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Looking into building a dual-core ATOM PC computer

I’ve been thinking about building an ATOM-based dual-core PC for a while now.

I have the portwell single-core, but I’ve been thinking it might be fun (sort of) to build an enclosed system with a dual-core ATOM, power supply, and a few USB hard drives (because I already have them, that’s why). I’d take a page (pun intended) from the book of Google and enclose the system using Lego blocks.

When I add it up, it doesn’t seem as convincing:

Atom D510 motherboard: $80
4GB DDR2-800
: $100
Power supply: $40
Lego: $50

Total: $270

There’s no exact equivalent (most computers that I found online come with 2 GB RAM). But, they seem to range in price from $240 to $400.

2 Comments

  1. Andy Khan

    Those FoxConn bare-bones systems look interesting. Any idea how well they would work for streaming NetFlix? I’m thinking of something like this for my mom.

    Posted on 20-Jul-10 at 2:59 pm | Permalink
  2. PoojanWagh

    I think you have to be careful. I got a portwell machine at ESC-2009. It has 1 GB of RAM soldered to the board and an Intel GMA graphics chip. My coworkers report that the board has barely enough horsepower for basic video.
    If I were looking into a video-centric build, I’d go with an NVidia ION chipset. It’s got better decoding of h.264. However, I can’t speak from experience; just what I’ve heard.

    Posted on 20-Jul-10 at 5:20 pm | Permalink

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