ITX PC

[Earl]

Im just building am ITX PC for my observatory with 4 Serial Ports and 6 USB Ports.

This will be Sub £200 and small

I will document this PC in this Thread as it develops.

[Earl]

Intel Atom Processor D410

2Gb Ram

1Tb HDD

Im putting a DVD Burner in as there cheap as chips now.

I aim to have the PC Boot without any Keyboard or mouse or monitor and automatically allow remote control from any PC in the house.

Im not going wireless. (Im not a fan of it tbh) a 10/100 wired network will be fine (I would of preferred 1gb but the MB I wanted did not support it)

[BPO]

Hi Earl.

Mini-ITX is a great way to go. Those little 410 boards are high spec enough to comfortably run just about any app while drawing very little power.

My observatory is entirely off-grid and so I run a mixture of PLCs and mini-ITX-based systems, the latter powered by picoPSUs.

[Earl]

Right then Delivery and assembly day !!!

A nice small case, with space for 2 serial ports built into the case.

I took the PSU out to get to work as it covers the motherboard.

Everything went smooth until i noticed that it only comes with 1 Sata style plug so i need to get an adapter for the CD-Rom Drive.

This is a bit of a brick wall, I dont have one lurking so il have to pick one up.

Next step will be Installation etc.

Interestingly the Motherboard has 2 serial Port connectors onboard which was not mentioned on the site i bought it from, so in theory 6 Serial Ports with a little cutting of the case is easily doable.

Another point is the inclusion of PS2 ports for Mouse and keyboard, which is becoming increasingly rare

[Earl]

Finished box

[OzDave]

Interesting project! I have been thinking of a similar setup for remote control.

I plan on buying a Fit-PC2 (google it), which seems to have a range of ports and ethernet and wifi. Looks a bit like a router.

But i do like these DIY ITX boxes!

David

[Earl]

lucky me i found an adapter in my tool box

Installing Windows now

[Earl]

windows has installed like a dream , im now creating a system image.

[Earl]

I have now installed TightVNC which starts from boot, I have no keyboard or mouse attached and im controlling, downloading and installing software from my main PC.

[Earl]

Hooked up via EQMod and CdC all works fine.

might be job done.

Got it working on WoL also so after the initial alignment fingers crossed it should all be controllable from the remote PC.

[Earl]

For some reason Im unable to get my lakeside focuser to work on the system, Its tested and confirmed working fine on another PC, via serial and USB.

Not sure why this is happening atm.

[astroimpulse]

Earl, how do you find the Atom performs?

[Earl]

So far it works fine, CdC and eqmod have no problems, Im just trying to work out why the lakeside is having issues.

Im trying a full ascom reinstall

[Psychobilly]

Hi Earl,

Will this be completely fanless?

The atoms are great little processors .. The Samsung NC10 does a cracking job of running the HEQ5, guiding and running a couple of cameras and is brill for video capture from my IS camera...

Billy...

[Earl]

The case does have a fan, and there is a fan in the PSU.

The case fan is a cheap one so is noisy, that is a tweak to be sorted later, and the psu fan also

[Psychobilly]

Thankd Earl... I am looking for a completely fanless setup...

[Earl]

there is no fan on the MB so im presuming that it could be used fanless.

Ill get round to checking when everything is working as it should, im still having ascom issues atm

[Earl]

just unplugged the case fan and its now silent

Not fixed ascom yet though...

[DrNeb]

Nice little project. I had a similar little setup under the TV as a media hub before i got the ps3.

you won't need a fan for the chipset.

good goin'

[Earl]

Cheers DrNeb, my HTPC does a little gaming so i had to get something a little beefier which off course made it into a full size PC I have some Revo's at work and for the jobs they do they are great and very small. The revo afaik can handle 1080p and blueray but do suffer a little in the higher end sound options True HD been one of them

Asom issues solved by a reinstall of ascom and eqmod.

So far I have Focus control, Eqmod, CdC and sharpcap all confirmed working, PHD next and then Canon controls.

[Earl]

PHD working and DSLR shutter and Canon EOS Tools all working

[BPO]

The Intel 410 and 510/525 can happily be run fanless, although they will get a wee bit warm if pushed hard (say, long periods of HD video playback, etc), but not to the point of melting.

If you plan to push them hard, I'd recommended a fan near or above the CPU heatsink and memory modules. It doesn't have to be a high speed screamer. Larger diameter fans running slowly (and therefore quietly) do the job very well.

[Earl]

Unplugging the case fan has made the machine silnet but for the odd noise from the HDD, cooling should not be an issue as its main use will be outside.

well its installed on to the network and any machine in the house can access it via TightVNC.

[BPO]

Earl_UK, are you only going to use it to run telescope-related software, such as planetarium applications, EQMOD, that kind of thing? If so then you will almost certainly be able to do without the fans, unless convective airflow at the heatsink is obstructed or restricted.

One word of warning may be in order: There's no going back to machines full of howling fans once you've become used to silent computing!

[DrNeb]

Earl_UK, are you only going to use it to run telescope-related software, such as planetarium applications, EQMOD, that kind of thing? If so then you will almost certainly be able to do without the fans, unless convective airflow at the heatsink is obstructed or restricted.

One word of warning may be in order: There's no going back to machines full of howling fans once you've become used to silent computing!

lol he's spot on with that.

one thing is having a silent HTPC, another is aiming for a silent overclocked behemoth. the price soon racks up.

have you seen the nvidia ion gear? Zotac do a couple of tasty mini ITX boards.