PicoBTX Computer Post Build Description - ClientPro 212
PLEASE READ!!!
A video over 2 years in the making... or not.
My build of a PicoBTX form factor computer, purchased from Hyper Micro of Illinois in July of 2014. It was a barebones unit, meaning it only had the motherboard and the power supply, I had to provide the drives, memory, and CPU.
The PC is originally the ClientPro 212, made by MPC Corporation, nee Micron Technology, Inc.
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPC_Cor...
On April 3, 2006, MPC issued a press release about the ClientPro 212:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releas...
MPC eventually swallowed up Gateway's services business, but it was too late by then, and they stopped producing PCs in 2008 and are still in the services business here in Idaho, where I'm currently living.
The drivers and a manual in Windows help format are still at the MPC/Gateway enthusiast's site here:
http://www.mpcdrivers.com/apps/syshub...
I can only assume the old build-to-order stock was liquidated for tax reasons and found their way to a couple of resellers, one of which was Hyper Microsystems of Illinois.
http://www.hypermicro.com
Hyper Micro doesn't have any more of these PCs; some were black, some were silver. YouTuber +Maxxarcade has made several videos about these PCs as he's successfully built two of them. Playlist of all those videos follows:
PicoBTX Build (Maxxarcade) Playlist
• PicoBTX Build (Maxxarcade)
I was not so lucky. I tried to build mine in September, 2015 with two bad sticks of DDR2 RAM. Thinking that there was a problem with one of the memory banks, I attempted a BIOS update and bricked the motherboard in the process. Bloodied but unbowed, I went ahead and purchased a better board, an Intel DG965PZ:
Intel site:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/e...
Additionally, I obtained the fastest processor that you can get for it, the Core 2 Duo E6100, and 4 1GB sticks of Micron branded, Crucial DDR2 RAM, just in case. The only issue is that the mobo doesn't have an I/O shield.
I've managed to get all the appropriate drivers and I've installed Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 on it. But I don't like it much. Not because it's XP it's because I have to use crappy AVG Anti Virus and I would much prefer to use Microsoft Security Essentials, namely because it's free, fast, and stays out of the way.
The addition of AVG just adds an additional 45 seconds to 1 minute to the PC's boot time. Therefore, I may install Windows 7 Pro 64bit (license) or Ubuntu Linux 15.10.
Anyways, another derptastic video from me. As +uxwbill says, "Feel free to leave a comment, if you have one."