Topic: Hardware suggestions?

[Dan Brown]

OK, this is probably marginally off-topic--my rationale is that I'm wondering about this hardware to run e-smith on.  I've seen a couple of reviews of the Book-PC (see http://www.amalgamated.com.sg/bookpc.htm for some information), and it sounds like a nice, compact box, but there's only one ethernet port onboard, and no slots.  I'm wondering if there's anything widely available, and preferably cheap, with similar specs.  Specifically, I'd want the size (10 x 12 x 3"), a Socket 7 or 370 M/B, and a PCI slot or two.  Onboard ethernet would be nice, but not essential (NICs are cheap).  Some video would be needed, but not much.  Sound doesn't matter at all, but a parallel port would be good (I just started using my e-smith box as a print server).  I wouldn't even need a CD-ROM drive, as I could borrow one from another machine to do the installation.

Does anybody know of such a beast?  A bare Book-PC can be had for about US$170, including the CD-ROM drive, but not including hard drive, RAM, or CPU.  Any information would be appreciated.

[Darrell May]

Dan Brown wrote:

> OK, this is probably marginally off-topic--my rationale is that
> I'm wondering about this hardware to run e-smith on.  I've seen
> a couple of reviews of the Book-PC (see
> http://www.amalgamated.com.sg/bookpc.htm for some information),
> and it sounds like a nice, compact box, but there's only one
> ethernet port onboard, and no slots.  I'm wondering if there's
> anything widely available, and preferably cheap, with similar
> specs.  Specifically, I'd want the size (10 x 12 x 3"), a
> Socket 7 or 370 M/B, and a PCI slot or two.  Onboard ethernet
> would be nice, but not essential (NICs are cheap).  Some video
> would be needed, but not much.  Sound doesn't matter at all,
> but a parallel port would be good (I just started using my
> e-smith box as a print server).  I wouldn't even need a CD-ROM
> drive, as I could borrow one from another machine to do the
> installation.
>
> Does anybody know of such a beast?  A bare Book-PC can be had
> for about US$170, including the CD-ROM drive, but not including
> hard drive, R....

Here are two possible answers for you to look at:

Microstar MS-6209E NetPC (http://www.msicomputer.com)

Alternately you could build your own box using a small desktop chassis:

http://english.aopen.com/products/housing/h300a.htm

Regards, Darrell

[Dan Brown]

Hmmm, the microstar unit looks pretty nice.  Too bad it's kind of pricey (cheapest I found it for was abuot $260), but it looks like it'd do the job quite nicely.  After posting my initial message, I remembered that I have a Celeron 300 chip sitting around doing nothing at the moment, so that's at least one thing I wouldn't need to buy...  Thanks for the info!