fit-PC slim: very small, otherwise no great shakes

Remember the fit-PC slim we told you about last month? The folk at Extreme Tech have just had a sit down with the little bugger and found a very small machine that's really only noteworthy for its size. Of course, that alone is impressive: at 4.3 x 3.9 x 1.2 inches it's some 40% smaller than the original fit-PC, yet somehow it makes room for twice the memory (512MB) of its predecessor, WiFi (optional) three USB ports and VGA. But unless you really, really prize the miniscule form factor, you may just want to give this one a pass. According to the review, the device performs pretty much as you'd expect from a 512MB Windows XP machine (the 500MHz AMD Geode has no real problems running Firefox or OpenOffice, but larger apps are going to give you some grief) and some of you might not appreciate the lack of SATA and digital display support. Still curious? Hit the read link for the full review.

[iEye @ Oct 21st 2008 11:45PM]

I think that Nintendo might have a "fit" over the name font that they chose...

[myshek123 @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:35AM]

ok I am a first time engadget responder, long time reader, but I gotta tell you iEYE shut up!

[Mark.Nine @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:46AM]

@myshek123

You should have stayed a 'long time reader' and nothing more.

[XIYL @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:47AM]

That was your first post? What a waste....

[Kinger @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:56AM]

ya, you're first post should have been a FIRST post. duh.

[E. Leigh @ Oct 21st 2008 11:51PM]

Such a shame - done well, the concept would fly.

500Mhz processor? What's that?

[lowdef @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:43AM]

lol what is megahertz?

[CubeGuy @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:30PM]

Less than a Jigga-Watt.

[Julian @ Oct 21st 2008 11:51PM]

Size vs. usability is the issue here, why someone would buy this..... no idea. Like can you really see someone running one of there with a 19" LCD monitor. Its a small box capable of running word documents and firefox, if thats all you need, well then there ya go, enjoy :P

[Mike @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:06AM]

Actually, one more factor. Size vs. usability vs. power consumption.

I've been using a fit-PC 1.0 as a web server for several months and I'm thrilled with the 3-5W of power consumption. I was a little disappointed to learn that the slim uses 4-6W, but this is still a tiny tiny footprint.

[Mikey @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:32AM]

I think this would also be well suited for use in a car. Low drain on a battery, doesn't take up much space, and capable of basic tasks...

[Oli D @ Oct 22nd 2008 3:17AM]

How do you know that the Penknife isn't 2 foot long?

[Wwhat @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:25AM]

I'll extend the list to size, power-use, noise (I assume it's silent).

Although I'm in surroundings where the noise of my computer should be a certain level to distract me from all the noise from around me, even at night. :[

[Andrei Vassiliev @ Oct 21st 2008 11:58PM]

I could see some good use coming out of this if one is a heavy downloader. Nice little Torrent/Usenet box.

[Julian @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:11AM]

Did not think of that, a stand alone torrent downloader that consumers little power would be a great idea.

[Amz @ Oct 22nd 2008 2:10AM]

now I want one.

[John @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:07AM]

The fit-PC really shines when it comes to power consumption. That, IMO, has always been its biggest selling point. Like Andrei said, it would make a nice torrent box.

[Precurse @ Oct 22nd 2008 10:25AM]

.. until you need to start rehashing all your files after your client closes

[Shyam D @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:18AM]

Where this would actually be even more usefull is Home Automation. Most Home Automation controllers today are less powerfull and have power consumptions in 4-8 W range. The only limiting factor is Software, but that is being developed by a pretty active community.

To the idiot complaining about the 500mhz Processor. You can't cram a Core 2 Duo into this unless you WANT to build a death trap for your processor. To achieve the combination of size and power consumption, you need something that is ultra low power like the Geode. The low power Atom for the MID might also be a possibility, but we also have to remember mhz != performance.

[ethana2 @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:31AM]

You know, a mac nano wouldn't be that bad...

[ethana2 @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:35AM]

Oops. Well, I may as well reply to you now ;)

How much power does a C2D consume running at 500 MHz? What voltage can you get it down to at that speed?

[Shyam D @ Oct 22nd 2008 1:09AM]

At 500mhz, we won't know unless Intel unlocks one for us to test out. They only go down to ~ 1 Ghz in lowest power mode, but the CPU alone draws ~7W at that speed, underclocked. The whole Fit PC draws about as much at the C2D CPU and that is power draw, not thermal dissipation, which the Geode is also much better at.

[Craig B. @ Oct 22nd 2008 2:55AM]

In addition to home automation, this would also be useful for home security. If you have any monitoring cameras in a home where you don't spend a lot of time, you can set these cameras to upload images captured on motion to an off-site server. As I found out the hard, the DSL line often drops right when you need it the most, and so no images captured. So, this unit would be great to hide somewhere in your house, and could serve as a local backup if the phone lines went down or were cut. From what I understand, this thing is fan-less, so you don't have the same concerns about lots of open space for venitlation that you'd have otherwise - i.e., toss it behind a dresser, or attach it to the back (though obviously the heat will still need to be able to be appropriately transferred from the case). In sum, it's a great backup system - I know, setting up *on-site* backup is kind of doing things backwards, but still...

[Alienfreak @ Oct 23rd 2008 8:21AM]

They also didn't even mention one of the main advantages of this thing. It has no fan!

Besides the fact of having COUNTLESS advantages it also is absolutly silent if you just put a CF Card in it instead of a HDD (it also ships without HDD).

So I can't take that review seriously. They also didnt even bother to check on the Powerconsumption if it was within the values given by the manufactor. So please Engadget, stop linking such crap reviews. It gives users only the wrong impressions on the products.

[Wormbolt @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:25AM]

Finally someone has created a pc that also has a nail file and a corkscrew. That's innovation!

[Orpheus @ Oct 22nd 2008 2:23AM]

Not too securely attached though, unfortunately.

[adelossa @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:27AM]

slap a screen with a game controller on there, and its the next gen gameboy!

[myshek123 @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:35AM]

ok, I am a first time engadget responder, long time reader, and I need to tell you iEYE shut up! noone likes u!
i think its sad that one of your hobbies is pissing off people over the internet by trolling

[Mark.Nine @ Oct 22nd 2008 1:04AM]

Okay*
No one*
You*
It's*
And you forgot the period at the end.

[Oli D @ Oct 22nd 2008 3:23AM]

or a ps1 with a harddrive....
Would you really spend £200+ on a gameboy emulator that you cant take anywhere?

[Cybergypsy @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:40AM]

yawn........

[Emceegraymatter @ Oct 22nd 2008 2:14AM]

I've been looking to buy something for my parents. My only hang up is that they have a lot of grand children, whom they'd let use it when ever they want, unsupervised and all. So if this thing is a cheap as it looks I'm all for it.

[John @ Oct 22nd 2008 10:04AM]

Given those working conditions, I'd probably opt for a Asus EEE Box B202 instead. Much more powerful, takes up little space, and uses a little more power. Comes with everything you need save a monitor. And it's about the same price as well. IIRC, I got mine for $309 shipped, no tax.

[Oli D @ Oct 22nd 2008 2:31AM]

using a pico-itx i can make something slightly bigger than this, yet with a 1Ghz, 1Gb ram.
If you want a wee computer, get a pico-ITX!

[Jax @ Oct 22nd 2008 2:48AM]

I don't know I see this as being a really good carputer. I know it's overdone but some really cool stuff could be done with this it's not like it couldn't interface with the OBD stuff and CAN stuff. 500MHz is plenty to toy with as an ECU

[CaptSaltyJack @ Oct 22nd 2008 3:15AM]

Would this computer work well running Ubuntu Server?

[barry99705 @ Oct 22nd 2008 7:01AM]

It'd run it, will it run it well? Maybe, depends on what you want to do with it.

[Daviii @ Oct 22nd 2008 3:26AM]

3-6W? That is probably the perfect massive download machine on the market. Green pirating FTW.

[matt|H @ Oct 22nd 2008 4:15AM]

Perfect car PC.....

[Kin Pin @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:25AM]

I use one of these babies (well, the older marginally bigger one) as an always-on music server for Sonos. With a power consumption of 5W I don't have to feel bad about it always being on. I installed XP home and turned it on over a year ago and haven´t had to look at it again, it just stays on and works works works. Fantastic tittle thinga.

[No1 @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:51AM]

Seems too little, too late, when you can buy an Eee box in the UK for the same price as this one (but including shipping).

[barry99705 @ Oct 22nd 2008 7:01AM]

Hey look! They found a use for all those old metal Band Aid boxes!



If you were born in the 80's you probably have no clue what I'm talking about.....

[Jared @ Oct 22nd 2008 9:12AM]

I was born in the 80's and I know what you are talking about : P

but wow, this sucker is small. It would be great for attaching a USB servo controller to use for robotics and other such small form applications!

[meist3r @ Oct 22nd 2008 7:38AM]

Well, they have to work on the price tag for a little while longer. I'm not paying 250-300$ for one of these. Sorry.

[Marquoz @ Oct 22nd 2008 9:24AM]

Am I the only one who sees this and thinks "Cluster"? They wouldn't use up that much space, the power consumption is super low, and the price is dirt cheap.

[Joseph @ Oct 22nd 2008 12:35PM]

why would you run 10 of these in a cluster when you can spend that same money on a server that is 100 time more powerful.

[mike k. @ Oct 22nd 2008 10:21AM]

These would be great as network storage solution thats really flexible. I was considering one of these and hooking up a bunch of external drives to it, to manage backup solutions for my laptops and also to serve virtual directories off of it, so no matter what laptop I'm using i have access to files, without having to leaving a desktop running all the time.

Plus the thing that this would give me over say a NAS, is the fact that its running an OS, and I can set it up to download podcasts and manage music, etc. Plus it'd be far easier to slap new USB drives onto this thing via a hub to raise my storage capacity.

[AoRaToS @ Oct 22nd 2008 3:25PM]

I've bought one and I can say it's really great for leaving on 24/7 for it to download anything you want it to, It takes up NO room, it's low power consumption is amazing, it's noiseless and it runs Windows XP really well...I don't use a screen with it, neither a keyboard/mouse 'cause I watch it through netOP if I have to, everything I can say about it is possitive! The only problem I had was the customs fee I had to pay to bring it here which made it expensive to pay overall even if I didn't think of it as expensive without that fee.(74 euros customs fees for Greece).
It arrived here in a week, Diskless as I ordered it, now it's packed with a nice IDE SSD and I'm enjoying it...

[Grant @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:21PM]

Yes, but will it play Crysis?

[Eric @ Oct 29th 2008 7:24PM]

Slap a fruit logo on there and it goes from giving you some grief, to being the next step in the portable computing revolution!