Article: Computer Audiophile Pocket Server C.A.P.S. v3 Topanga

[agillis]

Small Green Computer has it built with an SoTM tX-USBexp card for $645. That price seems pretty impossible given the price of the SoTM card. Maybe a mistake?

 

Oops! My bad. You are correct. This unit does NOT come with a SOtM tX-USBexp card. I updated the listing.

[agillis]

And yes, Win 8 64 bit installs easily on that mobo; I never really noticed any video issues with my CAPS V2+ (headless maintenance only) so the default driver is quite fine. That being said, I'd follow Chris's recipe for Topanga, especially early on.

 

When you install Win 8 64 bit on this board Windows will use the Generic VGA driver. You won't get great video performance with the generic driver but who cares it's a music player not a gaming PC!

[agillis]

The Foxconn nT-i1200 is a great little system but it has no memory, SSD or OS. Once you add all of those you up to around $400. Also the Foxconn nT-i1200 has a small fan. One of the biggest advantages of the CAPS design is it's completely noiseless. This is a great advantage in a quiet listening room. You do pay for this feature. If you don't mind a little fan noise there are a lot of small Atom boxes that are dirt cheap.

[agillis]

Agillis: Once again, the barebones price is in the $125 to $150 range. Add disk and memory, you’re up to about 200, and Windows it hits 300 or so. Compare that to the $645 that small green is quoting. The Foxconn unit is also fanless.

 

ted_b This is a simple Occam’s razor issue. The simple answer is almost always the correct one. Both have the exact same CPU. Both have the exact same motherboard. Both are mass production commodity products. The only difference is that the “Topanga” is a general purpose motherboard, the Foxconn is tailored to CAPS like applications. There’s no reason to believe that they perform any differently in any respect, including computer audiophile audio. They both use the same chipset based USB and they both use the same chipset S/PDIF if that’s your pleasure.

 

$150 + 20 for memory + 86 for and ssd + 140 for windows = 396 or almost $400. You could use a cheaper SSD or a Windows 8 standard instead of pro. I was keeping the same components that Chris used in his spec.

 

What makes you think that this units is fanless? I don't have one so maybe I'm wrong here but I read this review and it clearly shows a fan

 

Foxconn nT-i1200 nanoPC review - Printer Friendly version

 

Do you have one of these units? Did they change the design after this review?

 

When you use a plastic case (plastic is a heat insulator) you almost always need a fan.

 

The biggest different between the two units is the processor. The D2800 is a much lower power processor then the D2500 that the Foxconn uses.