[ale] semi OT: ideas about building a PVR/XPC

[lance crocker]

Well, what I am thinking of is a PVR slash gaming box. I would certainly
like to watch, record, edit, and playback media files on the TV. I would
also like to play nice games on the systemwhen I am not watching TV.

This in itself reqiures high end hardware.

This is the list taht I had in mind:

1. Shuttle SN41G			$350
2. 512MB Crucial RAM		$80
3. AMD ATHLON XP 2600		$250
4. Seagate 120GB HDD		$130
5. ATI A.I.W. 9700		$390
6. Logitech Cordless Elite Duo$80
7. PIONEER 16X DVD-ROM		$45
8. Teac 1.44MB 3.5 Floppy	$10
9. 3COM 905CX-TXM PCI 10/100	$35

Total					$1370 ( not including any software )

This would be able to handle the workload that is needed to play games and
record TV.

Lance

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-admin at ale.org [mailto:ale-admin at ale.org]On Behalf Of Joe
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 3:10 PM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] semi OT: ideas about building a PVR/XPC


"lance crocker" <jnlc at bellsouth.net> writes:

> Hey all,
>
> I am planning on building a PVR ( Personal video recorder - like Tivo ),
an
> XPC ( Multimedia entertainment PC that will hockup to my TV and home
> theater ), or some sort of combination.
>
> I have thought of two basic choices for this attempt.
>
> 1. Buy an Xbox, hack it and install Xbox linux on it ( roughly around
$300 )
>
> or
>
> 2. Build an XPC using current high end PC hardware  ( roughly around
$1700 )

You probably don't need current high end PC hardware. Last year's
model will have sufficient performance, at a fraction of the price. I
figure I can put together a 800Mhz AMD-based box with reasonable
multimedia hardware for around $400. Get that working, and upgrade the
hardware as you go, if you feel the need.

Let's see...

Case:  $30 (Cheap crap, but gets the job done)
HD:   $100 (80GB)
MB:   $100 (including 800Mhz AMD CPU)
RAM:   $50 (256MB SIMM)
Sound: $30 (SB clone)
Video: $50 (Something with TV out)
Tuner: $45 (ATI TV Wonder)
DVD:   $50
NIC:   $15
-----------
      $440

The "cheap crap" comment pretty much applies to the whole list :-)
Probably some of that could be trimmed even further, and you might
just have a bunch of usable pieces lying around already. But you'd
end up with a system that would do the job.

Cheers,

-- Joe Knapka
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