Single board computers

sebberry · 06-08-2008, 05:33 PM

Hey guys,

Other than Advantech, who makes 3.5" single board computers? I have an Advantech Celeron 600 SBC and would like to upgrade to something with more power, but their CPU selections aren't all that great.

Thanks!

qha_vn · 06-08-2008, 09:38 PM

yes, try avalue.com.tw. i am installing a 3.5" board (ECM CX-700). VIA Eden CPU 1GHz which is quite good for my application. they also have other product lines supporting intel

i get the board and bought 512MB DDR2, 120 GB sata laptop HDD, IDE laptop CD/DVD RW drive, touch screen Exaudio 16:9

btw, i personally found 3.5" pc board one of the best options for carpc because mostly of its size, low power consumption, quietness (fanless CPU)

mrbean_phillip · 06-09-2008, 12:40 AM

Hello,
You can have look at the Commell LV-372 - a very decent platform, allowing you to use any of the new Mobile Socket-P Intel Core2 Duo cpus (aka Santa-Rosa)

galvitron · 06-09-2008, 01:46 PM

^^ Do you mean LS-372? I think the LV are bigger than 3.5, right?

Commell makes a ton of them. You might also check Global American, Inc. and bwi to purchase these types of boards.

dgbutland · 06-11-2008, 09:14 AM

I'm just designing a project around a 5.25" form factor and these 3.5" boards give me a lot of options. However, it appears the manufacturers aren't so concerned about the depth o these devices and rarely give any mechanical design details.

I see from project posts that you both have an LS-372 and this appears to be an idea motherboard for my project. Do you know the board depth (with and without heat spreader, sink or fans?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Edited to change LV to LS.

galvitron · 06-11-2008, 11:45 AM

Are you replying to me? I have the LS-372, not the LV-372.

I only have dimensions without the heatsink/fans. But, you can't really take them off unless you have some VERY effective alternate solution.

W: 5.75" x D: 4.0" x H: ? (W: 146 mm x D: 102 mm x H: 16.56 mm)

You should be able to find the specs in their downloadable manuals.

sebberry · 06-11-2008, 01:42 PM

Hmm.. that LS372 looks like it might work for me..

I am fairly limited by the board layout as it has to fit inside the case I designed and had made:

As you can see I am somewhat constrained by the position of the VGA connector...

galvitron · 06-11-2008, 03:52 PM

Well the VGA on the LS-372 is in about the same position...

There are quite a few connectors on the back-panel of the LS-372 so if you want to use them you would have to cut the case.

You could use the 4 USB headers on the top of the board for USB, and the audio and com ports are coming off the top, not the back-panel, via headers.

There is another thread (I think started by Mr_Bean above) that had a cool alternative case you could use...

mrbean_phillip · 06-12-2008, 04:29 AM

I meant LS-372, soz guys

Have a looky here, this was what Galvitron was referring to.

dgbutland · 06-12-2008, 06:02 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by galvitron

Are you replying to me? I have the LS-372, not the LV-372.

I only have dimensions without the heatsink/fans. But, you can't really take them off unless you have some VERY effective alternate solution.

W: 5.75" x D: 4.0" x H: ? (W: 146 mm x D: 102 mm x H: 16.56 mm)

You should be able to find the specs in their downloadable manuals.

@Galvitron, Sorry, yes I should have refered to you, or mrbean_phillip, in my original post as I noticed you had both built projects around the LS-372.

I'm trying to build a project that has a depth limitation and most of the manufacturers don't appear to worry too much about depth. The figures you provided above are in the LS-372 manual but the depth figure only measures the circuit board to top of edge connector depth. There is not reference to the clearance required on the solder side (I noticed that the compact flash socket is on that side of the board). In addition, the heat sink on the GM965 looks pretty high in the pictures of your G5 project (again, no mention of this mechanical specification by the manufacturers).

If the compact flash doesn't add too much depth (or I can easily remove it as I don't need it) then I'll happily remove the heat sink for both the GM965 and Processor. I intend to provide heat transfer using a heat spreader, pipes and a fan not mounted directly on the processor.

I'm also now worried about the power consumption of this device. Global American mention a typical power consumption of 79W with the T7700. I was going to use the T7500 but that power consumption seems very high. The other 965 board they offer appears to have half the power consumption (a AZURE Mercury 965?) but no DVI or HDTV output. If the LS-372 doesn't pull that much power unless using the DVI or HDMI then I'll be happy.

Again, any help greatly appreciated and sorry if I'm hijacking this thread. Happy to move this dicussion elsewhere.

nemoid · 06-12-2008, 06:30 AM

You can go with a Pico board...

dgbutland · 06-12-2008, 11:30 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by nemoid

You can go with a Pico board...

Interesting you say that. My project started off life by looking at attaching this device to an LCD display. How does this chipset compare to the T7500 with GM965? I'm guessing it pulls a lot less power but is a lot less powerful.

The lack of support for MacOS is an issue (not that we would run it illegally or anything). It is also quite deep again. This seems to be a big issue with the smaller boards. I can go up to 5.25" if necessary but no thicker than 25mm. I've looked at the nano boards too but would prefer something that is at least as powerful as the T7500.

galvitron · 06-12-2008, 11:37 AM

LS-372 is only slightly larger than the Pico board and is vastly beyond it in terms of horsepower.

I have the T7500 with mine and it in no way takes 70 watts. more like 20 or less at idle and 40 or 50 at load. The T7X00 series CPUs only consume 35W max and have a throttle-down feature and RAM should be just a couple of watts with SO-DIMMs. The northbridge and other MB stuff are from the GME965, a laptop chipset, so they shouldn't consume much, probably 10W max (just a guess). You could probably reach close to 70W if you ran every single device at full load (extremely unlikely).

The northbridge heatsink is very tall, but if you have an alternate means of cooling and know what you are doing you should be fine in removing it. The CPU just has a small screw-on fan that can be replaced.

dgbutland · 06-12-2008, 02:42 PM

Thanks for that. I can cope with 40-50 load and 20 on idle. I guess it's time to bite the bullet and actually order one.

galvitron · 06-12-2008, 03:42 PM

Cool. It's really a nice board (from my experience).