Build a Kitchen PC

By George Jones

September 4, 2006

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When it comes to the proper planning and placement of equipment and ingredients in the kitchen, the French have a word for it (actually, three words): mise en place. The goal is to make the cooking process as efficient as possible. Unfortunately for many household chefs, mise en place includes a spattered, dog-eared cookbook or messy magazine and newspaper clippings that consume valuable counter space. In addition, many kitchens today also cram in a TV, CD player, and radio.

All this makes the kitchen an interesting opportunity for intrepid system builders. The ability to offer customers a life-altering, real-world use for a system can help differentiate a system builder's services, attract new customers, and turn a nice profit in the process.

For the ideal kitchen PC, the following functionality is paramount:

• Small form-factor: Lets the user position the PC in a cabinet or under a counter.
• Web browsing: To find recipes, news, etc.
• Multimedia: The ability to watch TV, play DVDs, and play music CDs and files.
• Touch screen: Eliminates the need for a counter-cluttering keyboard and mouse.
• A "flexible" screen: I'm not talking about one of those space-age, fruit roll-up types of flexible screens. Rather, I mean a mount for the display that can be positioned above a stove, cabinet, or counter so it does not consume valuable counter space. The display should be easily maneuverable so that the user can adjust for height, distance and location.

Also, the less powerýboth in terms of energy consumption and performanceýthe better. What do I mean by that? In contrast to many PC projects, a kitchen PC will be used for fairly simple computing tasks. Therefore, it needn't be a processing monster. Instead, I aimed to find a sweet spot on the low-end of the price-performance scale that would result in a cool, quiet, and affordable system. Unfortunately, it turned out that I aimed a little too low, so, as you'll see, my project can also serve as a cautionary tale.

The greatest attribute of this rig is that it is entirely scaleable.

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