Mailing List Archive

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If you're going to put it on its side, you're going to need to get
about 1/2" clearance so that the front door can swing open.

You'll be OK with the vents.

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On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, Joe Schmidt wrote:

> The Pundit looks like it is indended to be used as a tower. I'm thinking
> I might buy it sometime, but I was wondering if anyone who has it is
> using it sideways, like a desktop case.

It sounds like with some rubber feet attached, you'd solve any blocked
airways and also raise it up enough to still allow the door on the front
to open.

~cj

> The Pundit looks like it is indended to be used as a tower. I'm thinking
> I might buy it sometime, but I was wondering if anyone who has it is
> using it sideways, like a desktop case. I'm concerned that the panel
> might look weird, vents might be covered, or anything else I can't tell
> from a photo. Also, any other cases or barebones systems similar to it?
> By that I mean a mostly aluminum case that can be oriented horizontally
> that uses full-size PCI cards. (I also think that PCMCIA port is rad)

It's built to be a "tower" (it's too small to really call it a tower).
It'll "work" on its side, but the intended bottom of the machine is raw
metal (no pretty paint), and has a foot that locks into it. You can
remove the foot to turn the machine onto its side, but that'll leave you
with one of the sides of your now-horizontal machine looking pretty
crappy.

And like the other said, you'll need to raise it up to get at the front
panel.

-Chris

Chris Petersen wrote:

>>The Pundit looks like it is indended to be used as a tower. I'm thinking
>>I might buy it sometime, but I was wondering if anyone who has it is
>>using it sideways, like a desktop case. I'm concerned that the panel
>>might look weird, vents might be covered, or anything else I can't tell
>>from a photo. Also, any other cases or barebones systems similar to it?
>>By that I mean a mostly aluminum case that can be oriented horizontally
>>that uses full-size PCI cards. (I also think that PCMCIA port is rad)
>>
>>
>
>It's built to be a "tower" (it's too small to really call it a tower).
>It'll "work" on its side, but the intended bottom of the machine is raw
>metal (no pretty paint), and has a foot that locks into it. You can
>remove the foot to turn the machine onto its side, but that'll leave you
>with one of the sides of your now-horizontal machine looking pretty
>crappy.
>
>And like the other said, you'll need to raise it up to get at the front
>panel.
>
>-Chris
>
>
Thanks for the advice and warnings, Chris, Christopher, and Robert. If I
end up buying it, the rubber feet sound like a good idea. I'd probably
have it inside of a TV stand, so the bare metal on the bottom wouldn't
show. I think I saw some aluminum-looking spray paint or vinyl dye at
Home Depot last time I was there, maybe I could get it to match.

OT: Do any of you folks actually use that PCMCIA slot? ;-)

> Thanks for the advice and warnings, Chris, Christopher, and Robert. If I
> end up buying it, the rubber feet sound like a good idea. I'd probably
> have it inside of a TV stand, so the bare metal on the bottom wouldn't
> show. I think I saw some aluminum-looking spray paint or vinyl dye at
> Home Depot last time I was there, maybe I could get it to match.
>

Just make sure that the CPU vent holes on the side (or in your case, the
top) aren't covered... <g>

> OT: Do any of you folks actually use that PCMCIA slot? ;-)

The PCMCIA slot does work; I tested with a linksys PCM100 10/100 NIC and
it seemed fine. The 4-in-1 card reader is another story: it is a
subcomponent of the PCMCIA chipset (ENE CB710) which doesn't seem to
have any Linux support (yet). USB (1 and 2) work well; IEEE 1394 is
detected by the kernel but I don't have any devices to test. Sound card
is fine, but AFAIK noone has gotten the SPDIF port(s) to work under
Linux. Video works fine, but there is no DRI support for the SiS 651
video chipset (yet); this doesn't seem to be a big deal for
MythFrontend.

If this is a frontend only system, keep an eye out for my mythFE
distribution (read the archives) - I'm about halfway there...

HTH,

== Steve

just for info. I have a tier 2 trouble ticket open with Asus (no idea
how it's even gotten this far) about drivers for the 4-in-1 reader. I
doubt anything will come of this, but I'll definitely keep you all
posted if I learn anything new.

-Chris

Steve:

You should also note that the Video is not an AGP card.

BTW, did you need to use the overscan for the TV out?


> The PCMCIA slot does work; I tested with a linksys PCM100 10/100 NIC and
> it seemed fine. The 4-in-1 card reader is another story: it is a
> subcomponent of the PCMCIA chipset (ENE CB710) which doesn't seem to
> have any Linux support (yet). USB (1 and 2) work well; IEEE 1394 is
> detected by the kernel but I don't have any devices to test. Sound card
> is fine, but AFAIK noone has gotten the SPDIF port(s) to work under
> Linux. Video works fine, but there is no DRI support for the SiS 651
> video chipset (yet); this doesn't seem to be a big deal for
> MythFrontend.
>
> If this is a frontend only system, keep an eye out for my mythFE
> distribution (read the archives) - I'm about halfway there...
>
> HTH,
>
> == Steve
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

> BTW, did you need to use the overscan for the TV out?

afaik, overscan doesn't work. it'd be nice if it did, but it's no
biggie.

-Chris

On Fri, 2003-06-13 at 05:42, Matt wrote:
> Steve:
>
> You should also note that the Video is not an AGP card.

To clarify, it's not a *replaceable* AGP card; it is on the onboard AGP
bus on the motherboard. There are no AGP slots for expansion, and one
of the PCI slots shares an IRQ with the onboard audio. The SiS 651
chipset is not a stellar performer.

The device is not without its limitations, to be sure. Its main
advantages are: It's small, reasonably attractive, and QUIET.

>

> BTW, did you need to use the overscan for the TV out?

Don't have X on my distribution yet, so I don't have an answer for you
yet.

On Fri, 2003-06-13 at 08:46, Chris Petersen wrote:
> > BTW, did you need to use the overscan for the TV out?
>
> afaik, overscan doesn't work. it'd be nice if it did, but it's no
> biggie.
>
> -Chris


Thomas Winischhofer has an updated X driver that adds better 2D
acceleration as well as other features, including overscan. I will be
evaluating this driver for my distribution.

For more info, check out: http://www.winischhofer.net/
look at the "SiS Video Chipsets and Linux" section; the SiS 651 is part
of the 315 series.

== Steve

Steve Davidson wrote:

>>Thanks for the advice and warnings, Chris, Christopher, and Robert. If I
>>end up buying it, the rubber feet sound like a good idea. I'd probably
>>have it inside of a TV stand, so the bare metal on the bottom wouldn't
>>show. I think I saw some aluminum-looking spray paint or vinyl dye at
>>Home Depot last time I was there, maybe I could get it to match.
>>
>>
>>
>
>Just make sure that the CPU vent holes on the side (or in your case, the
>top) aren't covered... <g>
>
I shall make sure. I'm slightly disheartened to hear about troubles
cramming cards into the Pundit, and difficulty in upgrading, say, the
video card, but I may yet buy it. The motherboard I'm currently using
has a GeForce 2 onboard--not bad.

Another question about the Pundit, how does it handle heat? The case I
have now has tiny little fans that run at the same speed all the time,
and with my desktop computer on as well, the room hetas up pretty
quickly. System area is around 44 degrees, CPU area is 50 degrees in the
summer, and around 42 in the winter. If the Pundit can do any better
than that, I may just bite the bullet on the Pundit's shortcomings and
cash in on its benefits.

(It does support full-height PCI cards, right?)

Thanks!

> Another question about the Pundit, how does it handle heat?

I was never able to get lm_sensors configured properly (if anyone else
does, could you please tell me how?) to tell what the system temp was,
but for awhile I was running it inside of a cupboard under my TV. It
was fine, but got pretty warm (there was a hole cut in the back for air
to escape) while it was encoding.

The main advantage of the pundit's design is that the cpu fan intake is
directly from the side of the case, drawn in via a baffle, so it's not
"contaminated" by warmer air from inside the machine. I eventually
moved it next to my tv because I have no way to measure temps on the
hard drive (which worries me more than the cpu).

> (It does support full-height PCI cards, right?)

yeah. hence the trouble cramming them in around the case. It's
difficult, but not THAT hard to get them in.

-Chris

Chris Petersen wrote:

>I was never able to get lm_sensors configured properly (if anyone else
>does, could you please tell me how?) to tell what the system temp was,
>
>
What problem did you have?
Here's what I did:

Enable the following in Character Devices-->I2C Support (when compiling
kernel)

I2C Support
I2C bit-banging interfaces
I2C device interface
I2C /proc interface

Since I'm using Gentoo, I ran emerge lm-sensors to install the package.
Then, I ran sensors-detect and adjusted modules.conf as indicated (In
Gentoo, I just edited /etc/modules.d/aliases).

> > Another question about the Pundit, how does it handle heat?
>
> I was never able to get lm_sensors configured properly (if anyone else
> does, could you please tell me how?) to tell what the system temp was,
> but for awhile I was running it inside of a cupboard under my TV. It
> was fine, but got pretty warm (there was a hole cut in the
> back for air to escape) while it was encoding.

I just used the normal lm_sensors config/detect sequence and it works find
for me - however as soon as I load the modules the main fan spins up to full
speed immediately! Needless to say, this makes temperature measuring a bit
difficult. Fraid I don't know enough about lm_sensors to know how to stop
this, and haven't had the time to play.

On the plus side, I just get a warm draft coming out of the back - nothing
approaching hot.

--
Steve