Via's vm7700 bolt-on VESA PC: the modern Prometheus
By Thomas Ricker 
posted October 9th 2007 6:20AM
posted October 9th 2007 6:20AM
posted October 9th 2007 6:20AM
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Aha! Now finally this whole "shoot monitor to kill computer" scene from movies will make sense!
thats the funniest comment i have ever seen on engadget
agreed
@DC 12V I'm thinking ... nice Car PC. Screw putting this behind a monitor. It's slim enough to fit anywhere on a car.
AWESOME :)
/me wants one!
I like the idea of those Airport plamas actually doing something, but I don't think this has much on an integrated solution, although obviously if you already have screens - but they tend to get replaced quite often due to burn in.
Hey it's almost like an iMac! Only... Not as good.
And even if it was as good it still would be anywhere near as good.
- Xidius
... *wouldn't
Actually it's better in some ways because you don't have to throw away your monitor when you buy a new PC
Is anyone else as sick as I am of the whole apple fanboy craze?
I have no problem with engadget publishing 20 apple stories a day, some of them are quite interesting, but seriously can we lay off the whole Apple is better debate in non-apple threads?
Yeah, just like an iMac, but in your choice of OS at probably, oh, 1/3 the price. Also, way cooler, because apple didn't build it for me and tell me how I was supposed to use it. And so forth.
It'll look SO sleek and compact when you add 5 or 8 cables to it.....
Exactly what i was thinking. I hope they include ~8cm VGA cables, otherwise there would be a huge mess behind the pc.
Nice bit of kit, looks pretty handy.
Can you upgrade it?
www.informationaddicts.com
Let's hope it's light, since the frame is made to support a monitor, not a whole computer.
It's pretty cool idea I must admit, but it looks so ugly, and imagine all the cables that'll be hanging from the back of your monitor down (at least 3: power, kb, mouse).
I'd be pretty distracted by this,
actually you could just use a wireless keyboard/mouse that just uses one usb stick for the both of them, then you would only have the power cord, normally monitors have 2 cords anyway so it shouldn't matter.
I've been using "Thin Client" machines like this for about a year now, based on the Via Eden chipset.
For me, they are data collection machines, in locations where I need some processing power but minimal disk and low maintenance. They are fanless, driveless, solid state machines. That means there is very little to fail. Power consumption is very low, and many are driven off block adapters rather than internal power converters. Put one of these on a 30 dollar AVR battery backup like the ones from cyberpower or APC and they can handle a reasonable power outage or run nicely on a generator.
I've been paying right around $500 for a machine that boots XPe and will run just about any Windows 32 bit software; has 512megs of ram, and either 512megs or 1gb of hard disk on board. The 800mhz and 1ghz versions are powerful enough to run some fairly heavy duty audio process. For the geeks out there, I'm doing FFT transforms across a domain size of 4k at 44khz without falling behind or running the process hard enough to be a problem for the passively heated devices.
If you're managing many of them on a local network, there is management software that can re-image and provision the machines centrally. In my case, they are remote and across firewalls, so I don't get that. I use echoServer to run my own version of a "gotomypc" kind of functionality to manage them.
If you're sticking with solid state (no fan, no hard drive) you're at 512megs or 1gig of drive space. I suppose you could use an IDE header to compact flash adapter card (I'm trying that out now with a 4gb compact flash card) on some of these units as well.
Most of the XPe preloads come with citrix and management software on board. Use the management tools rather than the uninstalls to get rid of these if you don't need them. Freeing up enough space to load the .NET Framework 2.x can be tricky in 512 megs of drive space, but it can be done. I think the 1gig drive space allocation is a better balance for the money.
These aren't gaming machines, but they make fine workstations -- ideal for an office or cube farm environment as long as you're not dealing with creative types doing images or programmers who need drive space.
I haven't had a chance to try the embedded linux ones yet, as when I was doing my prototyping I couldn't find good sound support on embedded linux devices. That is now out there as well (same hardware) but I'm further on the project and can't take the time to go back and re-write the data collection tools. A shame, it would be a better solution for me.
Andrew, for your Solid State Hard Drive solution, might I recommend an easier solution? SiliconSystems offers an IDE form factor module. You just mount the module in the IDE header and you can get up to 32G of Solid State hard drive performance. Check them out: http://www.siliconsystems.com/silicondrive/datasheetSiliconDriveModule.aspx
I may put one of those on the back of the ol' Samsung Plasma....
Hmmm....I wonder if this is the machine Fiire (www.fiire.com) is selling for $899. I just bought one of Fiire's remotes for LinuxMCE, but their 1" Media Director was a bit out of my price range.
yeah, same case.
Get an iMac... It looks much better than this...
Considering that it's hiding behind the monitor, and you can choose any VESA mount capable monitor... and the above comment about replacing only the PC or monitor if something goes terribly wrong... Looks be damned. Functionality is where it's at.
"Get an iMac... It looks much better than this..."
Yeah, but you know, it's still a Mac....
I see S-Video and DVI ports, so it could also be used with many LCD TV's. Which opens up the possibility of using it in my home theater as a streaming media box.
Cappucino PC has VESA mounts for most of their systems already. I needed to spec out some digital signage systems for a large electronics store in NYC and went with those initially, and at first glance at least, this seems to have the same specs as those.
Wouldn't it be great if apple took this sorta idea to hand with the iMac? I mean you buy the iMac choose you screen size etc. But the computer itself can be removed from the back to be upgraded easily. That would be freakin' sweet! You would actually be able to get to hard drives, graphics etc. with ease.
No replacing the whole set to get a new system, just the PC components on the back :)
Take a note of this apple....
P.S. I passed my driving theory test today woot!
This totally misconstrues what you mean...
The original iMacs (CRTs) open into two parts: the big plastic boulder of CRT, speakers, power button and such; and a rather compact computer on the bottom. It was a funky motherboard, smaller than mATX, with rounded corners... And a helluva job to get out from the CRT frame. But the RAM, drives, CPU and etcetera were all together in a slab, that shoved under the screen.
You could, then, have taken the whole 'computer' part of a newer iMac, and stick it with an older CRT. That is totally rediculous, though, because the computer part was never sold individually, and those were really rather tedious to work with.
This is an exclusive VIA product limited to sales by strictly VIA Tier 1 Partners. This product was introduced in November of last year, and I'm a bit surprised to see it listed on any type of consumer site. I work for one of the channel partners, so I have some further info for all of those interested.
To answer some of your questions, this platform is not technically "upgradeable." This is a proprietary board and enclosure with a seperate I/O module. The I/O module is customizable (in quantity), but the system itself is available in 4 different options:
VM-7700V-31001: C7 1GHz barebone
VM-7700V-31151: C7 1GHz, 512MB DDR2 533 SO-DIMM, 40GB 2.5" HDD
VM-7700V-35001: Eden ULV 1.5GHz barebone
VM-7700V-35151: Eden ULv 1.5GHz, 512MB DDR2 533 SO-DIMM, 40GB 2.5" HDD
If any of you have any further questions, please reply and I'll try to help you out as much as possible.
So when can us "lowlifes" get a chance to snag a nice/small/thin PC that we can cram behind our TVs and in our cars?
I hope VIA reflects on the interest being expressed here, and considers the consumer market.
I need a proper media PC in the living room (no, xbox doesn't rate) and would love to mount one of these on the back of the large LCD TV. Performance would be important (802.11n for instance) but the fanless angle is great.
And I would also fancy a lite version, together with a touch-screen kit, to turn an old LCD monitor into an email/media centre for the kitchen.
I'm quite familiar with those solid state drives, but right now the cost is very high and the need isn't there for me. 1 GB is suitable for what I need and the machines are fanless as well so there are literally no moving parts.
At the 4gb range, there are IDE header adapters for $15 that will take a compact flash and mount it as an IDE drive. That also works.
I would love that 32gig solid state drive but will wait for the next generation when performance is optimized (right now they're not much faster than sata) and the price is down. When that happens, I'd love to mount one in place of the cdrom bay on my dell laptop.
They're a bit overpriced if you need horsepower, but they work great in an automotive environment. However, VIA has the Iceman Roadster box that uses a DC power source and is environmentally sealed. If you've got an email, I'll be glad to send you the brochure on it.
I get approached by quite a few consumers wanting to use this as an HTPC. I don't like VIA's graphics capabilities, but I know this platform has been successfully used in similar applications. Do you have a particular model you were interested in?
You can already do this with a Mac Mini
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/CUFFMIN/