
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On Wed, 2003-07-23 at 10:13, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Alternatively have a look at Shuttle PC's Their bear-bones kits are some of the best I have ever come across.
<snip>
WARNING on this
According to a recent post on the RH Install list (I'll look for it if you insist :p) the latest releases of Shuttle PCs aren't Linux friendly. The poster had to find a source of previous-generation Shuttles to complete his project.
On Thursday 24 July 2003 05:19, Tony Dietrich wrote:
On Wed, 2003-07-23 at 10:13, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Alternatively have a look at Shuttle PC's Their bear-bones kits are some of the best I have ever come across.
<snip>
WARNING on this
According to a recent post on the RH Install list (I'll look for it if you insist :p) the latest releases of Shuttle PCs aren't Linux friendly. The poster had to find a source of previous-generation Shuttles to complete his project.
Well the SS51 should be fine, as should the SB61G2 (which is AFAIK the new one).
However as I said the new NForce AMD units could be a bit tricky as is NForce in general. Fantastic chipset the NForce, just avoid it if you want to run Linux (at the moment).
I think the RH poster was referring to the old vs new AMD units
On Tuesday, July 22 , 2003, at 09:59 PM, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com writes:
Tarquin Mills wrote:
Does anybody know anything about Stowmarket based Linitx.com? A Linux company that does mini-ITX stuff.
Never heard of them, but I do know (now) their website doesn't work in Mozilla...
(It seemed to work OK for me though I didn't scratch very deeply.)
Site works fine when I ordered stuff from them and it is fine at the moment.
I've been wondering about a mini-ITX system for a while now - some particular things that would be important for us would be:
- plenty of disk space
- sound supported in Linux
- play DVDs, preferrably to a TV
- ability to connect some kind of backup device and use it from Linux (in particular I have travan tapes already)
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/hush.asp looked interesting but a bit of Googling for the chipset used left some doubt in my mind about sound support from Linux. (I suppose I could use a separate sound card until Linux catches up if that's really a problem, but I might want to use the PCI slot for something else - for instance to connect a backup device.)
Use the VIA sound module in the kernel (which is AC97 I believe) (OSS and ALSA works). Don't bother about playing DVDs on the machine. Your results will show it will turn out to be crap. If you want to watch DVDs, get a dvd player.
As for disk spaces. Make sure you get some hdd that contains an 8mb cache. And don't get western digital since people are reporting problems with them. Maxtor and ebuyer.com is your choice. You can at least put 2 hdds in the mini itx depending on which case you are going to get. My case is:
http://linitx.com/shop/product_info.php/cPath/8/products_id/125
It is a real nice case but from time to time it is noticeably _loud_. I took it to part a couple of months ago, clear the dust that got stuck in some places and it is probably quieter than before ;) (As far as my housemate reported.....)
Kernel? Here you go:
Linux castle 2.5.73-mm1 #1 Thu Jun 26 13:47:57 BST 2003 i686 VIA Ezra CentaurHauls GNU/Linux
And it has been up for a solid 26 days and it is running Gentoo Linux which is far better for the box since everything is compiled specifically for the VIA Ezra CPU. Using the 2.5 kernel gave the box further justice. Thanks to the anticipatory scheduling elevator. Noticeable differences are spotted in mplayer playing divx movies (when things slow down, 2.5 sorts this out where 2.4 just merely struggle).
I think that is enough information unless you want more ;)
C
On Tuesday, July 22, 2003, at 06:15 PM, Tarquin Mills wrote:
Does anybody know anything about Stowmarket based Linitx.com? A Linux company that does mini-ITX stuff.
Very good company. I bought the case and the motherboard from there. So so tiny! Tv-out isn't so bad in Linux thanks to the guy allowing me to test out his hacked up driver.
Make sure you stick a hdd that has an 8mb cache onboard in it. It actually helps if you want to watch a movie.
I need a new hdd for the mini itx badly. My housemate and I are filling it up with too much 'stuff' as usual on our ADSL line ;)
C
Does anybody know anything about Stowmarket based Linitx.com? A Linux company that does mini-ITX stuff.
Very good company. I bought the case and the motherboard from there. So so tiny! Tv-out isn't so bad in Linux thanks to the guy allowing me to test out his hacked up driver.
Are these TV drivers generally available? I tried to get Linux to give me a stable picture out of an EPIA5000 about a year ago and failed miserably. Haven't tried since but I wouldn't mind picking it up again. For the past year the machine has been my living room audio playout box (controlled by a Zaurus using wi-fi) and as it sits under the TV it'd be good to shovel all my digital photos into it and get it to run slide shows etc.
-- GT
On Tue, Jul 22, 2003 at 09:58:26PM +0100, Graham Trott wrote:
Are these TV drivers generally available? I tried to get Linux to give me a stable picture out of an EPIA5000 about a year ago and failed miserably. Haven't tried since but I wouldn't mind picking it up again. For the past year the machine has been my living room audio playout box (controlled by a Zaurus using wi-fi) and as it sits under the TV it'd be good to shovel all my digital photos into it and get it to run slide shows etc.
The TV drivers are more than generally available, apparently the quality of the TV-out on the Epia M 5000 is abysmal (never tried mine connected to a tele so know not of gfx or sound) although later Bios versions apparently improve the tv-out but it is still not great. You could build a vga > rgb cable and work out the timings in the X-Windows config yourself (but you may blow your tele up if you get it wrong) to get it working through an rgb scart lead or similar.
Oh, and the lan in my epia m 5000 works fine, well all the hardware does but I don't know about gfx or sound as I use mine as a router.
Adam
On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 21:58:26 +0100 "Graham Trott" gt@pobox.com wrote:
Does anybody know anything about Stowmarket based Linitx.com? A
Linux> company that does mini-ITX stuff.
Very good company. I bought the case and the motherboard from there. So so tiny! Tv-out isn't so bad in Linux thanks to the guy allowing me to test out his hacked up driver.
Are these TV drivers generally available? I tried to get Linux to give me a stable picture out of an EPIA5000 about a year ago and failed miserably. Haven't tried since but I wouldn't mind picking it up again. For the past year the machine has been my living room audio playout box (controlled by a Zaurus using wi-fi) and as it sits under the TV it'd be good to shovel all my digital photos into it and get it to run slide shows etc.
-- GT
I was googling about on this subject because
Sells "silent" computers (Well only the hard drive and cdrom have moving parts)
and since I dont like my computers making noise it was a plan for an upgrade to my desktop, and since I am a total ssh remote computing convert this seemed like a good idea, until I discovered that the VIA chip-set is so slow for clock cycles that a 400MHz CPU is equivalent to a 1000Mhz using the Nehemiah M10000 Mother board, fine but I wanted to move forward from my Zalman (heatsinks and fans) based system
The other thing is that to make DVD playback possible it is all done in hardware to avoid stutters, meaning that the upgrade will get me to the situation I am already in, to slow to play DVD's on the desktop. Particularly when DVD playback hardware is not supported under Linux.
I love the idea of a smaller size of computers. Maybe one day the modern PC will be the size of a Sinclair Spectrum and make the same noise when running but without over heating.
Please tell us what hard ware you have got working as I am still interested in low mozing parts computing.
Regards
Owen
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On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 03:19:16AM +0100, owen. churchcowley wrote:
The other thing is that to make DVD playback possible it is all done in hardware to avoid stutters, meaning that the upgrade will get me to the situation I am already in, to slow to play DVD's on the desktop. Particularly when DVD playback hardware is not supported under Linux.
there is linux DVD playback hardware http://dxr3.sourceforge.net/index.html it appears to have moved on a bit since I last looked. Of course you could always get a 2 x pci card riser and slap that into a mini-itx box to get a hardware dvd decoder and something else.
Adam PS I have never used or seen a dxr3, so they could in all reality be crap.
On Wednesday 23 July 2003 08:23, abower@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
there is linux DVD playback hardware http://dxr3.sourceforge.net/index.html it appears to have moved on a bit since I last looked. Of course you could always get a 2 x pci card riser and slap that into a mini-itx box to get a hardware dvd decoder and something else.
Adam PS I have never used or seen a dxr3, so they could in all reality be crap.
I have one sitting in my machine right here. The Creative dxr3 and the Sigma Hollywood plus are the same thing (I have the hollywood)
Works well under Xine (and actually probably anything else as it sits in /dev and you can just stream mpeg to it)
The output is as good as any low/mid range DVD player I have seen.
However, So far I have been unable to get the sound output working in Linux. Sound will come from the PC speakers fine, but not the audio out on the hollywood that's plugged into my TV. I think the drivers are supposed to support sound so it's probably just me.
The great thing is that because most of the hard work is done by the card's RISC chip there is almost nothing I can do to the PC that will cause the video to skip or stutter.
If you do decide to install one here is an important tip.
Bin the VGA loopthrough ! it's only needed to play back DVD's on the monitor (which is pointless as my machine can do that pretty well anyway). It screws up your screen clarity (if like me you run at a respectable resolution) and intermittently it turns off your screen at boot.
I must admit since moving my PC out of the living room the only thing I use it for is watching Region 1 DVD's on a big screen (As my Living room DVD player needs an expensive mod chip to accomplish this)
I must admit since moving my PC out of the living room the only thing I use it for is watching Region 1 DVD's on a big screen (As my Living room DVD player needs an expensive mod chip to accomplish this)
Hrmm.. which brand is it? As far as I know for my dvd player, I have to go and buy one of those 'all in one' remote and do the hack from there.
Wouldn't dare think of trying it but hey, I might as well get an new one since the guarantee ends soon ;)
C
On Wednesday 23 July 2003 18:18, Craig wrote:
Hrmm.. which brand is it? As far as I know for my dvd player, I have to go and buy one of those 'all in one' remote and do the hack from there.
Sony NC 615
Wasn't my choice ( I would have done some research and bought a easily modified one ) It was a freebie from a Supplier.
Ironically the £79.99 Argos special it replaced was easily modified via a couple of codes on the remote. I gave it away before checking on the mod for the Sony
Doh !
On Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at 08:38 PM, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Wednesday 23 July 2003 18:18, Craig wrote:
Hrmm.. which brand is it? As far as I know for my dvd player, I have to go and buy one of those 'all in one' remote and do the hack from there.
Sony NC 615
Wasn't my choice ( I would have done some research and bought a easily modified one ) It was a freebie from a Supplier.
Ironically the £79.99 Argos special it replaced was easily modified via a couple of codes on the remote. I gave it away before checking on the mod for the Sony
Doh !
Heh.
For the interest of ALUG.. take a look at this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/ index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=50009
Smart eh?
C
On Tuesday, Jul 22, 2003, at 18:15 Europe/London, Tarquin Mills wrote:
Does anybody know anything about Stowmarket based Linitx.com? A Linux company that does mini-ITX stuff.
Yes, we bought a board from them late last year or early this year, can't remember which. No problems, anyway.
..Adrian
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abower＠thebowery.co.uk -
Adrian F. Clark -
Craig -
Graham Trott -
Laurie Brown -
Michael Sage -
owen.churchcowley -
Paul -
Richard Kettlewell -
Tarquin Mills -
Tony Dietrich -
Wayne Stallwood