[App_rpt-users] Mini ITX recomendation

[Stephen Rodgers]

Doug Bade wrote:
> Correction;
> The Geeks.com case Ark PI-01 is now 42.99 or so.. I bought 2 on a 
> special last week....
> 
> Doug
> KD8B
> 
> 
> 
> At 09:34 AM 9/22/2009, Doug Bade wrote:
>> I am building 2 systems with Intel D945GCLF2D boards. I have not had
>> them up long enough to say about longevity but the chipset ( the only
>> fan) is of poor quality from intel and I have replaced mine with
>> better aftermarket versions.
>>
>> I am experimenting with CF, Microdrives and SD card OS configs and
>> dropped back to SATA 2 3.5 as it is just plain fast.... I also have a
>> Jetway 945GC board and it has a couple slots and extra usb ports
>> compared to the Intel board... albeit a little larger.. all around
>> 80w power consumption with a sata drive
>>
>> There is a CF embedded install for the D945GCLF2 board and I was able
>> to get it working.. a little learning curve due to the ram based loop
>> file system and remembering to save the configs to make them
>> persistent as save to ram and save to disk are different things ...
>>
>> I am also playing with a ASUS Netbook 900 series and have Allstar
>> loaded on it.. A solid state HD and 3 usb ports allow up to 3
>> repeaters... 199.00 refurb.. and no UPS needed to keep it alive .. No
>> dragging a monitor and keyboard to do local edits.. It is not
>> deployed yet but operational.. It idles at 13% CPU with the 900 mhz
>> celeron M processor... so probably would not run much more than 2 or
>> 3 repeaters that were busy....
>>
>> Later Netbooks with SSD and an Atom CPU would probably do better with
>> 230 or 330 cpu's....
>>
>> The Intel board is about $69.00 and 1gb ram is $29.00 or so... Case
>> and CPU vary....I found a nice little rack on Ebay a while back but
>> have not seen them listed lately.. it was about 9 inches deep that I
>> want to order but no experience yet.. about 169.00 with PSU... but tiny......
>>
>> Alternate to that I found some smaller Mini ITX  cases from GEEKS for
>> $37.00 ea that come with a 380w PSU and are 13 " deep, not rack but
>> small enough to fit in my station..
>>
>> Doug
>> KD8B
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> At 11:47 PM 9/21/2009, Scott Weis wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> So what Mini ITX hardware would you all recommend for use at a remote
>>> repeater site. I've heard horror stories about systems overheating and
>>> failing and I would like to try and avoid that.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Scott KB2EAR
>>>
>>>
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It's been my experience that most cases for Mini-itx motherboards are
poorly designed from a thermal standpoint. The best thermal design I've
seen to date is the Casetronic C137 case. It has plenty of ventilation
holes on the top and sides as well as a case fan near the PSU.

Steve
WA6ZFT