http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/ Engadget Comments for Via's vm7700 bolt-on VESA PC: the modern Prometheus http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 6:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 7:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 1:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 6:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
/me wants one!]]>Oct 9th 2007 6:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 6:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
And even if it was as good it still would be anywhere near as good.

- Xidius]]>Oct 9th 2007 6:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 6:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 7:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
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?]]>Oct 9th 2007 8:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 1:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 6:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 10th 2007 12:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
Can you upgrade it?

www.informationaddicts.com]]>Oct 9th 2007 7:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
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,]]>Oct 9th 2007 7:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 8:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
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.
]]>Oct 9th 2007 8:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.siliconsystems.com/silicondrive/datasheetSiliconDriveModule.aspx



]]>Oct 9th 2007 7:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 8:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 9:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 11:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 8:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 9:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/"Get an iMac... It looks much better than this..."

Yeah, but you know, it's still a Mac....]]>Oct 9th 2007 11:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 10:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 10:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/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!]]>Oct 9th 2007 11:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
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.]]>Oct 11th 2007 1:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
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.
]]>Oct 9th 2007 2:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 9th 2007 9:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
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.]]>Oct 10th 2007 10:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/
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.
]]>Oct 9th 2007 7:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 15th 2007 9:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/Oct 15th 2007 9:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/vias-vm7700-bolt-on-vesa-pc-the-modern-prometheus/http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/CUFFMIN/]]>Oct 10th 2007 4:34PM