Building a computer means knowing what you're doing. Sure, you can go to your local computer shop to buy individual components, but they won't come with many instructions about how they all work together. So if you like to tinker, is there any way to build your own computer that is a little more challenging than swapping out a hard disk and less challenging than getting a degree in engineering?
VIA Technologies has stepped into a void that hasn't been filled since the 1950s and 1960s, when Heathkit (it's still around) sold enthusiasts a bunch of components in a cardboard box with instructions on how to build a transistor radio. But instead of portable radios, VIA has released a kit for a tiny but complete computer, called the ARTiGO.
This educational toy is based on the VIA EPIA Pico ITX motherboard format, and runs on VIA's fan-cooled C7 1GHz processor. This CPU lags behind expensive but nimble chips such as Intel's Core 2 Duo, but still performs quite serviceably when loaded with a Windows or Linux operating system. The kit supports up to 1 gigabyte of RAM, offers VGA video output, four USB 2.0 ports, audio line-in and line-out jacks, a 10/100 Ethernet port for a workgroup or network, and a lot of screws to keep components from rattling about. In short, the kit includes just about everything you'd need for a simple computer that can surf the web, handle e-mail and connect to a network. It even comes with four little rubber feet.
It sells for about $350, which is a tad on the expensive side, considering it does not include a hard drive (it's designed to use a 2.5-inch drive, the size found in laptops) nor does it include live memory; it also needs an external optical drive to load programs. It also does not have a keyboard, video or mouse. This is a little like selling cars without wheels or seats and requiring buyers to bring their own gas in jerry-cans so they can actually drive them off the showroom floor.
Some tinkerers will have a few of these components lying around waiting to be cannibalized, but the cost can escalate with extras. An optical drive can set you back about $40, with another $40 for the external box to enclose it; an 80-gigabyte 2.5-inch drive can set you back about $70, and 1GB of RAM another $70. You might also need a video monitor cable, an Ethernet cable, mouse, keyboard and monitor. This can run your costs up to more than $600 before taxes.
The point of the ARTiGO, however, is not to build a computer to save money; it's to have fun getting your fingers dirty or discovering how much you can do with this little box and your imagination. It's also nice to show off the tiny thing off to friends as a demonstration of your increasing cleverness (the enclosure measures about 11 by 15 by 4.5 cm, smaller than a particularly torrid romance novel). When you come down to it, this is as much fun as Lego or 3-D jigsaw puzzles, but with tools (a cross-head screw driver and needle-nose pliers are all you really need).
The ARTiGO is not a great challenge for people comfortable with screwdrivers and handling electronics; it should take you 80 minutes to get the thing properly connected (it took me 80 minutes, including a couple of phone calls and other minor catastrophes). If you're really slow, you might drag the process out another 10 or 15 minutes.
The pieces do not all fall nicely into place; some require experimentation until they slide in just so, without being forced. The tricky part is connecting the cables that run from the pre-installed USB ports, the audio output and the blinking lights on the front panel. The manual is vague on how to connect them — it offers a crude drawing indicating the general location for each cable, but it stops short of being explicit.
The system can run full operating systems such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP, Windows CE (the portable operating system) and various flavours of Linux.
VIA sees a future in selling Pico ITX computers for the embedded-software market, where they can be being put to a variety of specialized purposes. With this in mind, the company has decided to release the kit as something for more ambitious experimenters.
To this end, it comes with several cables for extended uses: an RS232 Serial cable, a 44-pin IDE cable for larger drives, a digital video cable and a PS/2 cable for the old-style mice and keyboards. Using some of these requires making adjustments to the case, such as drilling holes.
To load the operating system, VIA suggests users can stretch their imaginations by creating a bootable USB memory stick with Linux install files on it, and loading the system that way. The company even suggests booting and installing an operating system from another machine over a network, using protocols such as the trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) or the preboot execution environment (PXE), which enables a PC to boot from a server.
And since the ARTiGO comes with an adapter cable to convert a standard male 20-pin ATX power connector to its own Pico-ITX power connector, it can draw its power from any ATX power supply, such as a common desktop computer.
You can get as complex a project as you want.
Imaginative people can see a lot of possibilities with components like these. And non-engineers can simply have a lot of fun putting it together and making it work.
