[geeks] Let say you wanted a small, small, PC...

[Joshua Boyd]

On Aug 4, 2007, at 9:37 AM, Jonathan Katz wrote:

> I bet the Mini-ITX setup you're describing has some kind of price  
> discount
> based on volume. Individuals don't buy that stuff, people who embed  
> systems
> do, and they buy by the 1000's which can drop the cost 30-40% from
> single-unit retail.

I'm not at all clear on who actually buys 1,000s of ready made PC  
boards for embedded systems, except maybe ATM manufactures.  My  
company certainly doesn't buy in that volume, and I would expect that  
anyone actually buying 1,000s would having something custom made to  
their application.

I have several ideas for embedded systems that I might use such a  
board in, but if I were to make 1,000 of them, it would easily be  
cheaper to switch to using a custom system including only what is  
absolutely needed.

That said, I've seen several complete motherboards with processors  
for under $100, and this would be something like the second that is  
over 1ghz, so the price of $70 seems to me like it might be for small  
purchases.  Although I don't see where it is $70.  I do see it from  
LogicSupply.com for $79.95 though.

PCChips makes some very low cost C7 boards, which will thus include  
SATA, for about the same price.  Hopefully Jonathan Patschke might be  
able to comment on the quality of that brand.