Small, powerful, fanless and ... priced right

I've been looking all over for Mini-ITX systems -- with smaller motherboards than even mini-ATX -- and have been disappointed by the prices. Seems that it costs about $400 to put together a decent system.

The problem is that there are two ways to go -- regular "small" 200-watt power supply (with a fan) and either fan-cooled or fanless CPU, or a totally fanless system with lower power consumption and ... silence. Not that I notice the fan in my Dell (I'm in a newsroom, you know -- it's not silent here), but the idea of being able to, with good conscience, leave a computer running all the time and not burning off a lot of power, well, it makes a fanless, low-wattage system all the more attractive.

The places I've found that offer such miniature systems include Cappuccino PC, iDOTpc and the Damn Small Linux Store.

Now, you might say, "Why not just get a laptop?" That's a very legitimate question, since a laptop packs the screen, keyboard and mouse into one small package. But there still the fan problem, even the power-consumption problem -- and for a desktop system, why not also have a low-power alternative?

OK, I'll admit -- it's a geek thing. You gotta geek to understand it.

But back to mini-ITX. There certainly are Intel processors in the mini-ITX world, but the space, small as it is, literally and otherwise, is owned by Via Technologies, the company that created it. Since quasi-thin-client and other non-traditional uses, such as home-theater management, are common applications for mini-ITX, and since quiet, fanless construction is encouraged, these boxes, when assembled, are generally not as powerful as regular PCs. Not a lot of 3 GHz chips, meaning.

But many of the mini-ITX systems use processors as slow as 400 MHz ... not the greatest, for sure. And once you get the fan for the traditional power supply, and a fan on the CPU, you might as well do a mini-ATX box for half the price.

Getting to my point ... you can configure these little boxes with internal hard drives, and CD or DVD drives, or you can go diskless and use Compact Flash or Disk on Module internal storage. That's what I'm interested in at this point -- running Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux from a flash drive on a small, silent, power-sipping system. Even the problems with flash memory longevitiy aren't that big if regular backups to an external CD drive are performed. I recently bought a 1 GB Compact Flash chip for $17, and replacing that on a yearly basis is not something I'm totally against. And with a system like Puppy, you only write to the drive once per computing session, so the CF or DOM would last a good long time.

Initially I wanted to have at minimum an internal CD-RW drive, and for that the Cappuccino systems excel. But for real-world use, I think a totally driveless, fanless system -- and one with a little processing power to make it all run good -- is what I want. The best I've seen is the Bargain Fanless Mini-ITX BareBones Computer (pictured above and at right, next to a "big" mini-ITX box) from DSL. Case dimensions are 213 x 45 x 200 mllimeters ... which to you and me is 8.4 x 1.7 x 7.9 inches.

It runs at 1 GHz, yet is still fanless, with a rubberized heat sink that makes contact with the case for additional cooling. A barebones system, it doesn't come with RAM, but does use common DDR memory, which is pretty cheap these days, going for about $30 for 512 MB. It has all the usual connectors (parallel, serial, PS2 for keyboard and mouse, 10/100 LAN, plus mic and audio in, and four USB 2.0 ports. The latter is significant because many of the systems I've seen, especially those destined to be "thin clients," meaning diskless workstations connecting and getting applications via a network, have USB 1.1 only.

I'd run it with Compact Flash as opposed to Disk on Module so the CF chip could be pulled and worked on with a card reader connected to a bigger PC.

The best part: The box costs only $245 ... add $20 for the CF chip, $30 to $70 for your DDR memory stick, and you have a usable fanless system that's about the size of a book. Other systems are comparably priced ... and it's worth checking them out ... but this can get you out the door -- fanless -- for $300 flat. Other than thin clients, it's hard to beat that AND have the 1 GHz processor, which I'm loathe to give up because I want the system to not just be small and efficient, I want it to run well, too. And if I wanted or needed to run a CD or hard drive, they could be hooked up via the USB -- and since this is a Via motherboard, it boots from USB, too.

For comparison's sake, here's a system from Cappuccino PC, the Light 5000 (LT5) 3LAN Fanless Mini PC, measuring 9.2 x 6.9 x 1.9 inches -- and seen at left.. It has a Via processor at 533 MHz, 3 LAN ports (why so many??), 2 USB 1.1 ports, all the other usual inputs, plus interfaces for 40- and 44-pin IDE drives, Disk on Chip and CF capability. The Barebones system is $299. That's without memory or hard drive. You can't add a CD drive on board, but you can stuff a 2.5-inch hard disk in there. Also, there is available Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Putting together a system with only one LAN port (yes, you can do that) saves $30, boosting to 512 MB RAM is $50 (you can probably do better on your own), taking out the HD saves $69, and you are out the door for $380. Add $20 for your CF chip, and that's an even $400. So, let's take away $20 for the memory and say it's $380.

So ... for $300, you get a faster processor and faster USB than you get for $380 ... and that means I've got my eye on the DSL system. Still, should I be all hyped on the fanless aspect, or should I just bite it and get a more mainstream system from iDOTpc, such as the iBox Falcon C3 (pictured in various states of undress below) -- dimensions are 5.31"(W) x 11.75"(H) x 10.24"(D) -- and highly configurable. It does have a more traditional, fan-cooled power supply, with options for motherboards both fan-cooled and fanless. And it can hold both a hard drive and CD or DVD drive -- hey's it's bigger, all right!

The barebones unit is $272. With 600 MHz fanless motherboard, 512 MB RAM, 512 MB Compact Flash (or add your own 1 GB CF for about the same money), the price is $280. Not bad. I'm not sure if both 1 GHz motherboards are fanless, but one of them adds $43 to the price for a total of $307. Pretty good. It's never entirely fanless due to the power supply being a traditional PC type, albeit smaller and rated at 200 watts. But you can add the hard and optical drives, and that makes it more like a traditional PC. At least you have the option -- and you could run a bigger Linux than Puppy or DSL, like Ubuntu, Fedora, or what have you, and get it installed without opening up the box and jumping through hoops. There are many, many more systems available from these three companies, and others are in the mini-ITX business, too. If you're OK spending $400-$700, there are a lot more options. But if you want to go fanless and keep it under $500, I have your best deals right here.