Mini-ITX

A mini-ITX motherboard ranges from US$100 (with a 0.5GHz processor) to US$168 (with a 1GHz processor) without memory. The cost of memory is the same as regular motherboards. As of the writing of this article, 128MB of PC133 memory is about US$25. That's not much.

A 32MB disk-on-chip memory can be found at US$20 at surplus stores. For some applications, that's more than enough. For more capacity and frequent rewriting, a small capacitor hard disk (IDE, 30GB) is about US$50. Furthermore, must Mini-ITX boards now come with USB 2.0 interfaces. This means you can use a US$50 1GB jump drive as your mass storage.

Mini-ITX motherboards can use regular ATX power supplies. However, one can also use smaller power supplies. A kit consisting of a 55W 12VDC DC-DC converter and a 110-230 VAC to 12VDC power supply is about US$60.

By the time you have a fully functional computer, you probably will have spent about US$220 to US$300.