Anyone used Mini or Nano ITX stuff?

[LePaul]

I've been checking out sites like http://www.logicsupply.com/ , amongst others, for building a very small PC for use in the robot project.  Much lower power draw then most current laptops.  

I'm just wondering if others have used these.

My basic requirements are a 1.5 ghz CPU and 1GB of RAM for the   software that powers the artifical intelligence, etc.  I also need at least 2 USB ports.

It would also be operating on DC, via battery.

I've Google'd a few sites.  LittlePC.com seems to make some very nice industrial systems.  

I'm trying hard to stay away from Celerons but the minute you enter the realm of the Pentium chips, power usage jumps.  I'm not sure if there is anything Mini/nano that would work on AMD's offerings.

Space is a premium inside the robot, so the mini/nano's sure look much more appealing versus a laptop

Thanks in advance

[Chairboy]

I have a Via M10000 Mini-ITX motherboard in my carputer.  1Ghz, 512MB RAM, etc etc etc.

Excellent motherboard, super easy to setup, and works like a charm.  Are you SURE you need 1.5ghz?  Seriously, unless you're playing Unreal tournament or something, 1ghz-ish should be fine.  These motherboards are super low power consumption setups, you're screwing yourself if you sacrifice all that battery life for an extra 5% of performance.

In my carputer, I have 3D GPS, MP3s, OBD-II logging and more running all at the same time in the background, no problem.  When I'm parked, I can even play DivX encoded movies perfectly.  I'm very skeptical that you need that extra processing power, but check out Via's offerings, they've gotten a little faster since I built my setup.

Another advantage, you can get inexpensive DC-DC power adapters for these motherboards since your robot will have a steady power source.  My carputer uses a spendy Opus 90 watt supply because it runs a lot of peripherals and has to live with the dirty power that a car outputs.

[LePaul]

Yes, I really need the faster CPU

It sounds like your system is using the Via processor?

I've seen some of those....DC power and fanless, the body of the case disappates the heat inside.  Another nice design.  If I could just get one that's a wee faster in the CPU area, that would be a slam dunk for this R2 project.