VIA case mod memory lane #4: The Playstation PC

It's ironic that consoles really do have the innards of a PC these days and in this mod, Per Samuelsson, gutted an old-school, grey Playstation and crammed inside a VIA EPIA Mini-ITX board 6GB hard drive, 256MB RAM, 145 Watt PSU, power switch, power connector and an extra fan. It was a tight squeeze.

"The EPIA mainboard fits exactly into a Playstation chassis, what luck! Of course I had to remove the gameports - to make them look like real gameports I filed them down until I had a 2.5mm thick frame, then glued the memory flaps into place and fitted the controller pins on black cardboard. Now they really looked like real Playstation gameports. I installed the Ram on the mainboard and tried to fit the cover. Fat chance Buster! It was too high. Dremel, Dremel, Dremel..."

It looks like someone's trying to smuggle something in there! Full story on Mini-ITX.com

Case mod memory lane#3: The iGrill

Continuing on with the kitchen theme, this week we take a look at the George Forman grill that was turned into a PC back in 2005 by James Goldsmith.

James actually bought the grill new and what's the first crazy thing you have to do with a mod like this?

"Of course, the first thing to do when a new toy arrives is to completely take it apart. So 5 minutes with philips-head and pro-drive screwdrivers later, it was down to the bare components. With hindsight, I probably should have done this with some kind of due care and attention, as it took me as long again to figure out which bits belonged where. I had intended to use the original power cabling, and mod the psu to use them, but this proved unfeasible, as I had to slice the cabling in two just to open the damn thing up."

Yes, the VIA Mini-ITX platform has been the cause for parts of many machines to be strewn across people's living rooms in pursuit of the ultimate case mod. You can read more about this mod on Mini-ITX.com.

Case mod memory lane again: the waffle iron

The chrome casing to this waffle iron provided a classy look to an otherwise cooky mod for the VIA EPIA M1000.

Find out more on Mini-ITX.com.

ARM and VIA embedded

ARM processors, as oppossed to x86 processors, have become the platform choice for a lot of things that were once the domain of low power processors like VIA's C3 and then C7 line.

VIA themself now have five product lines that feature ARM processors. They are:

• ARM based VAB series of Pico-ITX boards
• VIA Alta DS digital signage solutions
• VIA ARTiGO embedded computers (Pico-ITX board inside)
• VIA M’SERV embedded computers (Nano-ITX board inside)
• Fanless AMOS series of embedded computers

What do all of these have in common? VIA Embedded Pico-ITX and Nano-ITX boards that feature ARM processors. ARM processors, coupled with VIA's expertise at embedded high quality and feature rich chips onto loa profile embedded boards, offer the best performance per watt solution available.