• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Linux Mint and Compulab Take on Chromebox with FitPC3

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,355 (7.68/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
The people behind the slick and popular Debian-derivative Linux Mint, and Compulab released sketches of their upcoming nettop, the FitPC3. The two have been working on the project since late 2011. FitPC3 is a desktop that's powerful enough for internet, email, and basic computing. Unlike the Google-Samsung Chromebox, which runs Intel Atom and Chrome OS, the FitPC3 runs AMD G-Series T40N and T56N APUs and a highly-optimized variant of Linux Mint 12, featuring MATE 1.2 and XBMC.

Illustrated below, are two models on the drawing boards at Compulab, the first one features on value, basic, LP variants, while the other, on the Pro variant. Connectivity is aplenty, with six USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, and two eSATA ports; HDMI and DisplayPort display outputs; stereo audio; gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth 3.0 handling connectivity.



The G-Series T40N and T56N APUs are based on the 40 nm Brazos silicon, and will be backed by AMD A55 FCH and up to 8 GB of DDR3-1066 MHz memory. The APU embeds AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics, which can handle resolutions up to 1920x1200 smoothly. Storage is care of a 2.5-inch SATA HDD. Although the FitPC3 only has stereo analog audio, the HDMI port gives out 7.1 channel digital audio. The FitPC3 will capture various value price-points, and looks to capture a big slice of the nettop market.



Find detailed specifications here (PDF).

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
D

Deleted member 67555

Guest
Good choice on the OS... I think Mint is the best free media distro...
Oh yeah.....Codecs are just one click away...LOL
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2007
Messages
1,238 (0.20/day)
Location
SoCal
Processor AMD Phenom II 1055T @ 3.6ghz 1.3V
Motherboard Asus M5A97 EVO
Cooling Xigmatek SD1284
Memory 2x4GB Patriot Sector 5 PC3-12800 @ 7-8-7-24-1T 1.7V
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon HD 7950 DD @ 1100/1350 1.185V
Storage OCZ Agility 3 120GB + 2x7200.12 500GB Raid1
Display(s) QNIX QX2710 27" LCD 1440p @ 120hz
Case Cooler Master 690M
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC892
Power Supply Enermax Liberty 620W Eco Edition
Software Windows 7 Professional x64 / Ubuntu 12.04 x64
Unlike the Google-Samsung Chromebox, which runs Intel Atom and Chrome OS

Chromebox has an Intel Celeron dual core (Sandy Bridge era). The HD 3000 graphics on board that are plenty sufficient for HD playback and anything on Chrome OS. The HD 6310 on the T56N APU tends to be on par with Intel HD 3000 graphics, and the HD 6250 is slower than that. The CPU part will eat any Brazos chip for breakfast. Don't get me wrong, the APU is a far better choice than the Intel Atom used in the 1st gen Chromebooks, but this better be well priced if they want to have any success.

Although, I do commend the use of Linux Mint and XBMC, and having a native HDMI port is a selling point against the chromebox (DVI + 2xDP), as well as USB 3.0 too.
 
Last edited:

w3b

New Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Messages
68 (0.01/day)
Location
Australia
System Name Black n Blue
Processor Intel Core i7 930 (running at stock)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5
Cooling Noctua NH-U12P SE2
Memory OCZ PC3-12800 Platinum 3 x 2GB - OCZ3P1600VL6GK
Video Card(s) Sapphire ATi Radeon HD5850 Toxic 1GB (765/1125)
Storage OS: Samsung F3 1TB HD103SJ, Data: 2 x Samsung HD203WI
Display(s) Samsung SyncMaster 2443BW+
Case Antec 1200 [original version]
Audio Device(s) Onboard (Realtek ALC889A)
Power Supply Antec CP 850w PSU [Antec Signature in larger box according to JonnyGuru]
Software MS Win7 SP1 x64 OEM [yes it's legit =P ]
Benchmark Scores No world records here, just a new box I bought after sticking with an Intel P4 socket 478 PC (with n
All in the details

While not much of an issue for me; the 23.976Hz video playback issue is still a sore point with Intel atm (although apparently improved in the more recent HD4000 IGP), keeping this in check would be an extra edge for the AMD based device (again not much of an issue for me personally but it would be good for consumer confidence [the niggling 'what else is broke' thoughts] ). :confused:
 
Top