An Ultrasmall High Performance Motherboard from Congatech

The new conga TM67 is based on the Type 6 Pin-out and supports the Intel® i7-2710QE Quad-core processor (2.1 GHz, 45W, PGA) and others

Conga-TM67 Motherboard

This is probably the coolest small computing powerhouse available.
No price that I could find.

 

The problem I see with that is finding a case that will support it. It seems to have a proprietary form factor (Formfactor COM Express™ Basic) but I don't even see where Congatec has a compatible case. I note the user guide says the board "is mounted on an application specific carrier board". So that suggests this is an OEM-only product and not for home use - yet. Too bad as this board seems like it would make an excellent PVR and HTPC computer.

 

CPU's are soldered onto the board?
To be honest i don't see any socket where the CPU could be placed

 

That's actually quite common on many ITX boards that are intended to be integrated into home theater systems. It leave no room for upgrades, but that generally is not a problem anyway. No socket reduces costs, mounting height issues, and eliminates any socket problems.

 

Well that's totally true but to be honest in all my geeky years i don't remember ever seen mainstream CPU's soldered (Maybe because i prefer DIY)

 

Then I am afraid you have had a very limited/narrow focused exposure to what's out there. In the olden days, all CPUs were direct soldered and there are many computers today based on µATX and mini-ITX systems that use direct soldered CPUs.

I have built several fully integrated systems with these type boards. They make great computers for home theater integration or computers for kids. Last year I built one for my 4 year-old grandson based on the ASUS ITX-220. With 4Gb of RAM, it works great and is remarkably quick with Windows 7. I put it in a Lian Li ITX case - a rather large (wide) case by mini-ITX standards but I chose it because it takes a standard size ATX PSU instead of a low profile PSU, or external power source. Note that Newegg has about 40 such boards (most of these have surface mounted CPUs).

For someone who just uses their computer to surf the net, email, create a Word document, or even video chats (with a broadband connection) these are more than adequate. If connected to a TV/Monitor, they are perfect for kitchen or guest room computers.

 

The CPU is PGA and Zif'd.

 

In looking at some of the documentation, there are several versions of these ultrasmall boards and several come with two CPU mounting methods; surface mount and what they are calling a "socketed variant" board with a ZIF socket.

 

What ultrasmall boards would be good for servers? I've toyed with the idea of putting 6-8 ultrasmall boards in a 1U enclosure. Maybe I could add enough hardware security (case switches, hot glue, fine wire in epoxy, and so on) to trust colocation.

 

That's too general a question. A file server in a company with 100 users hitting it for files all day long? None. A file sever in your basement serving up tunes to your sound wired house? Any of them.

 

I was thinking of low-traffic web and mail servers. I do see some mini ITX server boards, but that's not very small, and they tend to cost ~$300 without CPUs.

 

Didn't look very hard! (Newegg). And mini-ITX boards are typically 6.7 inches by 6.7 inches - so that's pretty small. Consider the typical setup and case must still house an HD, optical drive, PSU and fan (or large passive heatsink). Plus, you still have to get you hands in there to work and be able see what you are doing. So small may be cute but that does not mean it is better.

 

I'm thinking of an inexpensive knock off of -http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/15/dell_does_via_nano/ I'd like to rent secure servers. The more servers I can fit in 1U at a colocation facility, the less I would need to charge per server to make a fair profit. That's what drove Dell's hosting customers to request those mini servers.

 

If you are talking rack mount that is a different ball game. The reality is, you don't need much in the way of horsepower to make a sever. Many people use old XP systems as backup servers. All you really need is disk space and a good network connection.

 

I've been thinking on building a HTPC but all the motherboards available in Newegg had a pretty lame CPU and i still had to include a graphics card for it to run movies smoothly however with this now i might take a look into it again, everything depends on pricing

 

For a true HTPC - a computer used as a DVR and to play DVDs and BluRay - you don't need CPU with lots of horsepower. All a HTPC does is shuffle data around between a source (HD, DVD/BR drive, cable) and the graphics solution - and it takes very little CPU horsepower to hand off data. There may be a little CODEC action, that is not very demanding either.

And same here. It takes very little graphics horsepower to send HD content to a monitor, so again, today's integrated graphics (if it supports HD content, and most do) does well.

RAM matters however. With lots of RAM, your videos should be nice and smooth.

Note that many "audiophiles" even opt for slower 5400RPM drives in their HTPCs. Why? Because they are much quieter than faster 7200RPM drives. When you have $10,000 tied up in speakers and $5,000 tied up in the electronics driving those speakers, the last thing you want to hear is fan noise and drive vibrations reverberating through the HTPC case, equipment shelf/rack and home theater room.

Now if you plan on using your HTPC for games or other computer tasks besides just listening to music or watching movies and recorded DVR programs, then you may need more CPU and graphics horsepower.

 

Well based on my experience and my dad's laptop i think sometimes performance is required or that laptop sucks.

My bro has a "Dual Core" Atom and it is the slowest thing on earth, his PC cannot even run Google Chrome smoothly with 3 tabs.

His net book was supposed to be one of the highest specced available when he purchased it in late 2010.
Intel Atom D330
2GB of RAM, 250GB HDD
Nvidia ION 2 GPU
Windows 7 Premium OEM
Even with all that power it lags in basic multitasking things such as chatting and surfing the web. (It has all the bloatware removed and no AV)

Now my dad's laptop comes with an AMD E-350 . . . what a difference, it runs muuuuuuuuuuuch smoother and is light years ahead of my bro's laptop.
With this in mind i downloaded once a very very high bitrate 1080P movie in x264 and my dads laptop couldn't run it properly on some scenes, i just couldn't believe it.

 

Well, I don't know what you expect from a netbook - none are noted to be speed demons and should not be compared to a notebook, or especially to a PC. And you can't really blame the CPU when discussing networking tasks like using Chrome, chatting, surfing the web, etc. as so much more is involved besides just the CPU - including the network connection, graphics capability, RAM (and 2Gb with Windows 7 is a bottleneck) - all these, and more (like the anti-malware solution) play a role in throughput.

Understand that netbooks did not achieve near the popularity netbook makers had hoped for - much in part due to performance issues.

 

Hahaha, personally i would still get a netbook over any tablet just because of . . . Windows!!
I basically see tablets as toys & gimmicks. (Although they can be useful but that's my point of view, you cant really work efficiently in a tablet IMO)

 

Well, with the iPad tablet and it's major competitors (and smartphones too) taking significant sales away from the notebook and PC market, and with their significant price tag, note sure they should be considered "toys & gimmicks". They meet the computing needs of many today - especially with fast Internet/network connection.