Faster isn’t always better

Published on 2002-11-19 by Mark VandeWettering

It’s been about a year since I put together my last computer, a small system based upon
Shuttle’s SpaceWalker SV24 motherboard and
case. In most respects I rather like the machine, which has a DVD drive, an 800Mhz
Celeron and is small (only 7x8x10 inches). But I do have a couple of caveats:

• The system is actually fairly noisy (mostly from the fans)
  • The video quality is fairly poor (pixels appear soft).
  Strangely enough, I don’t feel like there is a huge need for additional speed. For my usual mix of
  gaming, program development and web browsing, an 800Mhz machine seems just fine. So lately
  I’ve been considering going to a small, reasonably priced and quiet machine, and my
  research has lead me to mini-itx.com. Via has
  begun to make a small 180mm square motherboard and chip combo that sells for 100 bucks or
  so and can be passively cooled (no fan!) because the main chip only draws 2.8 watts. Pretty
  damned nifty! I suspect I might find one of these under the tree this christmas to make a new
  desktop box for my office. I should be able to hide my webserver box in a closet somewhere,
  and then have a very quiet office.