Single Board PC for £130 ($180 ish)

[nevb]

Check this product out.........
http://www.powerleap.com/Products/Ren370S.htm

could be a cheap solution, just add power! Available from PC World in the UK

Nev.

[Raas]

You can't use this product as a stand-alone.

It's an ISA card that 'upgrades' your older pc.

You still need an mobo with a spare ISA slot to put this in, and this would make the carputer where we want to use this thing for bigger.

It maybe is a fine product, but pretty useless to us carputer-people.

Just my thought.

Greetz

[Falcon62Travis]

This was taken form thier FAQ

"Will I still be able to use my motherboard’s ISA/PCI slots, RAM, and serial/parallel ports with the Renaissance/370S?
No. The Renaissance/370S will completely disable the old motherboard.


My modem is soldered to the motherboard. If I get the Renaissance/370S will I have to get a new modem?
You'll need a new external modem with the Renaissance/370S, either connecting through the serial port or the USB port.


Can the Renaissance/370S function even if it is not plugged into a PCI slot?

Yes, you can use the Renaissance/370S to build a compact PC or information appliance. In fact, the Renaissance/370S gets no connecting signals from the PCI bus at all. In other words, it is not required that the board "fit" in an expansion slot--as long as it has power from the power supply, you can mount the board anywhere!


I would say that this board seems to be exactly what we need! Although you may need to use USB Sound and I haven't seen a video port on it....

[nevb]

Raas - read the spec!

It IS a stand alone board - there are no pins acually going onto the old Mboard - I have one here in my hands! All it does is leech the PSU, HD, & Floppy drives from the existing PC.

Nev.
A carputer person for a couple of years now!

[brooksy69]

looking through the manual for this product, there is a vga connector.

shame it is an sis chipset - just my personal opinion through bad experiences with them in the past. also the usb sound might be a problem - i had my system running with some yamaha usb speakers for a while - they were really good when they worked but the chances were 50/50 whether they would be detected by win98 on booting up - i dont know how others are faring with their usb sound devices (would be interested to hear). i might still bite the bullet and get one, althoughh i would be more tempted to splash the extra cash and spend on a decent sbc with built in sound.

[brooksy69]

i missed this - further reading of the manual give info on the audio/game connector - so i assume it can connect to an amp/head unit- correct me if i am wrong someone. also nevb, did you say you have one of these - if so where did you pick it up, and what it come with (cpu etc etc). I have decided I might just buy one - I want to build a smaller box and this would be ideal.

[etrik]

actually the sound is built in. quote from powerleap rep:

"1) There're 2 USB, Keyboard, 10/100 LAn (RJ-45) ports on the Ren-370S card, in addition, we've provided 3 more brackets in the Pkg:
2-1) VGA port + 1 9-pin Serial port (Fax/Modem).
2-2) 1 Parallel and 1 more Serial port.
2-3) Sound-in, Sound-out and Microphone ports + Game port.
Hope this helps to understand what been included in the Ren/370S.

Cheers,
Paul at Powerleap"

[PaulzY]

so can this thing run weithout being in an isa slot or what ?

and does the price include cpu/ram if so what?

[nevb]

Paulzy - it does not need a ISA slot, the fact it plugs into theeslot is just for anchoring it into the pc case. I am sure another mounting method could be found.

Brooksy - I have bought one for eval purposes at work, I bought it from PCWorld in West London, they sell it without CPU & RAM, but I have got those cheap from the web.

Any more questions?

[Raas]

Whooops..

Is missed that somewhere..
Sorry about that.. Nevb.

About USB. I have some schematic somewhere where you can put toghether your own usb soundcard for something like $10-$15
It's an article from a national magazine all about electronics.. they have designed it, built it and tested it, and it was working without any troubles..

I'll see if I can dig it up for those off you who is intersted

Greetzz