Does anyone use what is called a 'corporate pc'? I was given one a few days ago, and even though it is not very expandable, it's very quiet and very small.
It's an HP e-PC/e-Vectra with a Celeron 733, 128MB RAM (upgraded to 256MB), 20GB hard disk and a 24x laptop CD-ROM drive. Video, sound, and network is built-in.
Currently it is set up with Windows 2000 and Visual Studio .NET 2003. It's faster than a standard Celeron 800 system I have set up elsewhere.
If you want pictures, I'll be more than happy to take some.
google shows it to be a small formfactor PC, nearly thin client sized.If it has S-video out it would make a decent htpc since its more than likely quiet enough.
It just has the standard PC ports:
PS/2 Keyboard & Mouse
1 Serial
1 Parallel
1 VGA
2 USB 1.1
1 10/100 Network
mic/speaker/line in ports
No slots of any kind (ISA,PCI,AGP,PC Card, etc)
It's small enough to put in my bag to take to work and back. Before this I would take a 40GB hard disk in an external USB2/Firewire enclosure with a Virtual PC image to do development with. Now the ePC is set up for development and I just connect it to a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
I also have a small Gateway PC - not as small as this one though. While it is larger, it has 2 PCI slots on it and has an internal power supply.
It was worth a shot. If all else fails just put the biggest drive you can afford in it and use it for network attatched storage.
I flipped a few Vectras with PII 400MHz processors. I kept one for my daughter and have since upgraded it to 550MHz.
You're right in that they aren't too expandable: only two RAM slots, no AGP port, but it's a remarkably quiet system and that's one of the reasons I've kept it.
...and the HP Corporate spash screen in the bios is kinda funky.
like a full-sized PC for expandability. There are no slots on this machine besides the 1 DIMM slot for memory. The Gateway that I have is very similar to what you have. I'm missing the card retaining bracket though.
I'm currently doing this with a generic Micro-ATX case, a Socket 370 motherboard with a Celeron 800, 256MB RAM, built-in video/network/sound, and 40GB and 80GB hard disks.
It's on 24/7, unless I'm doing maintenance on it.
It's currently running Windows XP Pro for the remote desktop capability. I'll eventually put Linux on it.