Need advice on small system for kitchen desk

[teddymines]

We have a small built-in desk in the kitchen, and I'd like to either buy or put together a small system that would fit nicely. The desk measures about 4 feet long by about 2 feet deep. There are 3 drawers under the left side that take up about 1.5 feet, leaving about 2.5 feet of space for the chair. This system will be used for small tasks (email, banking, a budget spreadsheet) so it doesn't need a lot of horsepower. I'm leaning toward a small LCD for display.

The problem is finding a place for the case. If it sits on the floor under the desk, I'm afraid it will get kicked or hit by the chair when it is pushed in. I resist putting it on the desktop because space is premium. The drawers wouldn't work because I'm very concerned about heat buildup (I'd have to add lots of venting, which I don't want to do).

Immediately to the right of the desk is the basement staircase. I was thinking of building a bracket to hold the case on the wall in the staircase adjacent to the desk, and then somehow passing the cables through the wall. Physical access to the PC won't be an issue because this will be an always-on PC with no need for CD or floppy access.

So, has anyone done this with a PC? Also, can anyone recommend a very low-profile case for pre-built (preferably used) PC's?


BTW: Here is a link to a similar desk, but ours has only one set of drawers on the left side. The PC would be mounted on the other side of the wall where that red thing on the desk is.
Picture

 

[ProviaFan]

By pre-built (or preferrably used) PCs, are you saying that you have a PC already that you would like to mount in a different case and use for this task? If so, you may be out of luck, as Compaq especially, and also other manufacturers, especially on older cases, use proprietary cases. If the computer innards you have are microATX or mini ITX format, then you should be able to find a small case easily.

 

[foofoo]

hi,
i considered somethinng like that but ended up doing another solution to allow my wife to reclaim her desk space back from her mid-tower and 17" crt.
we put together one of those shuttle mini pcs. which was a ss51g, p4 1.8a, 512 mb ram, cdrw / dvd. and put a samsung 151s 15" lcd monitor on it. the shuttle box is only ~8" x 8" x 11.5" and the lcd sits nicely on top of the case. we also got one of those mini keyboards (looks like a notebook keyboard, small but usable)this takes almost no desk space and has worked very well for us. you might want to consider something like it.
good luck.

 

[optimistic]

Here's some ideas!

Rackmount Barebone Idea $212(nForce) / $199 (SIS 651)
Case w/180w PSU
Motherboard nForce or SIS 651
- Case takes regular size mATX mainboard up to 12" x10".
- 1x5.25 bay, 1x3.25 bay, 1 Full-PCI slot (through riser card)
- Mount it vertically on the inside of your desk! How sleek is that? No one will guess this black piece of equipment is a computer.
- Dimensions: 1.75" wide, 19" tall and 20" deep. Your space: 30" wide, ??" tall and 24" deep.
- Motherboard is fully integrated.

Shuttle Barebone Idea $295
SS51G (SiS651) review
- This is a box. Probably going to have to use counter space if you're going with this.
- Dimensions: 8" wide, 5" tall and 11.5" deep. Your space: 48" wide, ??" tall and 24" deep.
- Motherboard is also fully integrated.

Ahh, after some resarch (whew!) here's another option.

IBM Netvista S40 Option $20(ebay) + $63(wiredzone) = $83
Case 90w PSU fine for P4 2.1GHz Read
Motherboard* P4S333-VM (SIS645) *No bigger than 245 x 210mm, and you might need to find a shallow CDROM ~170mm. Like this guy LITE-ON LTD-166S $45
- Case features: 1 x 5.25", 1 x 3.5" Hidden, 4 low profile expansion slots, 2 front USB
- Dimensions: 3.25" wide, 15" tall and 12" deep.

 

[optimistic]

Also if you don't like any of those ideas🙁 Look here and make up something with one of these cases.

- SFF CASE LIST (MicroATX and FlexATX)

 

[teddymines]

The more I think about it, maybe a cheap laptop would do the trick!

 

[LazyBastard]

I recommend one of the small Shuttle systems. Since you aren't going to do any gaming, you can get the SS50 for only $249 at Newegg. Then you'd only need to buy a CPU, memory, hard drive, and CD or DVD drive (floppy optional), monitor, kb and mouse.

You could put a small LCD monitor on top of it to save even more space.