[kilimanjaro]

yeah your right Topken, ? I'm kinda lost to what that space is about then, also I did come across the word "optional" after talking about the COm Port/RS232 on some of the adds? we'll have to wait and see until someone is willing to purchase a unit and tell us, or enquire. would be awesome if someone like labdatek got some of these and maybe add a markup of 30%, so @ £110, it still be pretty good deal if it does as advertised

[noggin]

yeah your right Topken, ? I'm kinda lost to what that space is about then, also I did come across the word "optional" after talking about the COm Port/RS232 on some of the adds? we'll have to wait and see until someone is willing to purchase a unit and tell us, or enquire. would be awesome if someone like labdatek got some of these and maybe add a markup of 30%, so @ £110, it still be pretty good deal if it does as advertised

The space is almost certainly to save money. As I mentioned above - PCB costs are non-trivial in a BOM. If you use less PCB surface area, you save money. If they don't need that space, then they save money by not having PCB there (though I'm surprised that the 2.5" drive appears to be mounted on empty board - though of course there may be components below it rather than it resting on empty PCB (or there may be a gap beneath it too)

I doubt any UK dealer will pick it up as it is a no-name brand and a niche product. And could well disappear overnight, as so many of the chinese boxes do.

[kilimanjaro]

name might not be that familiar here but it does seem that its an established player in China

"Company Information

Founded in 2002, Shenzhen Maxtang Computer Company Limited (hereafter referred as Maxtang) is a pioneer immersed into low power consumption mini computer and mini-itx motherboard designing, researching and manufacturing. Equipped with dozens of experienced engineers in R&D department, Maxtang works closely with its customers to provide them a quicker time-to-market and best operating experience.

With its close cooperation with Giants like Intel, AMD, Nvidia and VIA, Maxtang has its own production lines and has launched an extensive portfolio ranging from mini itx motherboards, mini computers and industrial computers under its own brand Maxtang. Its products are widely used in applications like home, office, school system, data communication, hotel, KTV, AIO, digital signage, banking, medical POS and so on.

Years of exprerience of making mini pc and mini itx motherboard enables Maxtang be quick to market requiremnets, and be flexible in designing and manufacturing."

they do have a portfolio of previous products, but agree that its a gamble, hence therin lies the benefit.
I won't be surprised that lambdatek won't have their people in China and to get them to check this company out before buying into it. Everything is made in China, so if you want to be a serious reseller you would need to visit China once?

but do understand your concern, the purchase is protected by paypal though

[LazerBlue]

I am almost certain that the blank space in the motherboard was originally designed for a fan. The size, shape, and layout would suggest the same type of fan and cooling system used in a laptop. I've replaced many laptop fans in the past, and the spaces all looked like that. Could be it was originally planned with a fan and then the final processor choice allows for just the thermal block.

[noggin]

name might not be that familiar here but it does seem that its an established player in China

"Company Information

Founded in 2002, Shenzhen Maxtang Computer Company Limited (hereafter referred as Maxtang) is a pioneer immersed into low power consumption mini computer and mini-itx motherboard designing, researching and manufacturing. Equipped with dozens of experienced engineers in R&D department, Maxtang works closely with its customers to provide them a quicker time-to-market and best operating experience.

With its close cooperation with Giants like Intel, AMD, Nvidia and VIA, Maxtang has its own production lines and has launched an extensive portfolio ranging from mini itx motherboards, mini computers and industrial computers under its own brand Maxtang. Its products are widely used in applications like home, office, school system, data communication, hotel, KTV, AIO, digital signage, banking, medical POS and so on.

Years of exprerience of making mini pc and mini itx motherboard enables Maxtang be quick to market requiremnets, and be flexible in designing and manufacturing."

they do have a portfolio of previous products, but agree that its a gamble, hence therin lies the benefit.
I won't be surprised that lambdatek won't have their people in China and to get them to check this company out before buying into it. Everything is made in China, so if you want to be a serious reseller you would need to visit China once?

but do understand your concern, the purchase is protected by paypal though

Think you're misunderstanding me. Have no issues with personally purchasing a box, but if you look at eBuyer, Lambdatek etc. this isn't the kind of thing that they stock. I've bought a few boxes from China - and had no real issues. There are hundreds if not thousands of operations like Maxtang over there that we haven't heard of. However they do appear to churn models very quickly in many cases, or not even produce boxes they advertise if they don't get bulk orders. (i.e. make a prototype based on a reference design, take some pix and advertise it for bulk sale, then manufacture it if someone orders it...)

It's always struck me that most of the UK e-tailers appear to use similar (if not identical) warehouse fulfilment centres (when you compare stock levels). Rather than the websites having lots of separate buying teams scouting around the world, they all appear to source from similar warehouse operations (rather than running all the warehouses themselves)

I very much doubt any of the main UK e-tailers will go for this. Happy to be proved wrong.

To be honest - I'd expect one of the smaller, niche importers that sell things like the FitPC, ODroid C1, Alix, Soekris type things to stock it if anyone does.

[kilimanjaro]

the thing that would concern me is that they would add import tax and vat, which will negate the price point of this box (if you lived in UK). don't think there would be any way to not get charged. no one else think its pretty amazing to get 2957u in a fanless system?
(if anyone has an account with alibaba, would be nice if you could get a quote, and to see what the shipping cost will be)

[Topken]

After searching their website I came across this http://www.datangpc.com/en/productlist.asp?sendid=55 Which looks like an update to the machne posted here since its running broadwell instead of haswell.

[noggin]

the thing that would concern me is that they would add import tax and vat, which will negate the price point of this box (if you lived in UK). don't think there would be any way to not get charged. no one else think its pretty amazing to get 2957u in a fanless system?
(if anyone has an account with alibaba, would be nice if you could get a quote, and to see what the shipping cost will be)

Well - we'll have to pay VAT whoever and however we buy it from. So that's an additional 20%. Plus import duty if applicable.

[kilimanjaro]

After searching their website I came across this http://www.datangpc.com/en/productlist.asp?sendid=55 Which looks like an update to the machne posted here since its running broadwell instead of haswell.

so the yellow maxtang means it broadwell? if its an updated version then most likely it will cost more, and since the haswell can do 98% of the things I would rather go with the cheapest one

Well - we'll have to pay VAT whoever and however we buy it from. So that's an additional 20%. Plus import duty if applicable.

you never buy anything from china that comes through there china service and goes through customs without being charged? I'm hoping there was an option for this in the same way hate me all you want everyone thinks the same. if thats the case then the box has lost all its appeal to me, after charges it would be considerable amount. pretty good deal if you live in a country that won't charge to import