Linutop feeds mini-PC fans tiny Tux box
Atom snack
French firm Linutop has launched its latest micro desktop: the model 4.
An evolution of the its predecessor rather than a completely new machine, the 4, like the 3, has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of memory and 2GB of Flash storage for Linutop's own custom version of Ubuntu.
Linutop sees the 201 x 182 x 30mm, 936g gadget used as a thin client, but since the 4 has five USB 2.0 ports, dangling extra storage off the back isn't out of the question.
TV-fixable micro media PC anyone?
The 4 has VGA and DVI output, and Gigabit Ethernet for network connectivity. It uses Intel's integrated GMA 950 graphics, so gaming's out, but it should do HD playback.
The box consumes no more than 14W of power, 2W less than the 3. It can be yours for €400 (£349). Full details at the Linutop site. ®
COMMENTS
Economies of scale.
Costs about €80 to make (at most), so there is a hell of a mark-up there OR they don't think they can sell many and haven't managed to get the cost of production down with economies of scale.
Nice, but
perhaps a little too expensive when you can get Acer Revo's or eMachines mini PC thingies for £150 or so.
Seems pretty expensive to me
For what is basically a netbook without the screen or keyboard. No more than £100 would be reasonable. And no HDMI port or SPDIF output = not good for media playback.
A title is required
An Asus one that had a PCI slot (not PCIe), it was the only one I could find with PCI, as I already had a DVB-S2 card which cost a lot......
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_CPU_on_Board/AT3N7AI/
You need to tweek linux to use hardware accel for flash (basically add a file in the right place with a line in it to swtich it on!)
