Saves on desk space and most of the time the students dont need the cd rom drives so basically all they need would be the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and a usb extension dongle to plug a flash drive into.
The next thing they should try and do is figure out how to run them all off of 1 hard drive so you only have 1 system to patch for ever 5 kids!
You could do that with virtualization. You only need to make changes once as long as you're using only one system image. Since you have 5 times de resources anyway, the system should go even better than with 5 separate computers as it's not very often all CPUs being at full load. In that case, each system have all the potencial of the complete system minus the overhead. Cool!
Note that they also used the low power "s" version of the CPU. What they did is not magic. It is simply choosing the components wisely (plus some custom wiring harnesses). Very nicely done.
I'm thinking an easy way to do this for a modder would be to run one board off the power supply directly, and then secondary boards using a Pico PSU hooked up to the +12v output of the power supply.
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14 Comments
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Yournotme - Saturday, February 28, 2009 - link
They have 1000 watt powersupply in that system. So I think its using more the 300 watts.Christoph Katzer - Sunday, March 1, 2009 - link
IF you refer to my sentence above then please read the sentence again and the following as well :)...and if they would have used a 5000W power supply it would have consumed even more? ...
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
Would be cool to have a USB switch included, so you'd only need one DVD-ROM drive for all 5 systems.Bremen7000 - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
Best. Wiring. Ever.wagoo - Thursday, February 26, 2009 - link
I couldn't understand the wiring 'round the back being so clean at first.But I'm guessing it has an internal KVM and they've made a VGA splitter, as all 5 monitors have the same image on.
Toadster - Thursday, February 26, 2009 - link
until it needs service ;)tdktank59 - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
I could see schools using these!Saves on desk space and most of the time the students dont need the cd rom drives so basically all they need would be the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and a usb extension dongle to plug a flash drive into.
The next thing they should try and do is figure out how to run them all off of 1 hard drive so you only have 1 system to patch for ever 5 kids!
wifiwolf - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
You could do that with virtualization. You only need to make changes once as long as you're using only one system image. Since you have 5 times de resources anyway, the system should go even better than with 5 separate computers as it's not very often all CPUs being at full load. In that case, each system have all the potencial of the complete system minus the overhead. Cool!rowcroft - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
I'd love to have a case like this (especially with internal KVM, but I can live without..:)I couldn't find anything on this configuration on their site, is this a DiY job?
I must have this!
Christoph Katzer - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
Of course self made...gwolfman - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
Oh yeah, and where can I get a side panel with a window for my ATCS? I have the silver chassis. Thanks!gwolfman - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
What motherboards did they use for this? Not very many Mini-ITX boards support quad core CPUs...Zap - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - link
They used the Intel BOXDQ45EK motherboard which officially supports Core 2 Quad.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Note that they also used the low power "s" version of the CPU. What they did is not magic. It is simply choosing the components wisely (plus some custom wiring harnesses). Very nicely done.
I'm thinking an easy way to do this for a modder would be to run one board off the power supply directly, and then secondary boards using a Pico PSU hooked up to the +12v output of the power supply.
gwolfman - Friday, February 27, 2009 - link
Interesting idea about running the pico-PSU's from the 12v lines of the original PSU.