MSI Wind Box DC100 hands-on
By Nilay Patel 
posted Feb 24th 2009 12:51AM
posted Feb 24th 2009 12:51AM
posted Feb 24th 2009 12:51AM
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Duh, where is that MSi girl?
Off on a date with the Zune Guy, I assume.
Here --> http://www.blogcdn.com/chinese.engadget.com/media/2009/02/msi_090223_51.jpg
would these be any good for a render farm for 3dsmax, maybe like 5 or 10 of them
It depends on the type of render farm you are looking to run. The atom processor is an even lower class cpu then the celeron and the n270 is also single core. You can setup a render farm to take advantage or multiple cores which if it were me I'd buy a cheap e7400 and OC it. Normally cpu speed isn't such a issue when you have 10 machines running at 1000mhz vs 3 running at 3000mhz but with the atom you get single core and it's a low class cpu. Might take quite sometime for them to render and you would have to buy more of them then say a core 2 duo to get the same performance.. I'd just buy a cheap ATX case, dvd, e7400 and oc it to 3.5 - 4ghz, 4 gigs ram, cheap video card, and a good mobo for oc'ing like the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P, and 500gb hd. I did a quick build on newegg and that would run about 400 w/shipping after rebates.That'd probably be much better for a render farm then say something like this. But if your looking for tiny and something that takes much less space, this might be the solution for you.
Take 5 or 10 Nvidia Ion (coming soon) based machines. But you'll need software that can use GPU instead of CPU for rendering.
Netbooks Netbooks Netbooks,
Nettops Nettops Nettops,
When is the T101H going to be released??
WHERE IS MY TABLET DAMMIT!?!
"less than two liters"!?!?
sick, because I always measure my computers in volume (3.2L laptop here)
You have a 3.2l laptop?
Thats sucks for you
hold on, wind top, now wind box? where is the creativity with names
Next model.... the wind tunnel
Those MSi logo totting ladies remind me of the yearly sheep bazaar that congregates in my city. They brand their sheep with different marks. I know branding came from horse and cattle branding but this is going too far.. maybe wear a necklace with MSI alphabets, t-shirts with MSI.. but full on body painting.. ??
That'd probably make a sweet little "diskless" workstation.
Or. depending on how processor-intensive your workload and how much you like waiting, a "workless" station...
Keep these coming. Dual-core Atom + nVidia ion + gigabit ethernet + digital sound out = cheap HTPC/torrent machine. :D
+1
This machine doesn't have Ion in it though.
They show the front and back and it seems small, but what about the length? Looks like that dimension is not that small.
It says 3.5" HDD. Why don't they put a 2.5" drive? it would be smaller and lighter. And a slim CD/DVD drive wouldn't add much volume, but would add a lot of value.
BTW, I recently realised in tests that the Atom multithreading performance is quite awesome due to its hyperthreading. It is really not a mere marketing buzzword. It's like having one core and a half.
3.5" HD - price, presumably. A 2.5" 160GB costs about half as much again (quick google, could be wrong). Unless other components were also reduced in size (and increased in price), it probably wouldn't make that much difference to the case size anyhow.
No CD drive - these things are presumably intended primarily for workplaces (and I wish we ran smaller, more efficient machines here - although these are a touch slow for me). You don't need a CD drive as you won't be ripping music or playing DVD videos, and any software installs will be from the net. If there are odd occasions when you do want one, no problem, get a single USB DVD drive that will do for an entire office-full of computers since people need them so rarely.
Anyway, looks pretty nice, although shame it doesn't have the PSU built-in. The case isn't *that* small... one of those radio-type two pin connectors should fit just fine, now make everything else smaller to leave room for the PSU inside... hey maybe there's a reason for the 2.5" disk after all.
oh and the dimensions are given on the sign. 266x176x34, if I read it correctly. It's not exactly a monster, even lengthways.
Google translator bot says none of the chinese commenters have mentioned the girls, they just talk about the devices (and cottages?).
I'm not sure what it means, but I think they're up to something.
Pretty cool!
I love my Wind Barebones box that I built.
Looks like they ditched the 5-1/4 bay to get the slimming effect too. That way it's just a case redesign.
I might consider this if it were the dualcore Atom.
Yep. This is almost exactly the same as the Asus B202 EeeBox that's been out for ages.
act like you know, MSI.
-jp
Damn you MSI... A pox on you and your "No word on pricing or a US release date"! Don't show us the goodies if we can't get to them.
SERIOUSLY WANT !!
I love how it has the DVI in that form factor.
Ahh. So the only one left to make one is Acer. And when they do it will be $50 cheaper, have better build quality (whaaaat?!!!) and beat Asus and MSI.....again.
I too am eagerly awaiting dual core. But with Ion on the horizon, if dual core comes tomorrow, I'll probably end up waiting to see what things ship with Ion before I buy.