Neat mobo/gpu/psu solution for the hardware boxers

[Herc130]

It's a mini ITX formfactor with a built in atom 1.6GHz cpu, 9400 IGP and a 90w psu (also power brick) for $209 (or $20 less for the version without a PSU). Add ram, HDD and an OS and it's good to go. Get a case not much bigger then some external HDD's and stack em up. 6 of these builds will probably be smaller than a single computer for most of us.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500027


http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1268/imagemagicg.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imagemagicg.jpg)


Can stack em up without a case

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/628/atoms0001l.jpg (http://img44.imageshack.us/my.php?image=atoms0001l.jpg)

although I would put a little more spacing between em. Maybe build a simple cover box with fans to hid the stack or get crative. These things are so small (not much bigger then a DVD) and easy to work with.

How well will it run current MMO's? I don't have these, I do run 7 ITX builds though. 6 of them being an AMD solution with a 780G chipset (HD3200 igp) that I used 2400 cpu's with. It runs EQ2 fine at low settings. The other one is a zotac with a 9300 igp (supposedly around 7800gtx performance) that I run with an E8500 cpu...and a GTX260 and don't really know how well it runs EQ2 (with the IGP) since I use it for FSX only. Note: all the ITX boards I use have a PCx16 slot....although for 5 of my builds, I only use the IGP. This board Ilinked does not have any add-on card slots, let alone a PCIe16 lol. But what is cool is that it is owerful enough (pretty sure) to run most current MMO's at low settings and is very energy efficient. If you use "normal" desktops for your hardware boxing, it's very likely that your "normal" desktop burns more watts at idel then these do at load.

[chaosultimamage]

That seems really cool. If you're handy at making stuff, you could make your own rack for those like a server rack. Have them all stacked up and be able to pull them out separately.

Those are a bit more expensive than I thought they'd be just at a glance, but that's still cheaper than building 5 individual rigs.

[Basilikos]

I'll have to look over those more closely. I had a few shuttle PCs that were running my other four clients, but I gave up on them and bought other cases and motherboards. EACH of the shuttles had the same problems, just at random times. Not starting, and other things related to not starting. I'd be concerned about the quality of any processor/motherboard combo that uses anything too far off the beaten path of proven hardware.

But like I said, I'll have to look over them a little more.

[Bovidae]

Why would you buy that when you can buy these for the same price?
The Eco-Boxer wants to lower his carbon footprint by consuming less power, maybe???

My desk is the most power hungry device in my house, even more so than my refrigerator.

[Gares]

You actually get off your computer!! NEVA!

[Lax]

Why would you buy that when you can buy these for the same price?
The Eco-Boxer wants to lower his carbon footprint by consuming less power, maybe???

My desk is the most power hungry device in my house, even more so than my refrigerator.Eco-boxer! Multi-boxing is the antithesis of eco-friendly, especially when running 5x the hardware. Granted, if you can run all 5 on less power than you would have consumed otherwise, then good call.

But, on topic, interesting idea. I definitely would not expect excellent performance in EQ2 on one. It technically is above the stated minimum requirements to play, but it will be noticeably slow. If you don't mind the performance hit from using what is essentially a low-end PC, then I'd say it's a good hardware boxing solution.