mainboard that seems good for some possible EMC developments

[John Griessen <john_g-at-cibolo.com>]

At Fry's the other day,

I saw they carry a new VIA EPIA-M mainboard that is aimed at
entertainment center use as a VCR-like setup.  It has firewire onboard,
and nice video controller and a 10/100 ethernet NIC onboard and DDR 2100
memory slot for $159  The VIA C3-e-series processor clocks at 900MHz and
only has a tiny processor fan, so it could be mounted in a sealed
dust-tight box with heat exchange fins on it to conduct away the heat
stirred up by the tiny internal fan...  A Seagate 40MB drive bragging of
very quiet (and likely low heat) operation from Fry's was $60 on sale. 
The DDR memory was $70/256MB and $9 for a a memory heat sink clip on,
even though this will not run fast enough to need really...(think hot
shop ambient temps though).  This mainboard has a system sensor chip to
output the processor and case temperature easily to your software, and
all is checked out for Linux.

Total so far before considering cases is:

159 +
60 +
70 +
9 =
298

The power required by one hard drive and this mainboard is
workable with the two part supplies that are made for mini-cases.
They have a wall wart transformer/rectifier, and a regulator board, so
all the transformer losses make heat outside your computer box.

The heat that needs to be conducted out of a sealed computer enclosure
is just the mainboard, hard drive and the regulator part of the power
supply.

I have not got a good price for these mini-itx case supplies separate
from the cases, or for the cases, since I am not sure they could be
sealed up well short of using dict tape, and I'm allergic to duct tape.
I think the mini-itx cases with the supplies are around $70..

Another way to think of doing this is with a filtered air intake on a 
standard mini-itx case with the fan powered from the mainboard fan
connectors where the system health monitor chip will allow  a shutdown
signal if the fan stops.

I am going to be looking for ways to have a sealed computer box though
-- with few as possible moving parts.

VIA also makes a EPIA fanless mainboard that runs slower, but no
firewire on board.  (that could go on the one PCI slot of that mainboard

John Griessen
Austin TX