VIA Introduces ARTiGO A1100 Palm-Sized Full Featured Desktop PC Barebone

[btarunr]

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the launch of its latest DIY PC kit, the VIA ARTiGO A1100, a sub-liter DIY PC kit for enthusiasts who want to taste the most extreme, ultra-compact desktop computing experience.

The VIA ARTiGO A1100 takes inspiration from Pico-ITX, cramming a range of features that include a 64-bit processor, HD video support, HDMI and VGA display connectivity, Gigabit networking, Wi-Fi Support and five USB ports, all into a PC chassis that fits snuggly into the palm of your hand.



"The VIA ARTiGO A1100 redefines compact computing, bringing all the features of a regular desktop PC in a form factor that needs to be seen to be believed," said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. "By harnessing our expertise in creating leading edge form factor systems, we're offering consumers something that absolutely breaks the mold."

VIA ARTiGO A1100: Compact Computing Redefined
The VIA ARTiGO A1100 is powered by a 1.2 GHz VIA Nano processor, offering a high performance native 64-bit computing experience while remaining within a low power thermal envelope. The VIA Nano processor is joined by the VIA VX855 media system processor, a fully integrated all-in-one chipset that brings exceptional multimedia experience to small form factor devices including playback of the most demanding HD video formats.

The VIA ARTiGO is the smallest full featured PC Kit available today. With dimensions of a mere 5.7" x 3.9" x 2" (14.6 cm x 9.9 cm x 5.2 cm), totaling only 44.46 cubic inches or 752 cm3, this mini PC is suitable for a variety of applications in the home or office, including home server, media streaming and surveillance applications. The VIA ARTiGO A1100 is also great as a regular desktop PC, using only a fraction of the physical real estate.

Front and back panel I/O includes HDMI and VGA ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, five USB ports including one USB device port, three audio jacks with optional wireless IEEE 802.11 b/g and SD card reader modules.

VIA VX855: A Pico HD Video Powerhouse
The VIA VX855 is specially designed to provide flawless hardware acceleration for the latest HD video codecs including H.264, WMV, VC-1 and MPEG 2/4 at high bitrates and display resolutions of up to 1080p with very low CPU utilization. The VIA Vinyl HD audio codec provides 6 channel DTS capable audio while an onboard HDMI port is included for seamless connection to the latest HDTV displays. These features combine to make the VIA ARTiGO A1100 an ideal for solution for a wide range of HD video and multimedia streaming applications.

Enthusiastically DIY
The VIA ARTiGO A1100 is aimed at enthusiast customers who dare to explore beyond the confines of regular PC building. 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.

Available now at the VIA Store
The VIA ARTiGO A1100 is available now from the recently launched VIA Online Store, retailing at US$243.00. The first ten customers get a special early bird discount price of only $199.00. To order your VIA ARTiGO A1100 please visit this page.

[rekekjeks]

Sweet!

[xkche]

That's a great download PC!! but, $243 is not much money??

i like it!

[rekekjeks]

This little beauty has it all.
And it's so affordable!

[gumpty]

Holy sh1t. Small PC is small.

If it's HD media playback capabilities are as good as it says in the press release, then this little nugget could be a big winner.

[newtekie1]

It should be notice that, at least from what I can tell from Via's site, this price does not include memory or hard drive, both need to be purchased and installed seperately.

Edit: Just saw this in the very light fine print.

Hard drive, compact flash module, solid state drive, SD card, wireless module, antenna, system memory and operating system must be purchased separately.

Edit: If I was going to get something like this, I'd get this from foxconn: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856119022

• It is cheaper.
• It uses the faster Atom 330 and the faster ION chipset.
• It is about the same size.
• It comes with a slot load DVD module, that can be easily detached to make it even smaller.
• It comes with the wireless module already.
• Did I mention that it is cheaper despite all that extra stuff?

[rekekjeks]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

It should be notice that, at least from what I can tell from Via's site, this price does not include memory or hard drive, both need to be purchased and installed seperately.

Edit: Just saw this in the very light fine print.

Oh... well, dang!

[TheLostSwede]

Uhm, people it's really not that small, the demo ION system Nvidia made was smaller, but sadly no-one manufactured it in the end...
I'd rather get the ViewSonic VOT132 http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/nav...&ci_sku=338650
Albeit more expensive, it comes with Windows 7, memory and a hard drive, as well as a dual core CPU, ION graphics and even Wi-Fi as standard...

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

It should be notice that, at least from what I can tell from Via's site, this price does not include memory or hard drive, both need to be purchased and installed seperately.

Edit: Just saw this in the very light fine print.



Edit: If I was going to get something like this, I'd get this from foxconn: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856119022

• It is cheaper.
• It uses the faster Atom 330 and the faster ION chipset.
• It is about the same size.
• It comes with a slot load DVD module, that can be easily detached to make it even smaller.
• It comes with the wireless module already.
• Did I mention that it is cheaper despite all that extra stuff?

yea, and the foxconn is also smaller! however, i don't think that foxconn has the chipset to play flawless 1080p video.

[Phxprovost]

that box redefines ugly

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by Easy Rhino

yea, and the foxconn is also smaller! however, i don't think that foxconn has the chipset to play flawless 1080p video.

The ION chipset is more than capable of 1080p video.

[blkhogan]

So, you get an ugly white box with nothing in it for $200.

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

The ION chipset is more than capable of 1080p video.

sweet!

[HillBeast]

Alright. Time to benchmark some Crysis on it :P

[a_ump]

no offense to VIA...but as has been posted, there are more powerful options for the same price, that actually come in a complete, working package. Why do they try?

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by Easy Rhino

sweet!

ION + coreAVC = Hardware decoding for H264 in your player of choice

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by Mussels

ION + coreAVC = Hardware decoding for H264 in your player of choice

that is good to know!

[neoxalucard]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

The ION chipset is more than capable of 1080p video.

True that, the ION was practically built for HD video. I thought this was a well known fact.

[MrMilli]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

It should be notice that, at least from what I can tell from Via's site, this price does not include memory or hard drive, both need to be purchased and installed seperately.

Edit: Just saw this in the very light fine print.



Edit: If I was going to get something like this, I'd get this from foxconn: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856119022

• It is cheaper.
• It uses the faster Atom 330 and the faster ION chipset.
• It is about the same size.
• It comes with a slot load DVD module, that can be easily detached to make it even smaller.
• It comes with the wireless module already.
• Did I mention that it is cheaper despite all that extra stuff?

Well it's not cheaper is it? The Foxconn is $269.99.
But if you read the user reviews, they talk about a noisy fan.
Not surprising considering the 20W that needs to be dissipated from such a narrow case.
There is no way you could passively cool an Atom 330 + ION in such a small case.

Ofcourse it remains to be seen how loud the fan in the Artigo is but considering that the Nano + VX855 combo (9W TDP) use less power than the ION alone, i don't think it will (read need) to be loud. I think it will even be off most of the time.

One thing that most forget is that the Atom 330 doesn't have any form of throttling while all Nano cpu's do. This Nano cpu for instance consumes 100mW while idling.
This is pretty important if you want to leave the machine running 24/7.
The Artigo will use around 2W while idling. The Foxconn in contrast will consume at around 10W.

BTW The VX855 can do 1080p too.
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/13071/37/

[Mussels]

some good info there, i didnt know atoms had no idle

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by MrMilli

Well it's not cheaper is it? The Foxconn is $269.99.
But if you read the user reviews, they talk about a noisy fan.
Not surprising considering the 20W that needs to be dissipated from such a narrow case.
There is no way you could passively cool an Atom 330 + ION in such a small case.

Ofcourse it remains to be seen how loud the fan in the Artigo is but considering that the Nano + VX855 combo (9W TDP) use less power than the ION alone, i don't think it will (read need) to be loud. I think it will even be off most of the time.

One thing that most forget is that the Atom 330 doesn't have any form of throttling while all Nano cpu's do. This Nano cpu for instance consumes 100mW while idling.
This is pretty important if you want to leave the machine running 24/7.
The Artigo will use around 2W while idling. The Foxconn in contrast will consume at around 10W.

BTW The VX855 can do 1080p too.
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/13071/37/

Yesterday, the Foxconn was $219 and was In Stock in the morning and Sold Out 4 hours after I posted the link. Now it is higher, but as of my posting it was cheaper.

You can look at reviews for pretty much anything on newegg with a fan and people will be complaining about it having a noisey fan. The tiny fine probably does get pretty loud. However, that is pretty much true for all of these tiny PCs, the fans are audible, which most consider too loud.

As for the idling issue, well it isn't one. Use Win7's power scheme to put the computer to sleep when you aren't using it and the power consumption for the Ion/Atom drops to next to nothing. Even sitting at idle, if you consider the ION/Atom consume 20w, and the Artigo is at 2w how much is that really costing you each year? $1.50 a month more for the Foxconn. That is assuming you leave both on 24/7/365 sitting idle, and not use sleep. I think I'd gladdly pay it for the more powerful system that can actually play a few games.

[Mussels]

newtekie: for those of us who leave systems on 24/7 (download boxes, media servers etc) the idle wattage is a large concern.

20W may not add up to much, but its also more heat to deal with in the room... and a room with 10x 20W devices might as well have one 200W heater in it.

oh and dont forget that half the time these devices are only designed to operate in rooms <24C, which goes real well when you have 45C ambients like i get every year. at least if they idle, they're cutting back some of the heat.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by Mussels

newtekie: for those of us who leave systems on 24/7 (download boxes, media servers etc) the idle wattage is a large concern.

20W may not add up to much, but its also more heat to deal with in the room... and a room with 10x 20W devices might as well have one 200W heater in it.

oh and dont forget that half the time these devices are only designed to operate in rooms <24C, which goes real well when you have 45C ambients like i get every year. at least if they idle, they're cutting back some of the heat.

*Looks at my 4 rigs in my specs/sig, all 4 running 24/7.

I'm one of that "those of us".

I can't really think of a situation where there would be 10 of these in one room, except for maybe a coffee shop/computer shop. But for us home users, when are you ever going to need 10 running in the same room?

The 20w difference will hardly effect room temps, and I already pointed out how it will hardly effect electricity usage either.

[MrMilli]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

*Looks at my 4 rigs in my specs/sig, all 4 running 24/7.

I'm one of that "those of us".

I can't really think of a situation where there would be 10 of these in one room, except for maybe a coffee shop/computer shop. But for us home users, when are you ever going to need 10 running in the same room?

The 20w difference will hardly effect room temps, and I already pointed out how it will hardly effect electricity usage either.

Obviously he's not talking about 10 of those pc's in one room.
He said 'devices' which can mean anything from a tv to a toaster.

But if you think that the Foxconn is really not that noisy then think again:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums...ic.php?t=57530
But this is taking it way of topic anyway.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by MrMilli

Obviously he's not talking about 10 of those pc's in one room.
He said 'devices' which can mean anything from a tv to a toaster.

But if you think that the Foxconn is really not that noisy then think again:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums...ic.php?t=57530
But this is taking it way of topic anyway.

my lounge has:

TV
media PC
giga switch
2x routers
smoothwall
wireless access point
NAS

if i could take 5W off each of those... it'd so be worth it. replacing the media PC and smoothwall with two of these would save me decent wattage, whereas replacing with an atom wouldnt.