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Mirus, Linspire and AOpen Introduce $399 Mini Linux PC

[Posted June 29, 2006 by cook]

Linspire, Inc., partnering with AOpen and Mirus Innovations, has announced the Linspire Mini Koobox PC. "Measuring in at just 6.5 x 6.5 x 2 inches and 3.0 lbs., the basic configuration boasts a brushed matte-platinum case with clear blue plastic accents, slot-in slim CDRW/DVD combo drive with DVD-playing software, integrated Ethernet card, and is based on the Intel 915 chipset. To add to the streamlined aesthetic, ports are located in the back of the unit, including two USB 2.0 ports, one IEEE 1394 port (Firewire), speaker-out, S-video, and mic. The Mini Koobox also has a DVI monitor connector and includes a DVI-to-VGA adapter so that it can be connected to plasma-display or large-format monitors. Inside, the machine checks in with 256 MB DDR2 RAM, Intel Celeron M 370 1.5 Ghz processor, and a 40 GB hard drive."

(Log in to post comments)

Posted Jun 29, 2006 18:26 UTC (Thu) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]

More info here: http://www.koobox.com/minikoobox.php

I lost interest when I got to the part about the 90-day warranty...

Home Theater without the theater

Posted Jun 30, 2006 20:34 UTC (Fri) by rvfh (subscriber, #31018) [Link]

A home system without digital audio output is not even worth looking at IMHO. If HDTV is of interest to you, then you also want DVI/HDTV out.

If it had DVI+S/PDIF it would already stand in my living room.

Mirus, Linspire and AOpen Introduce $399 Mini Linux PC

Posted Jun 29, 2006 18:32 UTC (Thu) by brouhaha (guest, #1698) [Link]

So it's a Mac Mini without the Apple logo and with an older processor, for $100 less. (I'm not impressed by mail-in rebates.) I'd rather pay more and get the Mac Mini with a Core Duo. Maybe if they offer a Koobox with the Core 2 Duo in the future, I'll consider buying one.

What I *really* want is a box like that with a Turion X2. Or a MiniITX motherboard for the Turion X2 so I can assemble my own system.

Cheaper Mac Mini

Posted Jun 29, 2006 20:08 UTC (Thu) by jmorris42 (subscriber, #2203) [Link]

Unfortunatly it looks cheep. To start with I don't want those crappy blue LEDs 24/7. As a home theater PC it lacks optical out and a remote. Sorry, I'd rather throw Fedora on a Mac Mini for an extra hundred if I wanted a itty bitty box.

I really don't see why this is so hard. A home theater/'ultimate MythTV' box should not be all that hard to design. Start with a case that will stack with the rest of the home theater gear, i.e. 19 inches wide. Put a vaccum florescent display on the front and an IR receiver. Going wide would allow enough space inside to have the option to put in a high capacity 3 1/2 HDD. Give it a good enough CPU and video solution to display 1920x1080p without undue struggle. Include S-Video, component and HDMI connectors. (Composite can quickly be obtained from S-Video and VGA and DVI can be adapted down from HDMI) along with Optical and multichannel analog outs for sound. Add one network plug, two USB2 and one 1394. And finally include one PCI slot to accept the variety of input devices needed to cover broadcast, HD, cable, sat, etc. And no power brick. Other bonus features like a front mounted card reader would be gravy.

And if they are trying for the little desktop market, don't. Go ahead and put the computer in the display. Even better hammer out a standard to allow a small form factor PC to snap on the back, something similar to the VESA wall mount standard.

To good for a lowly test board, too weak for real work

Posted Jun 29, 2006 20:23 UTC (Thu) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]

That's too good for a secondary test system, but not too powerful for the desktop computer or for the primary test system (i.e. the machine that "leads the pack" of the test systems, compiles kernels in minutes, serves as the gateway to other systems, runs Ethereal/Wireshark etc). To have any chance to replace my aging home computer, this system should have a DVD recorder (how much did they save on placing a CD-RW/DVD-ROM?), 1Gb of RAM and a 60Gb hard drive. And to be a good primary test system it should have one more ethernet port, CardBus and/or MiniPCI.

Who would buy a Koobox?

Posted Jun 30, 2006 19:15 UTC (Fri) by jimmybgood (guest, #26142) [Link]

As a practical matter (and actually selling merchandise is a practical matter) the name is dreadful. Maybe they're making a reference to a "cube", but that's not how it reads to me. It sounds more like a marital aid targeted towards prudes who are to embarassed to refer to it by it's real name.

Mirus, Linspire and AOpen Introduce $399 Mini Linux PC

Posted Jul 3, 2006 18:11 UTC (Mon) by kwink81 (guest, #33926) [Link]

For those of you looking for a good Mac-mini-like linux box, I suggest going to system76.com and checking out their Koala Mini. They start at $499, and are fully customizable.