I have recently been collecting parts to build a bare bones PC, with no moving parts, to run LinuxCNC.
My intention is to mount the PC inside the controller box along with all of the stepper drivers and power supplies.
I first bought a second hand VXL GA-C7V7VX-RH motherboard for £20.00 ($31.00) with free P&P from ebay.
This is a Mini ITX motherboard with a 1GHz Via Esther C7 CPU, that was probably previously used in an Itona thin client EPOS system as can be seen on the parkytowers web site.
In the above photo, you can see that it has passive cooling, onboard USB, VGA, network, serial and parallel connections and an expansion slot should I need to add a second parallel card.
It actually came with a 64MB flash drive installed in the IDE1 slot which was an unexpected bonus.
I bought a compact flash adapter for £0.99 ($1.55) with free P&P (actually I bought 2) from ebay seller bigger*gift to use in the IDE2 slot, into which I have installed a 512MB CF card I had laying around.
I also have the option of replacing the 64MB flash drive with the other adapter and using a CF card in each of the IDE slots and swapping in different size cards – I have several 1GB cards and may yet buy one or more 4GB cards should I require more space.
Next up was a 160W 12V DC Pico ATX power adapter for £9.19 ($14.25) from ebay seller accecity-ca.
The parkytowers web site claims that this motherboard only draws about 28W when running, so 160W should be more than enough juice.
Finally a second hand 1GB memory DIMM for £0.99 plus £1.25 P&P also from ebay, 1GB is the maximum that this motherboard supports, so why use anything smaller?
As such the hardware for this PC has cost me £32.42 ($50.25).
I already have an old 15″ LCD monitor that I can use along with one of each from my collection of mice and keyboards that I seem to keep acquiring.