[News] Two new µ-A1's models on the way | ANN.lu |
Posted on 28-Aug-2004 15:44 GMT by Still Articia? | 170 comments View flat View list |
Two MiniITX A1's models are on the way, both G3. The first one is very similar to the "beta" versions that was sold earlier. The price for this one will be $600USD/500EUR, excluding VAT. The other version will also offer some more features such as Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet and an additional (custom?) PCI connector, and will cost $700USD/600EUR.
More info at: http://www.eyetech.co.uk/addbar.php?Address=/NEWS/TWONE001.HTM
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Two new µ-A1's models on the way : Comment 17 of 170 | ANN.lu |
Posted by Joe "Floid" Kanowitz on 28-Aug-2004 15:08 GMT | In reply to Comment 10 (Olegil): there is no base model. There is one commercial and one industrial version. For consumers, there really is no choice. The cheaper one is the only one that would work for them (better expandability). Memory and CPU soldered on isn't for you and me, it's for those set-top boxes and other equipment
This begs the question: Who would ever upgrade the CPU when you can't touch the GPU (and if G4s aren't going to be a purchase-time option just yet, while unpopulated boards won't be available to provide a market for used CPUs)... and who would complain about a 'free' 256MB RAM?
I'd wince at the lack of DVI, but no, really, this is enough, and especially if we're still going to be treated to a MicroATX board with a real AGP slot a few months down the roadmap... Eyetech, you've got it 'right.' Stop investing in MPX board R&D after this run (considering that Motorola 'SoC' everyone is on about sounds like a RapidIO part anyway, and *especially* if we're never going to see a DDR chipset that can shave that RAM cost in half), and focus on getting the cost of these things down below one kidney!
I agree that it's a bit pricey, though. But if you see the cost breakdown you'll see that more than half of it is the CPU module. ~250EUR. That's TOO friggin' much (it should cost ~70EUR at that spec). The board, license, memory, cooler and OS are, however, all within what I would consider ok for a board like this from a minor player in the market.
It's a nice place to stick all the costs of design and validation, or their suppliers should really be shot. Or both.
That's the same CPU price as an Intel XEON 2.8GHz with 512k cache... Ouch.
Or an Opteron 148 or 244.
I'd probably be less crass about this if I were $600 less in debt right now. (Anyone want that kidney?)
...
PCI-104 is actually what they're calling the PCI-based PC-104 spec, by the way. |
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