Old, Namebrand PCs with Small Form Factors

[racketboy]

What small form factor PCs have you dealt with over the last 15 years that you've been impressed with?
(I'm thinking options for low-cost emulation/HTPC machines)

I remember one 200Mhz Compaq office PC I found in a dumpster that was very small and silent. I modded it and used it as an MP3 server/player for a couple years. That might be a bit too old for this purpose, but the build of the machine was great.

I've also been happy with Dell's thin Optiplex line.

How 'bout you?

[fast]

Anything running the Crusoe processor has been fine in my book. But if you want something to use for emulation and htpc, just buy a FitPC2 and call it a day:
http://fit-pc2.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Though if you need VGA, build a Nettop 100:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6856167037

I bought a Nettop 100 and have been very impressed with it. Yes they are not old, but for power usage they are hard to beat.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I can't remember their name but there was a company that sold these insanely small but relatively fast computers which could be had in a variety of variations from 100mhz on up in bare bones motherboards.

There used to be a site somewhere that showed how someone used the PS1 and the Saturn as cases for them.

[otaku]

neat little machines. I'll probably be using my voodoo envy 133 for alot of emulation soon. Buying it in anticipation of college as my alienware has proven rather unwieldy for such use.

[gravitone]

I found a nice free silent compaq box thats settled below my widescreen TV right now running as an emulation box. 1ghz pentium3, 512mb sd-ram. I found it next to the dumpster here and salvaged it just in time. Plugged in a geforce4mx I had lying around (also free), plugged in a 2.5" HDD which I got for free from a friends laptop that died, wired up a vga to scart cable, and it was good to go. Perfect emulation box for all my 16-bit needs and some 32-bit stuff like the sony playstation. Thanks to my rgb cable I get pixel perfect output. Im always amazed at what functional stuff people throw away. Im in a student housing complex with a lot of people moving in and out all the time so there is a lot to be found to tinker around with.

[racketboy]

I found a nice free silent compaq box thats settled below my widescreen TV right now running as an emulation box. 1ghz pentium3, 512mb sd-ram. I found it next to the dumpster here and salvaged it just in time. Plugged in a geforce4mx I had lying around (also free), plugged in a 2.5" HDD which I got for free from a friends laptop that died, wired up a vga to scart cable, and it was good to go. Perfect emulation box for all my 16-bit needs and some 32-bit stuff like the sony playstation. Thanks to my rgb cable I get pixel perfect output. Im always amazed at what functional stuff people throw away. Im in a student housing complex with a lot of people moving in and out all the time so there is a lot to be found to tinker around with.

Model number?

[gravitone]

beats me. I stripped most of the outer and front casing already to get it ready to implement into my new "to be constructed this summer" emulation box.
Might end up converting it into a 2 player arcade control panel with build in mame. I have too many cool ideas right now and too little time/money/workspace to implement them.

[racketboy]

Wow -- well if you ever find out and/or find a picture of the original machine, lemme know