Take That, iMac?: Build Your Own All-In-One PC
Take That, iMac?: Build Your Own All-In-One PCI still remember starting college back in 1998. The dorms were packed with smug social science students who showed up with iMac G3s. Meanwhile, all of my engineering buddies were rocking PCs, most of which we had built.
The relationship between Macs and PCs is much different today. If you find yourself attracted to the iMac aesthetic, but would rather save enough money for your first quarter’s books (and get your hands dirty with something new), follow along as we build an all-in-one system based on Intel’s Thin Mini-ITX standard from the ground up.
We’re starting with Loop’s LP-2150 chassis, available on Amazon for somewhere between $250 and $300 (ours was $264.60). Not only does this enclosure house all of our hardware, but it also features a 21.5” screen with a maximum resolution of 1920x1080.
And unleash the wrath of the Apple haters?
Don't the guys who want Apples just buy iMacs?
Not that I've seen, but I'm waiting for Intel to get back to me on this prior to the Win 8 launch.
And unleash the wrath of the Apple haters?
Don't the guys who want Apples just buy iMacs?
Throw in an i3 Ivy bridge, 4GB of ram, and a small SSD and you would have the ultimate office machine. With the onboard video output exposed you can even hook up a 2nd monitor to this and have what would appear to be 2 tethered monitors without a PC...
very nice to see Intel make that cooler to help anyone looking to go super low profile/all in one.
Now if you could get a second loop monitor only. That would look very different at the office
For now.. I'll enjoy those 10 computers gathering dust. :\
Are some parts like the Wi-fi card OEM or are they really sold directly to the public?
Some peculiar things I just happen to notice:
1) Why does the first picture say "Casper" on it? The following pictures of the screen have "Loop" on them.
2) On Picture 8, it was said that "Intel’s DH61AG features one half-length mini-PCIe slot and one full-length interface, both of which we populate during the process of our build. " Is the full-length one the normal looking PCI-E slot on the board which is perpendicular to it? How was it populated?
3) How was the webcam plugged in? I'm guessing using some of the USB headers just like how I know MMC readers are plugged in.
With some of those questions, I may have just missed something. Sorry about that if ever, and I'll be looking forward to a reply.
Thanks for the article Chris, and I have a feeling that you'll be doing either or both the FX-Piledriver and the possible Desktop Trinity remake article once they come out. So I'll be looking forward to those.
1. First of all, I missed the part about the graphics. Is it integrated?
2. With whatever graphics card or integrated graphics that was used, how would the gaming performance be?
I would LOVE for my next gaming machine to be something like this and just get rid of the desktop. The only problem I could foresee is limited USB ports. As it is, I personally need about 6-8. I don't own anything that uses USB 3.0 yet.
Graphics is integrated, yes. Supposedly, Gigabyte has a version able to take dual-slot graphics cards, but I don't have it yet. As of now, gaming performance is going to be lackluster with HD Graphics 3000 or, given improved firmware, support for HD Graphics 4000.
Very observant ;-)
We built up two systems, hoping to get Ivy Bridge support working after a motherboard swap. The first one appears on page one, and the other one appears throughout the rest of the story.
Both of the PCIe slots mentioned are mini--just different lengths. When you see the card-based SSD and wireless module, those both plug into the mini-PCIe slots. The standard slot remains unused.
The webcam is attached via USB header, yes.
It would be interesting to make a similar build in the future based on the upcoming AMD Trinity architecture.
I've asked AMD if they have any plans to support this form factor. Company representatives seemed interested, but not particularly sure if AMD would ever pursue channel-enabled all-in-ones. We'll almost certainly see Trinity-based tier-one boxes first.
Doesn't have to be top of the line, but better than integrated..