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Iyonix mobos available separately

By Chris Williams. Published: 18th Oct 2004, 16:52:15.

For really limited time only

Until the end of October, Castle are selling Iyonix motherboards for 729 quid (inc. VAT, exc. postage). After bowing to pressure from users, Castle admits that "potentially this method of acquiring an IYONIX pc can also save the customer hundreds of pounds."

The 'DIY motherboard kit' is a standard Iyonix mobo: 600MHz XScale processor, 1GBit networking, PCI, RISC OS 5 and a GeForce2 graphics card. This doesn't include the PSU, a USB card, storage media or RAM. There's also a limit of two DIY Iyonix mobos per customer.

Earlier this year, users in Australia were building their own Iyonixes from motherboards shipped by Castle exclusively for them. The limited time period for now seems odd, but not wholly surprising because Castle sell their Iyonix motherboards elsewhere as expensive embedded development kits.

Update at 08:21 20/10/2004
A component list is available here, for those worrying about USB cards and such kit. Castle have also denied rumours that they are clearing Iyonix stock to make way for a new product line, and are simply responding to customer interest.

Links
Iyonix website

Discussion

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Ooh, dumping stock to make way for a new Adjust'ed 1GHz IyonixII are we?

Seems like a pretty good deal, bit surprised the USB card comes seperately - wouldn't you need that specific model (like the GFX card)?

simo on 18/10/04 4:58PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

£729 for a motherboard is still a bit steep. You can get state of the art PC motherboards for around £20-30 now! Even top of the range ones come in around £200. Granted, they're made in small numbers, but this still seems a bit steep.

Smiler on 18/10/04 5:12PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I suspect that 30 quid for the PC mobo doesn't include an OS or processor, Smiler.

Chris. Just me.

diomus on 18/10/04 5:18PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Smiler: the bottom line is people are always going to complain about price, and you're hardly comparing like with like, and forgetting what might be a signficant support cost.

If you want to get a PC from bits and run VRPC on it, then do so - but that's much closer to 400 UKP by the time you include all the hardware and software you need.

If it works out well for Castle, then who knows, the price might come down.

mrchocky on 18/10/04 5:28PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

If memory serves me correctly the above price compares well to a swapout Omega motherboard for a Mico (£695+vat ?). Whats the size of this motherboard - can it fit in a Risc PC case.

jlavallin on 18/10/04 6:07PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

From the picture it looks larger, but it would depend on how many slices you have.

AndrewDuffell on 18/10/04 6:31PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

No (at least not realistically) it is a mATX format board (same as the Mico and Omega).

The Doctor on 18/10/04 6:32PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

The Iyo motherboard is apparently a standard micro-ATX unit. Thus it should easily fit in any standard micro-ATX PC case. Googling will find you lots of them. Some are even attractive.

rowledge on 18/10/04 6:35PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Seems like a good bargain to me.

As to those who complain about the price, yes it would be nice if Castle could virtually give them away - but the problem with that they'd have virtually zero income and the Iyonix would be the *last* compeditive RISC OS computer.

I don't think I'd fancy that....

AMS on 18/10/04 6:41PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I have a 2 slice Risc PC + a Mico. If I put the Iyonix motherboard in the Mico case it might cause a few raised eyebrows if it needed Castle upgrading or repair ;-)

jlavallin on 18/10/04 6:49PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

When Castle claim that just buying the motherboard can "Also save the customer hundreds of pounds" does this mean you could build a computer with the hardware specs of a complete Iyonix for less? Or does it mean you will only save if you build a lower spec machine? Just curious about the maths, maybe Castle are simply selling off unsold stock.

Fuzzy on 18/10/04 7:07PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I've just had an idea, get one of these motherboards and a lcd display, plus a home made case and you could have a new g5 imac style RiscOS machine :-)

Wookie on 18/10/04 8:29PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Smiler: I suspect that the PC motherboards don't run RISC OS etc etc don't compare PC motherboards with Iyonix ones, the fact is it's cheaper than buying a complete iyonix. I certainly wouldn't swap my RO box for a PC.

john on 18/10/04 9:19PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Fuzzy: Of course you can build a complete computer for less than you can buy an Iyonix. You don't have to factor in salaries, depreciation, heating, lighting, tax, NI, development, testing. Or profit, without which Castle would be dead. And on which, of course, they'll be taxed again.

mikeg on 18/10/04 10:22PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I think the important point is that I can seriously consider buying a board at that price, but i couldn't really get the full price machine.

jess on 18/10/04 11:12PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Great news! This is without a doubt the best offer Castle has ever presented.

Perhaps they are making room for something else... something equipped with a new Xscale and a "new" OS

hEgelia on 18/10/04 11:14PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

What a great idea, but hardly surprising, given how Australian users have been benefitting from something like this for most of this year.

Looks like they're shifting stock to make way for something better. Keeping the ol' fingers crossed here :-)

sascott on 19/10/04 2:08AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Evenin' folks, getting a bit late, but couldn't quiet resist a list a comment on this one....

The Good - Means I can upgrade to an Iyonix for under 800 (almost, inc vat) - slightly more possible for me atm than a full system from Castle.

The bad - not to drop too much into previous discussion/irrelevant price compaison, but PC mobo + processor + winXP (retail if you must, deduct from total for Linux) comes to well under £200 - still not cheap enough to temp the masses :-(

The ugly - it's gone 5am, amd I'm up at before 9 -eeek! - not that you should really care ;-)

To sumarise (imho) nice offer, but still not enough to tempt us fence-sitters - now if it's a sign of stock clearing to make room for something new, well I might be tempted to make the move :-)

Dear go, did I say past 5qam, gotta go folks - night all!!! :-)

Ryan

drjones69 on 19/10/04 5:33AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Interesting comments about price. The mobo offer means I can buy a iyonix "clone" for about NZ$ 2,200. That compares to most of the mid to upper range Dell boxes. yes they are 3 GHz boxes with monitors but then we do pay more for RO. For NZers it means that we can get a box for about 1/2 the price that the iyonix was retailing in NZ, or about $1000, cheaper then a direct import. So it does mean that we can upgrade now, even if the price / RO lack of wide acceptance does not bring new people to the market

pmnoble on 19/10/04 8:46AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Reply to pmnoble: Yes, it could work out quite well here in NZ. I don't think Castle themselves could support all the different possibilities for hardware, but we could handle it. Regarding the above and what people are saying about getting a PC/Windows M/board etc. for ukp200 for a good one - what makes a *really good* one? The new (Jan. 2004) PCs I teach with in the Music Dept. are a bit of a dog in some ways. It's like we're stretching them to their limits. Continuous little hardware, software and OS faults, and they're well looked after and supposedly good, name brand machines. If we're going to use PC/Windows, I (for one) would really like to know what makes a *good*, very reliable combination. Friends of mine have found (the hard way) that for them the most reliable route in PC land is to get a laptop - a completely integrated solution assembled by one manufacturer, a la Mac or Acorn.

webmonster on 19/10/04 10:50AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

The strict time limit (two weeks!) makes me think this isn't stock clearance. And besides, they've already got an outlet for these boards which doesn't depend on making up complete Iyonices.

I'm quite tempted by this offer, but I didn't have much luck last night sourcing any elegant, small micro-ATX cases, especially from the UK. Any recommendations?

ninja on 19/10/04 1:59PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Any ATX case will do fine. Failing that, ebuyer do have a few mATX cases

fwibbler on 19/10/04 7:09PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Just the thing to go in my Phobe case I think, with the aid of a hacksaw of course!

SteveG on 20/10/04 12:27PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

This is a ludicrous price. I'm a RISC OS advocate and I except that RISC OS machines cost more, but this is taking the mick. I saw this news and thought maybe I could get back into the fold, but not at that price. I need a laptop first, and I can get a 64bit one for the same price as a 32bit Iyonix *motherboard*!!

arenaman on 21/10/04 10:21AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I reckon it should be possible to build a reasonable Iyonix for about £GBP900 with this offer. How does this compare with Apple machines?

I also think that the board is incredibly expensive, but on the other hand, no one else is selling anything similar for a lot less. Cheers!

fwibbler on 21/10/04 12:02PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

fwibbler: yet.

md0u80c9 on 21/10/04 12:44PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Ninja said that; "The strict time limit (two weeks!) makes me think this isn't stock clearance".

Well, the strict time limit makes me think; "nothing new from Castle at the Guildford show but something major at the Birmingham bash early December that will be pre-announced mid November"....

On the other hand, maybe Castle just want to keep people thinking "Iyonix" via clever, tempting and unpredictable offers....

martin on 21/10/04 8:51PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

"How does this compare with Apple machines?" For about the same amount you get a complete iMac G5 or almost a G5 tower...

zakalwe on 21/10/04 11:48PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

1.8GHz PowerPC G5 256MB RAM 80GB HD 8x SuperDrive (DVD/CD writer) NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 64MB 1099ukps, oddly the 17" iMac is similarly specced except 50ukps cheaper and has a 17" LCD.

You could build an Iyonix for 900ukps easily, so another 200 for faster CPU and GPU seems about equal to the PowerMac. In conclusion we could do with a cheaper less expandable RISC OS computer, but the desktop one is almost reasonably priced.

Next you'll be wanting Apple to sell their MBs seperately too

mavhc on 22/10/04 12:25AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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