Stealth's latest fanless mini PC: the Core 2 Duo-powered LPC-625F
By Darren Murph 
posted Mar 21st 2009 4:53PM
posted Mar 21st 2009 4:53PM
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Ah, the "integrated graphics" kiss of death.
Why can't anyone but Apple seem to develop an attractive looking mini PC?
Why can't anyone but you think that only Apple makes good-looking Pcs?
@comments4cheap
Oh don't get all offended. There are several good looking PC's just not mini PC's. You're talking to a PC builder and mac user here. So don't get all PC fanboy on me.
It looks that way because they are using a CPU with a 25W TDP in a fanless enclosure. They fins are needed to dissipate heat, especially since the unit is rate to 40C.
i said the same thing initially but seriously, the Dell Studio Hybrid isn't actually that bad
Michael,
To hell with Apple, and to hell with vendors overcharging people.
Build it yourself or mod it, and you can make it look any way you want.
But for starters, here are some sleek Shuttle cases you may want to consider that offer great aesthetics:
http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/X27D.html
http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/d10.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101055
@Hamidxa
I didn't like Michael's original comment so much, but didn't you read he is a builder and a modder? You know, OS X can be hacked to work on other machines? I'm planning a dual boot Windows and OS X myself.
$1600 and integrated graphics? Rest of the stats arent terrible...but integrated graphics? A decent Vid card will have a fan of course, which goes against their selling point, but the price is just a tad high.
Now all I need is a AIG bonus and I can get one of these.
an
Now look what you've gone and done, comments4cheap. You ruined Evan's day with a negligible spelling error. Tsk tsk.
Out of topic but what happen to the Apple 17inch pc story?
I was wondering the same thing. When I looked at the story on a couple of other sites, there was some discussion in comments that suggested that the 17-inched was just the old white 17-inch iMac that was available until 2007 that you apparently can still get through the Education section of the Apple Store. I can see Engadget pulling the story if that turned out to be the case.
The other, far more interesting option is that Apple made them pull the story. That's less likely, though, seeing as how it's still present on other sites.
Well this turned to Apple talk quickly :/
+1 for good music taste :)
It is pretty funny how all of these conversations end with with "Apple" in one way or another
Okay, so this thing is 7.9"x7.9"x2.4", up to 4GB RAM, 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2.5" HDD, and Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI for $1600.
The Mac Mini is 6.5"x6.5"x2", up to 4GB RAM, 2.0GHz or 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2.5" HDD, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n wireless, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 5 USB 2.0 ports, one FW800 port, a Mini-DVI and a Mini-DisplayPort video output, starting at $600.
For your $1000 extra, you get built-in HDMI, instead of using a Mini-DVI-to-HDMI or Mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI converter, one less USB port, and what else? Twice the volume and three times the price?
If Ballmer wants to talk about paying a $500 premium for a Mac, I'd love to see the look on his face when this monster is dropped in his lap and told that this is the best the PC community can do, and yet here's what the price is....
Yeah... Makes me want to go back and time and post the stats of this in the thread when the updated Mini came out and it seemed like every other comment was how the Mini was overpriced and underpowered, and then they would say they built some full tower PC for less, completely missing the point.
I wonder why its so much more though, really. I mean they have to know the Mac Mini and the Dell Studio exists, which can do most of this stuff for less money.
I think you pay premium for FANLESS and small size on this product. It is obviously not for general consumers.
I have a mini, and you cant even hear the fans, even right up next to it. Seems like it was just done just to do it.
Also the mini is smaller...
I have to agree, the system is REALLY expensive but your comparision is off. 4 usb in front and 4 in back (so the 3 MORE usb ports). the 2.26ghz is an extra 150 on the mac mini. Side note, to upgrade that mac mini hdd to 320 is $200.00. That's a swap from the 120. While you can get one from newegg for 64.99...that's kinda like getting raped, right?
There is no doubt, in my opinion, that the mac mini is the better deal. So why fudge the numbers if you would have 'won' anyway?
Best.
weeeeoooo weeeeoooo weeeeoooooo
the mac fanboys have arrived! the mac fanboys have arrived!
cmon guys, apple is a solitary company that has complete control over its products.
Microsoft isnt/doesnt. talking about balmer in respect to this platform is stupid when you can look at most of the PC market and see the price difference. If you want to compare Mac mini to this , then do so, but your fanboy-ness serves no purpose especially in relation to M$.
MiaCane,
Well, you're SORT OF right. Sure Ballmer has no control over vendor pricing, but doesn't that also mean he shouldn't spread FUD about another vendor being overpriced just because their OS competes with Microsoft? I mean, compared to the competition, the Mac Mini and low-end Macbooks are hardly overpriced. And $500 overpriced? Please. 1996 called and they want their FUD back.
As for this system, I keep looking at the specs, convinced that we must be missing something that explains the price. After all, they're in direct competition with other mini-PCs...
@Derek (and everyone else with faulty hearing). Seriously, not just being nasty here, but I have a mini, and while it's one hell of a lot quieter than my old PC, the fan is clearly audible in an otherwise quiet room (when basically idling, it is much more obvious when running full-tilt). Fanless would be a nice plus for me.
Are you guys really honestly saying you can't hear the fans? I mean is there some explanation for that like the system's across the room, in a cupboard, and you have the TV on in the background anyway? Because mine is on my desk about 75cm away and I can hear it fine.
(This is an Intel Core 2 Duo mini; I previously had a G4 Mini, however, and the fan noise was similar.)
If you genuinely can't hear the fan, run some application that uses 100% CPU for a long time and see if you can't hear it then...
And I'm impressed that it took quite so long to get to the 'wtf this costs more than a mac mini' point - yeah, call me back when Apple make a no-moving-parts fanless SSD mini. That's also probably why the volume is larger - it's easier to cool something if it has more air space and more perimeter for the heatsinks. To be honest, I think the way forward for fanless PCs is probably more efficient processors (ie Atom or even ARM) rather than chunkier heatsinks - but right now if you want a fast CPU this type of system is about your choice... and the price might not be as expensive as from this one niche supplier but I really doubt you can find anything anywhere near as cheap as a Mac Mini.
I don't know about making it fanless, but for that price, you could use one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500022
You could put a quad core in it and even a low profile graphics card if the case were small enough. Even with that hardware, it would still be way cheaper then this.
The fan obviously costs -$1000.
The chassis is probably the key point for a system like this (which is the AOpen DEX4501 for anyone interested http://vip.aopen.com/usa/products_DE_DEX4501.htm ) . It is solid and fanless, making it ideal for industrial applications or digital signage.
Also, for more configuration options (and a lower price tag), check out this link
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/dex4501
So, where are the typical rants about the price?
Got to pay the Stealth $1000 tax.
very expensive computer!
I didn't make any claims as to how many USB ports the Shuttle had. The article claimed they had four, and I said that the Mac Mini has five. So, if it actually has a total of eight, then you are correct -- the Shuttle has more.
I do own a Mac Mini myself. No, you can't hear the fans. So the whole "fanless" thing doesn't seem to matter. And the current top-end processor on the Mini is 2.26 GHz, just like the Shuttle. The difference there is that the Mini starts at 2.0 GHz, and give you the option of stepping up.
Yes, it is kind of annoying to pay extra for the hard drive and memory, and that's why I never pay Apple prices for those things. I tend to buy what I want from reliable third parties and then take it in to be upgraded at an Apple-certified location, so that it's still under warranty. But even then when you pay that extra money for the labor, you can be back into the same price ballpark. So maybe sometimes it does make sense to pay the Apple prices in the initial package.
I still don't get why you'd want the Shuttle, except for maybe the fact that it's black and not white? You might not be able to get a Mini for the exact same configuration, but it's definitely close enough and if you care about things like having an internal SSD, then you can pay for the upgrade to be done at an Apple-certified center, and still pay hundreds of dollars less, if not half the cost or even lower.
an apple rant that make sense, am i still on engadget!?!?!?!?
Oops, sorry. I did just see where I said it had one less USB port. My bad.
But then I was working from faulty information from the original article.
I would rather have a Mac mini 7 days a week. Better specs for less money. Plus, you can run every OS.
When I went looking for a small form-factor computer to augment my current desktop unit, I looked at the Stealth unit and came to the conclusion that it's way over priced for what you get. Rant on positively about the Mac Mini all you want, but Apple will never offer hardware that offers industrial or engineering standard ports because Apple hasn't got a clue about computers outside of the soho or graphics industry and Apple doesn't have any enterprise/corporate support whatsoever (In fact, what little Apple had has been laid off during the last two weeks). As an example, National Industries Labview application started on the Mac because of the Mac's superior graphics way back when the best that the PC world could offer was Windows 3.1 and rather horrible graphics. Now, the graphics cards are largely available for any computer so the differention point comes down to slots or ports. Because Apple doesn't give a hoot or understand commercial requirements, they're sliding out of sight in the commercial and scientific world. Labview may have started with National Instruments writing the application for the Mac and providing hardware and drivers, but now National Instruments won't even update GPIB drivers for the Mac, probably because Apple never made any effort to offer hardware that was affordable and offer such mundane items as RS232 ports that would be useful in the industrial/scientific/engineering world. I guess it all traces back to Steve Jobs who decided the first Macs shouldn't be upgradeable and later, that the Next machine shouldn't have a floppy drive. Third parties can make up for these shortages of course, but the Mac market isn't lucrative enough to keep the third party manufacturers in business without also building the same product for the PC market. After a while, dealing with Apple's flaky support for third parties forces the third parties away and they turn to the more profitable PC market where even cut-throat pricing is still outweighed by the vast numbers of customers available. So, while the Stealth computers seem (or are) terribly over-priced, they do offer options and various form factors for small computers such as PCI slots, optional ports etc. That is something that Apple will never do as long as Stevie is running the show. I couldn't afford a Stealth either so last week I bought a Mac Mini. I for damn sure an not going to pay Apple's price for a memory upgrade, New Egg will sell you 4Gb's for $62 shipped. Apple will stick you $300. I've been using Macs' since 1985 and as much as I like them for the more consistent and better human engineering, I loathe the choices that Apple makes that affect the whole product line negatively. FWIW, a SuperMicro mother board that (expensively to you modders) sells for a specific price, will cost 5 to 8 times that much for a militarized version. I suspect that the Stealth computer may meet some milspecs that we're not aware of and milspec testing is hideously expensive. Perhaps that's the reason for the price difference. Or maybe our boy Stevie is a major stockholder in Stealth...
Argh! The goggles, they do nothing!
While I do agree with your comment, my eyes hurt from reading it... Use the return key once in a while...
Must be that Apple keyboard...
:^)
Stealth - if any of your industrial designers/engineers ever raced air cooled motorcycles you wouldn't be so stingy with the finning. Ever see the size of the FMF porcupine head? Yes, it kept the motor cool and cool = horsepower. In this case cool = good graphics.
So go ahead and make the fins/ribs 4x if that means you don't have a fan. Otherwise I might as well stick with my Mac Mini which isn't great but costs 1/2 the price.
The comparisons with the Mini have been incomplete: the $1595 Stealth does not include an OS (Windows, if you want that, costs an additional $195) and there is no optical drive ($175 additional for a USB optical burner). Both an OS and an optical drive are included in the Mac Mini. To match the two machines, the Stealth would cost almost $2000 , while the Mini would cost about $700. I have a Mini, btw, and have to agree that the fans are silent.
The Stealth and options are here: http://www.stealthcomputer.com/pb/index.php?comp=LPC625F
So if nothing else, this just looks cool. I'd just like to look at this on my desk :). Although running windows could be kind of a bummer....
Comparing this thing with the Mac Mini is pointless. They were obviously designed for two completely different applications. If you want a competitor for the Mac Mini, take a look at AOpen's line of MiniPCs
http://usa.aopen.com/Products.aspx?id=74
Another note: the concept of a fanless system is not just based on reducing noise. For example, running a fanned system on a boat would quickly deteriorate the components (because of the salt in the air). Same goes for a factory situation, where dust and dirt would be everywhere.
Anyway, the keypoint here is Industrial vs Consumer
How is this any better than a $300 HP slimline? Oh wait, it's not.
Looks like a router from the 90s.
Hmm, this doesn't seem like a deal to me. MediaVue has the SureVue, which aside from running superior ATI graphics, comes with a 2.4GHz dual core CPU, the Seagate EE-25 (high reliability) HDD, a 2 year warranty as opposed to 1, fanless, xp pro, for about $800. Thats less than half the price, and it comes out of the US instead of Tiawan.
THAT JUST HAPPENED.