Cool VIA DIY Kit Puts HD in Your Hands
This DIY kit from VIA is packed with HD goodness.
VIA Technologies has launched its latest DIY PC kit that puts HD video in the palm of your hand. The VIA ARTiGO A1100 is a tiny PC that crams a 64-bit processor, HDMI and VGA connectivity, and five USB ports into a rather small, hand-sized PC chassis. The kit retails for a meager $243 USD, however VIA said that the first 10 customers will get an "early bird" discount price for $199 USD.
So how small is this thing? 5.7-inches x 3.9-inches x 2-inches. The VIA ARTiGO A1100 kit includes the 1.2 GHz VIA Nano processor, the VIA VX855 media system processor, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an additional USB device port, three audio jacks, and options for wireless IEEE 802.11 b/g connectivity and an SD card reader module.
"The VIA ARTiGO A1100 is aimed at enthusiast customers who dare to explore beyond the confines of regular PC building," the company said. "The VIA ARTiGO A1100 offers easy installation of system memory, hard drive, wireless module and SD card reader. Supported operating systems include Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and a variety of Linux distributions."
VIA added that the A1100 supports H.264, WMV, VC-1 and MPEG 2/4 at high bitrates and display resolutions (up to 1080p) with "very low CPU utilization." The company's VIA Vinyl HD audio codec also provides 6 channel DTS capable audio. All in all, this little mini-rig should be a blast to put together and a tasty little mini-theater for the bedroom or den.
Check out the VIA ARTiGO A1100 in the clip below!
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They certainly spent a lot of time making sure it didn't look like something you would want on the TV stand... Can't wait to see the case mods of this in something nicer, like a wooden cigar box.
Can't wait for it in a Tom's review of net-top round up.
Tempting in its own right, I will give them that, but 243 is more than I would spend for it. An Acer Revo (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103228) and even Lenovo has some nice nettops for about the same price.
Wow, this is incredibly more useful than a laptop! :|
yes but how does it all fit in there.
btw. the guy is giving a hilarious look in the video thumbnail
I talked to my Sister about this and I said it should run, cry Sis, and do everything everyone would ever want.
I talked to my Sister about this and I said it should run, cry Sis, and do everything everyone would ever want.
Is that a massive pun or just very bad grammar?
Actually, with cloud gaming.. this would be perfect. Yes, it would run Crysis and any other game they had.
This is a great idea for anyone wanting to stream HD without using a laptop but the cost of the operating system and Wifi interface makes it a bit too expensive. It's a fairly inexpensive option for a home-based server, though, for those who may have that need.
Stay on topic guys...
Make it black and you might sell some.
I use a Dell XPS 210 as my media PC, and I got a 4650 in there. Sure this VIA is nifty, but underwhelming
what a crap ~
This idea has been around for awhile. Its basically a pico ITX board inside that case. Via's been making them for a few years.
The really cool part isn't the "Mini HD" crap, this is basically a real full blown PC, just miniaturized. You can install any OS you want, provided it has driver support (all MS OS 2k+ should work fine), and do anything you want with it. Connect it to a LCD with a Keyboard / Mouse combo and you got a mini-kiosk style system that can be easily hidden behind or under something.
don't forget it has military grade hardware encryption that beats the c2q and even the i7 in aes/sha applications ...
per core 8x faster than core2 extreme even at 1.2GHz
http://www.sisoftware.net/?d=qa&f= [...] &a=&vote=0
should be some uses for this thing
This is perfect as a hide away computer.
If they throw an esata port on it.... maybe.
Nice. You can remove it from that case and mod the hell out of it.
"Hard drive, compact flash module, solid state drive, SD card, wireless module, antenna, system memory and operating system must be purchased separately"
I knew the price was too good to be true,
What an ugly looking box. Subjective opinion ofcourse.
I don't know. I always had a soft spot for embedded devices and SFF PCs...
This is neat stuff. Tiny little computer that can handle HD.
I'm with Honis. I want to see cigar box case mods too!
I say they should remove two of the usb ports and replace them with something more practical like.... e-sata ports. Then you would not be affected by the size limitations of 2.5" hard drives.
VIA needs some more lovin'.
I'd rather a $200 VIA netbook over a $300-400 Atom based netbook.
However, for what it does, it does seem a little overpriced (especially compared to other VIA based products in the past).
The way they show it mounted to the back of a monitor on their website would make it a good web surfing station. I could just throw one on my old 4:3 lcd lying around. Plus it would probably be easier to upgrade that than a normal all in one pc. I have to agree with everyone else though, they could have made it look a lot sleeker even by just offering it in black.