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Building a PC Equal to XBox for the Same Price or Less?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-challenge-to-the-readership dept.

Lonnold asks: "Every time the topic of Linux on the XBox and/or XBox modding comes up, some one always responds, 'I can build a better PC from scratch, why waste time modding a game console?' So that's my challenge, can anyone demonstrate that it is cheaper to build a PC comparable to the XBox specs?"

6 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Why not build a Dreamcast-Like PC by sirmikester · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In the spirit of recreating an xbox, why don't we also recreate a Dreamcast-like PC setup. Its development community was just about as active as the xbox's is today, plus it ran windows CE.. Its hardware specs were: - 128 Bit custom hitachi cpu (equivalent of Pentium II?) - NEC PowerVR2 Graphics card (I'm sure you can an equivalent at a used computer parts store) - 16 megs of ram - 12x cdrom - no harddrive - add on modem/network card. IMHO I think all would cost about 20 bucks, but getting it to run would suck... i guess you could use Knoppix!

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  2. Re:Its even cheaper by ameoba · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The big problem with a modded xbox is that it's only got 64MB of memory, and you can't upgrade that. A modern desktop distro is going to want to use 128MB or more. With only 64MB of ram, the machine's not good for doing much of anything too interesting.

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  3. Re:Lets see here by photon317 · · Score: 2, Interesting


    What would really make this interesting would be if someone would make it possible to run x-box games on such a box. Assuming the same graphics and sound chips the games should almost run unmodified, would just take a little bit of compatibility layer and perhaps a copy of the xbox rom?

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  4. My attempt. by MoOsEb0y · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Coming from newegg.com,

    METIS CS-I3ALB.701 (Light-Blue) ATX MID-TOWER CASE w/ 300W POWER SUPPLY -2 x USB RETAIL
    $22.00

    Seagate 30GB 7200rpm EIDE Hard Drive Barracuda V ST330013A - OEM
    $50.00

    SimpleTech (Simple Technologies) 128MB DDR PC2100 - OEM
    $22.00

    Shuttle Motherboard for AMD processors Micro ATX, Model MN31N - Retail (nForce2 Chipset with a geforce 4 onboard)
    $90.00

    AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.1GHz 200MHz Bus Socket A PGA Processor
    $35.00

    Coolermaster DP5-6I11A HSF
    $4

    Total:
    $223.00

  5. Re:Um, loss leader anyone? by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Of course the 'killing on the blades' part is proving to be more difficult than they anticipated, but so it goes.

    Perhaps they overlooked the fact that blades wear out, but game discs don't. You can't trade razor blades with friends or sell them back to "Razor Stop" and replace them with other used blades unless you like pain.

    We won't even get into the fact that Gilette using existing patent law to protect their business model and didn't have to lobby congress for new protections that didn't exist to prevent reverse engineering.

  6. Re:Lets see here by jafuser · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought the XBox itself doesn't have an OS installed, and that the OS comes on each disc?

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