Aopen gets small in 2008
AOPEN IS REFOCUSING in 2008 on small form factor products (SFF). It had a variety of cases, mounts and mobos to offer just about anything you need, Intel, AMD or Via in a mini box.
The first step is picking your mobo, and Aopen has both Intel and AMD offerings in mini-ITX form factors. The Intel one on the left is an i965GM-DG board that takes most modern Intel mobile parts. On the left we have the nMCP68PVNt-HD, an AMD Socket AM2 board based on an Nvidia chipset.
If you want something to plug them in to, Aopen has the cases for you, with three sizes avai;able. They range from the baby bear S120 to the mama bear S130 to the papa bear S140. Each is slightly bigger than the last, offers more bays, slots, risers and everything else you would expect from a marginally bigger case. There is even an S150 that resembles a half Shuttle box.
They all have a rather innovative cooling solution, the fans are at the sides, and both the left and right panel are mesh. You can see this pretty well in the S120 above, a couple of low speed fans on each side will provide more airflow than you need. The larger cases are similar in construction, and all can have external PSUs.
One other nice touch about the S120 is that it is stackable. You can either make a tower cluster or add storage and other modules. There is no connection between the boxes, but they do slot together neatly. Since airflow is sideways, you can drape cables with impunity and not overheat things.
If you are looking for some more style, check out these wooden cases. If you want to have a set top box or computer in a public area, these are a much better option than black steel. If I had to guess, I would suspect they are going to sell like mad to hotels in Asia.
Should you not want your case visible to the world, AOpen can help you there as well. There were plenty of brackets and mounts for all their cases, you can stick them just about anywhere you want, the sideways cooling makes them all the easier to place.
They also had a bunch of barebones models and complete systems as well. If you don't need the power of a Core Number Numeral CPU, or you want really low power, they even had several Via C7 machines, many of which were fanless.
Overall, there were a ton of SFF goodies at the booth. No matter what your need, Aopen has a box for you, Intel, AMD or Via, small, smaller or smallest. µ
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This left, or your other left? Either Intel or DAAMIT is going to feel "left" out.
If they run cool and work well with TV-Tuners they can serve as a good platform for building media centric boxes.
Finally someone in Taiwan gets it! That is, not everybody wants a giant case with neon lights and plexi windows. It only took how many years after the Mac Mini? 3?
I hope they are not vaporware...
Is it just me or has anyone else thought that an easy solution to making a cost effective SFF system to hook up to a large monitor would be to bring out a laptop without a screen? SFF systems I've seen over the last couple of years seems to cost more than a laptop with similar specs (probably to recoup the design costs). Lose the screen, the battery and possibly even the keyboard and touchpad and you'd be surprised what a decent spec £300 would get you.
i once removed the screen from an old laptop and used it with a monitor stand and a crt...it looked just like a modernized apple //c!! (which was my first computer)