FEB 22

OK, yeah, we think the Artigo is cute. But is it functional? Via has just taken advantage of its ultra-small, ultra-lower power (though admittedly less than state-of-the-art chips) to pack what used to be Dell's top of the line gaming PC (in 2001) into a teeny, tiny package.

Of course, the Artigo, as shipped, is bare-bones, and will take quite a bit of labor before actually accomplishing much, but it is an interesting statement. The $300 device (yes...we agree, that's expensive) ships without RAM or a harddrive (or a keyboard, mouse, monitor etc.) What it does come with is Via's low-power 1ghz C7 processor, a network adapter, build-in HD audio and video, and a weight of barely more than 1 lb. But the statement I'm seeing here is more than "Look! It's tiny!"

It's more like "Look, 70% of us don't need your fancy gaming PCs." In fact, the Artigo won't even run Vista; you're stuck either with XP or pretty much any form of Linux. The thing is, most people can't tell the difference between XP and Vista, and a vast majority of users just need something that'll run Firefox and Word without crashing (so that's everything except Windows ME...right?) And the great thing is, by using new technology to build slower computers, power use drops dramatically...even at peak consumption the Artigo comes in under 30 watts.

Unfortunately, this isn't really built for those users. You need to buy the RAM and the harddrive and the operating system...and then install all the software yourself. So while it's an interesting experiment, I think I'll stick with something that someone built for me, even if that does decrease the amount of Geek Cred I have.

Nonetheless, you should check out this excellent review at ExtremeTech.

Via Via (I've always wanted to say that...) and Good Clean Tech

Comments (6)

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Wow!
written by Noryungi, February 22, 2008

OK, I want one. I am tired of having a huge big PC below my desk.

Besides, the price is really low: approx. 300 US$ for the machine, one hard drive and 1 GB of RAM on mini-itx.com.

Considering that some Linux ditributions are way too bloated for my taste, this is just the machine to run NetBSD on, for instance: lean, mean, extremely fast UNIX operating system, without all the cruft that comes with some Linux(es?). :D

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Could make a great DVR
written by Brandon, February 22, 2008

Combining this with a large hard drive and a decent HDTV USB capture card and this could be a great DVR. Throw on Myth TV (http://www.mythtv.org/) and your set. The cost would be a bit high, but it would sit nicely on your TV stand.

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...
written by Dave, February 22, 2008

for the non-DIYers out there, you may also want to look at either koolu.com or fit-pc.com. I haven't used either, but they seem to be capable and use less power than this one!

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written by Vance, February 22, 2008

I agree with Dave, this expensive gimped box doesn't compare to fit-pc (which has everything you need to boot up on day 1, for $285 -- 5 watts too). Look at that instead.

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Buy a Laptop
written by josh, March 22, 2008

They cost more than other PCs but are portable. Laptops use substantially less energy than desktops and there's no need to put everything in there yourself. $300 may sound cheap, but you can get those kind of components for a lot less from other manufacturers.

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Have a look at the eBox from ASUS
written by JohnK, June 10, 2008

this little gadget trumps all the others in bang-for-buck but I would like to see its power specs.

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