The SFF barebones PCs I don't like less than the others

In the last post, I heartily rejected the long-term practicality of small-form-factor (SFF) barebones PCs.  In particular, I was ragging on my old box that's stuck in the past, nearly un-upgradeable.  The problem is the motherboard and chassis are a custom pair, so I can't just browse for a new motherboard online to attach a more modern CPU to.  Okay, that's one problem - the other is that mine is a hot, loud pentium 4 rig that I don't really want to use as a 100 watt router, firewall, or severely space-limited home server.  But...

If you're dead-set on a small-form-factor barebones PC, the current line-up of processors provide a little bit of future proofing.  Today's SSF barebones PC contenders seem to be ASUS, MSI, and Shuttle for the most part.  There are others of course, but these are currently the most widely available. 

There are a few I kind of like and with an AMD AM2 socket or Intel LGA775 socket (with a chipset for the core CPUs, like core 2 duo or quad core processors, rather than the old P4 and D units)  motherboard you can run them fast and hot now with a powerful processor and then when that fast and hot turns into slow and hot in a few years, you can swap in a low wattage CPU like the AMD Athlon/Sempron LE with their 45 watt TDP or the Intel Conroe-L Celeron with its 35 watt TDP.  With a processor from one of these lines you can drop the power consumption down to around 50 watts or so and be fairly comfortable using it as a file server or something else that runs around the clock in the background.  Somehow I doubt these barebones come with truly tweak-able BIOSes but if so, you could potentially undervolt the processor even further and see a box with a Conroe-L Celeron (420/430/440) get down to 40 watts or so.  Add an eSATA controller card and you can pair it with an external hard drive box and make a reasonable file/media server.

Sadly, I haven't really noticed anything new in the the SFF department recently.  Shuttle has kept up with the development curve fairly well but makes a pretty formulaic box.  The rigs I see on offer from MSI and ASUS are the same ones that have been around for the last couple of years.  

In terms of making purchasing decisions, I'd probably go with a motherboard with decent on-board video capabilities.  The AM2 socket and Nvidia chipset with GeForce 6150 make for a solid choice and provide DVI and VGA dual monitor support.  The more powerful integrated graphics route will let you run the box cooler, less cramped, and yet still be relevant.  If your idea is to end up with a headless box for server purposes then the graphics chipset doesn't really matter and the weaker graphics processing unit might cut down on power consumption.  Low-end video cards are pretty cheap too and still out-perform the IGP unit so you can be fairly well served with a low-profile Nvidia 8400 GT or ATI 2400 XT.

There are a few barebones I kind of like - namely the ASUS T3, P1, and P3.

I actually prefer the ASUS T3 in black, but it's only listed in old, weak Intel garb at newegg and the pictures are difficult to make out.  The AM2 socket ASUS T3 offers DVI and dual monitor support out of the box.  I have used the Nvidia GeForce 6150 for an HTPC build I put together last year.  The latest Nvidia drivers really bet a lot of milage out of the 6150 IGP setup, that HTPC has both a 720p LCD HDTV and a 22" LCD monitor (1680x1050) connected and runs HD from a PCI tuner pulling in over-the-air HD without much issue.  The P3 also has an onboard eSATA port on the rear I/O panel, which is a big plus for storage expansion. 

The ASUS P1 can be had with a similar AM2 socket motherboard with the 6150 on-board video including DVI and dual monitor capability.  It's very similar to the T3's motherboard offering but lacks the eSATA.  Both the T3 and P1 have only two expansion card slots but they are full height.

The P3 is similar to the P1 but a little more professional looking and with four low-profile expansion slots rather than 2 full-height like the P3 it has a bit more expandability.  I find the shuttle stuff a bit over-priced and the current line-up of MSI stuff a little bland.  And watch out for anything that doesn't have a gigabit LAN port.

I think I've made it clear, I'd personally avoid these little boxes with their non-standard motherboards.  That said, there are some interesting little boxes out there these days and they're much more capable and versatile than mine has ever been.

My first foray into cheap tech was with my first 'laptop' - which was also my first computer purchase in general. It was about ten years ago and I was a frugal college student flush with savings from previous employment. I was looking for the Cadillac Bentley of laptops. Of course, in hindsight, they all sucked but at the time big screens were better and smaller form-factors were still huge. Exhibit A: my AMS Tech Rodeo 3010ECX with it's 14.1" screen (that I don't really show). You may be saying to yourself, "AMS Tech... whaaa?" They were somewhat like the 90's version of http://powernotebooks.com, which basically sells ODM (original design manufacturer) computers as something you've never heard of rather than Dell or Compaq or whatever. And they don't tack on the brand name price either. So I got the best 1998 money could buy for as little money as possible. I think it was about $2100, which was cheap for the very exclusive 14.1" TFT screen and pentium MMX processor. HA!

It actually turned out to be a pretty reliable computer, all things considered. It still works and these are current pics. Sadly, it's pretty useless 10 years on. The power supply has to 'warm up' before it will hold a charge, and since the battery is obviously shot after all this time, there's no buffer anymore.

It's a portly 2.5" from the table to the top of the lid. You can s see in the pic to the left the modem dongle port, the door for the two PCMCIA slots
, the whinny little fan , and power plug.

cd drive and floppy... not sure cd writers even existed back then.





It has this odd little flap that allows for access to just the LPT1 printer port. They also hid a USB port behind
one of the legs... odd but functional.




I don't even know what all these ports do anymore. The only one we need these days from this selection is the USB, but this one is a 1.0 version. I imagine in another 10 years our laptops port line-up will be similar to the Macbook Air's - but with functionality.


It even came with a 'handsome' case. A little IBM red-look there.

Honestly, it was the biggest waste. I guess I used it for about four years. What a time-suck. I guess I got mild value out of it in that I could work at home, but I could have saved massively had I just gotten a desktop. I never took it anywhere. I actually packed it up every day and put in the closet so someone walking through the house wouldn't be tempted (we left our doors and windows open 24/7, even with the house empty for the day - and never had a single thing stolen).

It was the first misadventure, but definitely not the last...