Fanless Media Center Box

An anonymous reader writes "I didn't know that Hush Technologies made Media Center PCs, but they do. Here's a review of one of those beautiful fanless machines running media center 2005. Could this be the perfect media center box?" It's certainly perfectly expensive.

Comments

I didn't know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Huckster: I didn't know that Hush Technologies made Media Center PCs, but they do.

Country Rube: Then why is your picture on the case?

Cue getaway music...

Re:I didn't know...

[Tackhead]

> Huckster: I didn't know that Hush Technologies made Media Center PCs, but they do.
>
>Country Rube: Then why is your picture on the case?
>
>Cue getaway music...

Well, it could be worse.

Huckster #2: "I didn't know that Hush Technologies had a webserver."

200,000 Slashdotting Rubes: "What webserver?"

Cue halon extinguisher activation in the server room.

Re:I didn't know...

[Anonymous Coward]

They didn't start chasing us until you turned on that getaway music!

Re:I didn't know...

[mejesster]

These products aren't particularly new. Hush has been selling overpriced HTPC gear for some time now. See http://www.mini-itx.com/ for more interesting stuff on HTPCs (although it tends to be more modding than HTPC)

Re:I didn't know...

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, first of all this is at least the 2nd version of the fanless pc that the company has released and yes they were all designed to be modia centers ... old news again ... :(
Latelly, the editors have really lowered the level ... shame on you slashdot ...

Re:I didn't know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Jeez.. what an ugly box!!! Why would anyone want that in their house? (oh its fanless.. maybe you can stuff it in a cupboard or under the floorboards or brick it up...)

Still.. it looks shit.

physical location

[iclod]

There are two critical requirements for a Media PC that's going to reside in your living room, it has to look great and be quiet as a mouse

is it a must to have your media PC in the same room? couldn't you tuck it in the cupboard somewhere and transmit signals wirelessly?

Re:physical location

[Anonymous Coward]

no. Try again.

Re:physical location

[IanBevan]

Current wireless tech does not have the bandwidth to play DVDs (unless you DivX them first or something).

Re:physical location

[Chuck Chunder]

For the same reason it isn't convenient to have my DVD/CD player tucked away in a cupboard in another room. It's handy to be able to put things into it with minimal fuss.

Re:physical location

[ackthpt]

is it a must to have your media PC in the same room? couldn't you tuck it in the cupboard somewhere and transmit signals wirelessly?

Sure and you can control it by contorting in your La-Z-Boy, trying to get the remote to reflect off the strategically placed mirrors around the house. You may also want to scrable the signal if it's wireless so the neighborhood geeks don't see what you're really watching...

...oh, sure, says he watches Star Trek, but he's really into Oprah and Sesame Street, the fraud...

As for me, the other important thing is it runs cool. For some reason things which run hot attract a ton of dust.

Re:physical location

[mythosaz]

I think the parent meant something along the lines of, "Why can't I put the thing in a cabinet, use a remote with an IR/FM repeater, and run a couple of cables out to my Hi-Fi and TV?"

I've used the OneForAll line of remotes, and I do enjoy their IR-repeater. Similarly, on the PC end, I've used the ATI All In Wonder Remote, and the RF range on mine (interference, perhaps) was less than exciting.

Lack of good HARD buttons keeps me in a remote nightmare right now, but I've got a mid-level URC (OneForAll) that I like right now. Doesn't have the annoying PVR "Thumb" buttons, but does have enough extras that I can map my Exploer 8000 to it.

Media Center Edition is nice, but it's still not QUITE the killer set-top machine. I still haven't seen GOOD two-tuner support in 2005, something that Cox already gives (well, sells) people on it's PVR units. As lon as NBC is going to start ER at 8:59pm, I'm gonna need two tuners.

Re:physical location

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus Fucking Christ! Put down the remote(s), stop watching so much fucking TV and go the fuck outside!

Re:physical location

[mordors9]

C'mon, why do you think we have children. It's to load the DVD/CD players for us.... You didn't really think we didn't know how to set the clock did you? HAHAHA

Re:physical location

[Anonymous Coward]

Transmit it wirelessly to what? Oh yeah, a Media PC.

What's even worse than this moron is that it's currently +4 insightful, lol.

Re:physical location

[WonderSnatch]

How about a firewire DVD drive? Have your cake and eat it too!

Re:physical location

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhm yeah they do, by a long run... currently you have 54Mbps to 108Mbps, and if you look at HDTV, a stream uses about 12-15Mbps and DVD is no where near HDTV quality.

Re:physical location

[Anonymous Coward]

Media Center Extender.

Re:physical location

[ERJ]

Sure it does. Most dvds are around 8 mbit/s. 802.11b is 10 mbit/s but with the issues it is more realistically 5 mbit/s. However, 802.11g has the bandwidth to carry a dvd no problem.

Re:physical location

[Albanach]

Of course you still need a box to receive the wireless stream, decode it and then output the video to the TV. Though this can, of course, havea slower (cooler) processor and be diskless so the noise can be toned down quite a bit.

Re:physical location

[THESuperShawn]

I tuck mine away and "control" it wirelessly.

For the signals I just use longer cables (which can be pricey for the good ones, but it's worth it).

Re:physical location

[enrico_suave]

well if you go with a wired network, a hauppauge mediamvp makes for a neat network based media "client"

people have bridged mediamvp's over a wifi networks, fwiw.

GBPVR integrates nicely with mediamvp and its own backend PVR/scheduling/htpc-esque functions and is free as in beer.

ymmv,

e.

Re:physical location

[evilviper]

I've used the ATI All In Wonder Remote, and the RF range on mine (interference, perhaps) was less than exciting.

Nope, it's the same for everyone. If you're more than, say, 10 feet away from the USB dongle, it's not going to work well.

It's amazing how popular they have gotten, considering that it's quite an overly large, bulky, poorly designed remote.

Re:physical location

[cosmol]

I still haven't seen GOOD two-tuner support in 2005

Ironic that your name contains "myth" as we've had that capability in mythtv land for quite some time. You can actually have as many tuners as you want spread out over as many machines as you want. The M$ solution will never be a killer set-top machine, unless by "killer" you mean "microsoft drm-encumbered proprietary evilness"

Re:physical location

[stickyc]

is it a must to have your media PC in the same room? couldn't you tuck it in the cupboard somewhere and transmit signals wirelessly?

You still need something on the recieving end to decode the wireless signal and translate it into a video signal. It might be easier to make a silent reciever/translator, but that still ends up being a PC for most folks.

Re:physical location

[PorkNutz]

Sure you can. Use a wireles A/V Transmitter/Reciever and hook your tv in the livingroom up to the tv out on your vid card wirelessly. Use a IR extender to send remote control signals to the PC in the other room. Viola Get another A/V reciever and IR extender and the PC can run the TV in the bedroom too.

Re:physical location

[rainman_bc]

Okay, that was pretty funny dude...

In my childhood, I WAS the remote control. We had a budget dial TV.

Later, that TV was enhanced with an act of knob-wiggling. Apparantly I was the only one that could get the knob centered to get a signal.

lol I think my parents really knew how to make it work, but they were enjoying having a remote control - granted sometimes it wasn't responsive as others, so it needed a kick in the pants or two lol!

Re:physical location

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

"microsoft drm-encumbered proprietary evilness"

The files recorded by MCE2005 are not DRM protected. Using a simple app you can convert them to standard MPEG-2.

"Ironic that your name contains "myth" as we've had that capability in mythtv land for quite some time. "

Yeah, but in so many other ways, MythTV "blows". Unless you want to dedicate a PC to being a Myth box, you're pretty much screwed.

Not to mention the killer interface, ease of setup, and overall featureset of MCE.

Oh, and, yeah, MCE2005 supports multi-tuner configs. Works great, actually. I don't know what the grandparent is complaining about.

MCE2005 just *works*. Like a TiVo. If you want to mess with crap to get your TV system going, go for it. For the rest of us who want a tested, easy-to-config solution, MCE2005 is the way to go.

Re:physical location

[Anonymous Coward]

Set the clock? I use a sundial, you insensitive clod!

Re:physical location

[prisoner]

I agree that it mostly seems to work. The only sticking point for me so far has been the very specific versions of different drivers that you need to have. I still haven't gotten my AIW to work right but I've got a hauppage 350 that works just fine. I did, however, have to go to a third party site and download version 3.24.54.67.54 of the driver to get it to work. This isn't a real big problem for me but I'm unsure it will ever be a software-only solution for the unwashed masses.

Re:physical location

[fitten]

For some reason things which run hot attract a ton of dust.

Probably the hotter part creates more air convection/movement because it heats the air locally. More air movement means more air moving across it (containing dust) which has a more likelyhood of dropping the dust out in less dense air. I don't really know for sure, but this sounds plausible to me just winging it.

Re:physical location

[LilMikey]

There are two critical requirements for a Media PC that's going to reside in your living room, it has to look great and be quiet as a mouse

Mine sits behind the big-ass 55" TV... It's a plain beige box but you wouldn't know it. Oh, and it could be built for around $400... $450 if you put in ultra quiet fans.

Re:physical location

[LWATCDR]

I was thinking that instead of putting the computer someplace else put the harddrives and big cpu someplace else. For the system in the living room a small itx that boots from a cfcard would be fine and then use a remote server to ecode and store your media collection back in your machine room.

Re:physical location

[Tower]

There are a couple of HDTV monitors out there that receive their signal via 802.11a which is ~54Mbps.

Re:physical location

[Bigboote66]

Lack of good HARD buttons keeps me in a remote nightmare right now

Have you looked at the Home Theater Master MX-500:

http://www.hometheatermaster.com/htm/mx500/index .h tml

(review here: http://www.remotecentral.com/mx500)

It's got hard buttons & great ergonomics, as well as a LCD screen & easy enough to use that you don't have to dig out the manual after the first read. HTM makes other, more expensive remotes with fancier features (the MX-800 can upload/download programming from your PC), but the MX-500 is pretty much in the sweet spot for price at about $115.

-BbT

This is certainly pretty...

[Suburbanpride]

but you can save yourslef some money and do what I do. Turn up the volume on my reciever loud enoguh so you can't hear the fans, or the wife complaining.

Re:This is certainly pretty...

[themoodykid]

Troy McLure: "DOCTOR, ARE YOU SURE IT'S ON?!"
Dr. Nick: "IT'S WHISPER QUIET!"

Re:This is certainly pretty...

[jsse]

Turn up the volume on my reciever loud enoguh so you can't hear the fans, or the wife complaining.

You obviously don't have a wife. No loud speaker on earth could stand against wife's complaining. Common tactics by her including, and not limited to:

1) Hitting your foot with full-powered vacuum cleaner (no, not even 1000W speaker could beat a 1000W vacuum cleaner)
2) Unplugging the speaker wire on the wrong end, and when it still doesn't work
3) Yelling directly into one side of your ear

Re:This is certainly pretty...

[iamhassi]

It is? Says who? Only thing I love is the article description: "Here's a review of one of those beautiful fanless machines running media center 2005." So much for un-biased reporting...

I think it's ugly and overpriced. Doesn't match anything else in the living room, might as well put a beige box in there since it'd match just as well. With the vents on top you couldn't even put anything on top of it for risk of over-heating.

Want to see what a beautiful media PC case looks like? Try the Overture Quiet Media Desktop Case, or perhaps the Silverstone Aluminum Home Entertainment Computer Case in Black or maybe the SilverStone LC10M Home Theater PC Case /w front VFD (Black). If you're on a budget the Antec MINUET Piano Black Slimline PC Case looks really nice for only $60 with Antec quality but you'll need a Micro ATX board.

Re:This is certainly pretty...

[shaka]

Um, yeah, and this is very pretty too.

Oh, btw, if you'd RTFA you would know the box mentioned in it comes in black too.

Re:This is certainly pretty...

[perky]

or try the Cubit, which is in my opinion the prettyest available.

Re:This is certainly pretty...

[ViolentGreen]

The Nanode (which I also be is by hoojam) is going to be similar but smaller. I'd love to have but if I remember correctly, the cubit is ~ $250 US. The case is going to cost more than the guts.

The problem is that the cubit is one of the few decent looking cases available. Most of the cases over at mini-itx.com are just plain hidious. All that I want is a not-ugly case that will handle two 3.5 hard drives (with no cdrom) and there is virtually nothing out there.

Re:This is certainly pretty...

[Rob Parkhill]

Problems with the Overture case (yes, I have one...)

- It's loud. Despite the claims of "silent" operation, the power supply fan and the case fan are in fact quite noisy. Quieter than a standard PC, yes, but not silent. They make the silent claim because both fans are variable speed. Well, stick in an MPEG-2 encoder, a good video card, and an AMD CPU, and both fans will always be running at full speed.

- It only looks good if you don't install a DVD drive. The face is a lovely silver-coloured plastic. But the covers for the DVD drive are not the nice kind that flip up to reveal the drive inside. No, you have to yank off the plastic cover and leave the drive exposed. Good luck getting a drive to match that silver.

You are better off buying a decent desktop PC case and painting it black and silver yourself, and getting a nice quiet power supply and case fan from a company that knows how to make quiet power supplies and case fans.

Re:This is certainly pretty...

[iamhassi]

welcome to /. where no one RTFA. Be glad I even followed the link and looked at the pictures!

1,791.38 GBP

[AltGrendel]

= 3,389.61 USD

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Anonymous Coward]

Make that 1791 *EUROS* not 1791 *POUNDS STERLING*, still works out at 2374 *US DOLLARS* though!

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Anonymous Coward]

That is entirely too much to pay for a consumer Windows box of any kind.

Linux and BSD probably can't take advantage of the proprietary hardware in the sucker, either.

I think I'll buy a(nother) Mac instead.

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Anonymous Coward]

The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination - Douglas Adams

Then he had a pretty small imagination, and considering it's Douglas Adams, that's kind of hard to believe; maybe that quote is a clue that he ripped off his ideas from somewhere else.

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[cliveholloway]

= 3,389.61 USD

Note that's the price today. Considering the way the dollar's going, here's a handy chart to help you through the next 6 months:

Jan 2005 => 3,689.35 USD
Feb 2005 => 3,745.22 USD
Mar 2005 => 3,823.43 USD
Apr 2005 => 3,897.01 USD
May 2005 => 3,925.23 USD
Jun 2005 => 3,990.45 USD

Oh, small caveat. The above assumes that Russia doesn't start selling its oil in Euros. If that happens, all bets are off :)

cLive ;-)

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[IO ERROR]

You forgot the URL: xe.com currency calculator

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you calculate the depreciation value of PCs?

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Anonymous Coward]

lol, lets all reply to sigs now!111!1!!

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Coryoth]

There's plenty to worry about. See my sig for an attempt a non-partisan, level headed approach to looking into the economic issues the US may in fact be facing.

Jedidiah.

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but will the value of the dollar go up or down when we decide to declare war on Russia for selling its oil in Euors.

Oh wait did I say for starting to sell their oil in Euros? I meant for having Weapons of Mass Destruction!

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Zeinfeld]

The price is probably not that bad since the machine is probably actually manufactured in the faqr east in a currency that is dollar pegged. Otherwise you are probably right about the decline in the dollar's value. The Dufus deficit is huge, structural and growing. Wars cost money, lots of it. This is the first war in US history that was accompanied by tax cuts. Expect a major currency meltdown in the next 18 months or so. On the subject of the hush PC, I think it looks pretty cute. it is a real pity that so very few PC makers have tried to follow the Apple lead of producing a high end designer PC rather than commodity trash. On the other hand it is almost ten times what I just paid for a new Dell...

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Nice irony you have there, with the rampant homophobia and all.

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[cliveholloway]

Actually, I read it yesterday. Hence link to same article :)

Nice Essay. Well researched.

cLive ;-)

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[TheRaven64]

I prefer this one - the OS X calculator can do currency conversions based on current exchange rates, but that graph looks great for skiing down...

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Mr_Silver]

= 3,389.61 USD

Given that here in the UK, we are ripped off royally when it comes to anything to do with technology - you'll probably find that this will go on sale in the USA for about 2000 USD.

I kid you not. A 40gig iPod in the USA costs you 399 USD which should work out at 266 GBP. However we have to pay 299 GBP - which represents an increase of 12%.

Re:1,791.38 GBP

[Anonymous Coward]

RTFA - that price is in GBP. Go to the hush website, that model starts at around 2,200 euro with wireless LAN.

nice, wish I could afford it

[the arbiter]

Ahh, now this is what those of us who have home recording studios need...it's so hard to get good vocal/acoustic guitar takes with that damn Athlon fan blasting away in the background.

One day...

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at www.silentpcreview.com for plenty of info on how to modify or build a quiet machine.

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[Blakey Rat]

Apple has made tons of silent machines in its history, take a look at... well, most iMac models (I don't know about the current one) and the eMac, as well as the G4 Cubes, if you don't mind a used computer.

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[zolon]

From my own knowledge of running a recording studio, in my home, build sound rooms, that the computer is not in. They also have panels that you can use for this, and in the long run, it is cheaper then that hush system.

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok as a musician and a Unix engineer. Try the new Imac - at 24db which is lower than a whisper and all of it's powerbook line from where I type this reply.

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[temojen]

So put the computer outside the room, with a hole in the wall (stuffed with foam rubber) to pass the cables through. If you need a CD/DVD drive there too (ie for a web radio station) get a USB one.

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[Drakonite]

While you may have a valid point... computers have cables and extension cords for a reason.

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[bunkpariah]

In the UK, redsub.com is a popular alternative.

I've got two of Redsub's quiet Wintel boxes; they're not stupidly expensive, and they're very, very quiet. Redsub is AV-savvy and understands that particular AV programs prefer particular chipsets, tweaks, etc. Not too shabby.

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[aidbo]

I have the newest model, and while it does have 2 fans, it is "whisper quiet" And I'm sure that with the correct accessories, and or software, it could easily double as an excellent media PC^H^H Mac.

Re:nice, wish I could afford it

[wirelessbuzzers]

and the eMac

I have an eMac 700 MHz. It's quite loud.

Re:Fanless box?

[Anonymous Coward]

you only say that 'cause you've never had a box with a fan

Re:Fanless box?

[Anonymous Coward]

yea you like em young eh?

Re:Fanless box?

[Anonymous Coward]

agreed. >:)

PCworld.com just reviewed 9 MCE machines

[xplosiv]

PCworld just did a review on 9 MCE machines, they might help you find a cheaper MCE machine if you are in the market for one.

PCworld.com review

I have 2 MCE machines, 1 in the bedroom (Antec Overture case), and one in the living room (the CyberPower model listed in the PCworld review), and while they aren't really that quiet, it doesn't bother anyone once the TV has been turned on.

Re:PCworld.com just reviewed 9 MCE machines

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

OMG! You're running MCE and you are posting here? What are you? Some kind of TROLL???

Google cache (mirror)

[scdeimos]

Trusted Reviews has been /.'d already, so try this:

Google cache

Re:Google cache (mirror)

[jtmas83]

The error message from the server: Server Error in '/' Application.

I think they forgot the '.'

Looks nice...

[bennomatic]

...but I still think the cube was nicer, for a fanless beauty. Too bad it was just waaaay too expensive.

Re:Looks nice...

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean too expensive just like MCE machines?

Re:Looks nice...

[Anonymous Coward]

Win a Free Ray CD, T-Shirt,or Cap

Seeing that many apple users are participating in different kinds of pyramid games to get free stuff, I can only conclude that it isn't only the cube that is waaaay too expensive.

Re:Looks nice...

[the_2nd_coming]

umm, the cube was 1800 dollars, this machine in the article is 3500....

suggestion to read back on slashdot:

[Anonymous Coward]

last week there was a discussion of what was the best multimedia solution to use, and i think we concluded it to be chipped xbox + xbmc and samba shares. :)

Re:suggestion to read back on slashdot:

[cheekyboy]

For the price of their MCE crap, I can buy/build 10 xbox with 200GIG each.

Can play any content over any protocol and play tonnes of EMU games + backup games.

Re:suggestion to read back on slashdot:

[enrico_suave]

but you'll have nary a tv encoder/tuner =)

using a modded xbox as a very cool network client of a homebrew PVR/HTPC setup, now that's pretty cool, and somewhat economical... besides really, what would you do with 10 xboxes anyway? I forgot this is /. you can make a beowolf cluster =)

e.

First Page!

[c0defiant]

Still waiting on second page to load since before first post...

Re:Fanless box?

[djocyko]

Well, with no fans, no hair will get in...

oh..wait...EW!!

Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone ever notice that the product advertisments being passed off as stories contain more positive comments by the editors on average if that same product is being sold by Thinkgeek?

Just an interesting point to ponder.

Re:Hmm.

[IO ERROR]

Anyone ever notice that the product advertisments being passed off as stories contain more positive comments by the editors on average if that same product is being sold by Thinkgeek?

Yes, it's called promotion, and any good advertiser does it. I think this article is a case of negative promotion though. Or demotion maybe.

Re:Hmm.

[0racle]

Anyone ever notice that the product advertisments being passed off as stories contain more positive comments by the editors on average if that same product is being sold by Thinkgeek?

Um, no, but I'm new here.

Re:Fanless box?

[weighn]

I'd mach rather a hairless box

They certainly are much faster that way. Mach -- geddit?

Slashdotted already

[Anonymous Coward]

But mirrordot has the first page: http://mirrordot.org/stories/7828089409e0153604f3c c8ce82c9189/index.html

Re:Slashdotted already

[pair-a-noyd]

That link sucks. It only mirrored 1 page out of 4, the links in the mirrored page only point to the next pages of the original content on the original /.'ed server..

Fanless Media Center...

[Eberlin]

Sponsored by Fanless Media Celebrities!!! Have they booked Vanilla Ice for endorsement deals yet?

Are media centers really taking hold? I mean PVR + media player + home entertainment center sounds like a logical thing to be brought together, but it all seems too pricey for normal human consumption. While I'm at it, does this then bring the concept of "computer as an appliance" closer to reality?

If we're all going in that direction, shouldn't we just get it over with and have a "server closet" in every home? Rack-mounted servers for your music, all your DVDs, and constant family album slideshows on channel 3 or something. Linux of course (with contraband deCSS) and wirelessly controlled with a zaurus.

Couldn't we do all of that now much more cheaply than this media pc?

Re:Fanless Media Center...

[kfg]

If we're all going in that direction, shouldn't we just get it over with and have a "server closet" in every home?

Yes, but some people are just all hep to have a computer in their fridge, and toaster, and microwave oven, and sock drawer, and. . .

KFG

Re:Fanless Media Center...

[Anonymous Coward]

now you hush boy! don't be talkin' them there complexical things, there're too little cons or umers in that 'build-your-own' nonsense. Learnin' ain't for them joe's we like to deride here, they be needin' things to 'just work', so I heard it true. It is, after all, very much close like rocket science to bolt mobo and cpu and whatnots 'to one.

Re:Fanless Media Center...

[yorkpaddy]

If we put it in a closet, than you have to walk that much further when Media Center gives you a BSOD and you have to walk to your computer and do a hard reset.

Re:Fanless Media Center...

[Mr_Tulip]

Absolutely, though I'm still working on the remote :) Also load on some board games, like monopoly, chess, etc. for even more all-in-one entertainment goodness.

Re:Fanless Media Center...

[dave420]

Yes, you can do it more cheaply than this PC, but you'll end up with what you pay for. This is an all-in-one, preconfigured, powerful media centre. What you propose has to be assembled by hand, using Linux and a whole host of 3rd party applications/hardware you have to collect and install yourself.

Just because something is cheaper doesn't make it better :)

Seems a bit much...

[laughingcoyote]

A set of headphones is far cheaper, and you won't hear the fan a bit.

Re:Seems a bit much...

[kaleco]

Better than that, I just removed all my computer's fa CARRIER LOST

Re:Seems a bit much...

[Anonymous Coward]

I use a PC in my home cinema setup - using headphones is not going to replace 7 carefully placed speakers and a subwoofer. Also, sharing headphones between several people is easier said than done.

There is a need for quieter PCs; I personally think PC manufacturers can learn a lot from the HiFi and AV world. Just take a look at the design of multi-channel power amplifiers from Arcam and the like, transforming kilowatts with mostly passive cooling.

For a PC to sit comfortably in a home cinema, it should be:

- Quiet enough that it's silent from the seating position.

- Standard U width so it stacks with other equipment

- Not beige. Please, not beige.

- (Windows only) Rebootable by remote control.

MythTV?

[jarich]

Slashdotted already? Can't see the specs...

The question for me is

1) Can it be a MythTV backend (doing the capturing)

2) More importantly, can it be MythTV frontend?

Myth is client server out of the box... put the backend (with the many hard disks, tuner cards, etc) in a closet somewhere. Then buy a nice cheap box to just serve video to the TV. Sometime silent. :)

Re:MythTV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Answer - of course.

Just got Myth and Plextor ConvertX. The holy grail of TV is finally acheived! The realtime certified Divx recordings play back perfectly in the Phillips DVD player.

Myth puts all other PVR software to shame. So sorry that I payed $80 for Showshifter; what a mistake.

Re:MythTV?

[lakeland]

*sigh* don't you know the hush already? I almost ran out of drool when I saw it the first time ;-)

Yes, it can do both backend and frontend. The highest spec machine is the 1.2GHz nermeiah core. Put a reiser and a PVR 350 in it, 256MB RAM (more is a waste of time according to the myth website), a DVD writer, and one of them 400GB disks and you're set. Oh, and it looks gorgeous, you would not want to hide it away in a cupboard. They'll even sell it to you set up like that, for about $2500 :-(

As you note, you can set up mythbackend on another machine somewhere and run mythfrontend by the TV (perhaps on your xbox). But... this thing is silent and low power consuming, it makes a lot of sense for it to be the machine you're leaving on 24/7. Especially since it is fast enough to handle your mail and web server, etc.

Re:MythTV?

[AKnightCowboy]

I've already got a Via Epia M10000 board and memory and a seperate backend, so this is the toy I want for Christmas. Scythe e-OTONASHI Fanless Mini-ITX PC Case... mmmmm. That Nehemiah CPU fan is driving me batty because I think it's going bad, but it was way too loud to start with even with a variable resistor kicking the voltage down to slow it down. Then there's the case fan in the Morex 3677 case I have. It's a veritable noise factory. It's literally the only thing in my entire living room that makes any noise at all.

Re:MythTV?

[lakeland]

Looks nice. I keep my pegasos in a cupboard which is a bit more of a pain for putting DVDs in than it should be, but still pretty good.

Out of the cupboard it is quite noisy, but in the cupboard it is no louder than a notebook. Of course, I could have just gone with a notebook instead but then I wouldn't have been able to reuse two hard drives without (loud) external enclosures.

for less money, i like...

[Striker770S]

my aluminum case with 4 fans. it runs at a low temperture (never crossing 70F), and it looks awesome with the see-thru pannel and all the glowing lights. best of all it keeps the feet warm! I have headphones with a built-in mic so i never hear my fans, just people yelling that their the 1337 sh!7z0rs and other random leet crap. It makes me want to hear the fans instead of the sound. IMHO its just too much money for a quiet machine that would not affect me because i couldnt even hear a bomb go off with my current setup.

Re:for less money, i like...

[phrasebook]

So you have a generic, noisy box. You can only keep it cool by having 4 fans in it. You can only make it quiet by drowning out the noise using headphones. It is cheap, and you don't want to pay for anything better. Ok, thanks for letting us know.

Am I really the only one who doesn't mind a fan?

[digitalgimpus]

Not that I want a helocopter in my PC... but what is the big deal? I don't put my ear to the computer, I leave it on the floor, next to the desk... and don't hear a thing with everyday ambient noise.

I think it's more about techical ability than actual noise.

Re:uhh

[rco3]

Learn to spell, put your own name on your posts, and then you can try to tell me why a $3800 PC isn't expensive. You'll fail, of course, because $3800 is a lot of money even for people who aren't on welfare. Yes, even if it's a Mac.

pocket players?

[Doc Ruby]

PocketPCs are "fanless", and cheap. Even iPaq 36xx models are fast enough to play fat LAN streams. CF ethernet+adapter only costs $100, and the devices themselves are only about $100. Where is the Linux installer that makes them dedicated network players?

Re:pocket players?

[the-build-chicken]

if you're talking ipaq...www.handhelds.org/familiar (site is down for maintenance atm though)

Re:pocket players?

[Viceice]

... and then, the battery died.

Re:pocket players?

[Doc Ruby]

What's stopping you from plugging it in, next to your stereo? These players are battery powered for mobility, but even when stationary/plugged-in, they consume little power, are silent, and have battery backup. With WiFi, they're seamlessly mobile from the base. I wish my whole stereo worked like that.

Erm.

[Xerp]

running media center 2005

Can anyone spot the deliberate mistake here?

Re:Erm.

[dave420]

No.

BAD MCE

[Telexen]

No 'perfect media center' will ever run M$ software...Windows MCE is a joke and a sorry excuse for a media center OS

Re:BAD MCE

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats why the article is titled FANless media center box

Re:BAD MCE

[dave420]

Fucking grow up. Jesus. No, MCE is not a joke. It does what every open-source PVR suite tries to do, with support for EVERY tuner out there, EVERY graphics card, EVERY sound card, and applications to play EVERY sort of media available. Of course, if you'd rather have a crippled machine that can't do everything it can, that you have to set up yourself, etc., then yes it's crap. If you want a machine you can just plug in and use straight away without reading anything, it's perfect.

Linux zealots like you give every other computer user a bad name. Try being objective.

Still the fundamental problem in WMC

[Gyorg_Lavode]

Does WMC5 still have the problem that the video is stored in a proprietary format? I would love to use WMC5, but I need to be able to use the video anywhere I want to on whatever OS.

Re:Still the fundamental problem in WMC

[poopie]

Propietary format, DRM, and force-fed advertising (to be rolled out in future "enhancements" a la tivo) are *features* of Windows Media Center.

Silly consumer, you are not allowed to use video anywhere you want. The music/video/broadcast agencies OwnZ J00!

You may, however use Windows Media Center on any version of Windows you want as long as it is Windows XP or newer.

Tune-in. apt-get mythtv-suite. Drop out.

http://mythtv.org

Re:Still the fundamental problem in WMC

[Stevyn]

But to the consumer who doesn't know how or doesn't want to build a MythTV box, the drawbacks of DRM'ed media are justified.

You have to look at this from the view of the customer. Also, by looking at the price, this is geared to someone who doesn't feel the need to save money by building one of these themselves.

That said, how large is this market??

Re:Still the fundamental problem in WMC

[dave420]

No, the music/video/broadcast agencies own the content you have stored on your machine. It's that simple. You are allowed to watch the video, but its copyright is still held by the studio/channel. MythTV, and indeed anything else that doesn't control the media, lets you circumvent their wishes, and their license.

It's funny that if someone violated the GPL on /., all hell would break loose, yet people like you call for violating copyright law, and think yourselves heroes? Double standards? Here? Never.

Oh, and Windows MCE is a muuuuch nicer interface than mythtv. Most people out there want their home systems using software at least at version 1.0. Call them weird.

half the price is the dollar

[sPaKr]

Half the price is the current weak dollar. So I guess we have to 'buy american' to save. Hey all you lazy midwesterns that are crying about manufactures not having any buisness, start making fanless computer cases. Damn slackers.

Just a note for the submitter and the /. eds

[Tim_F]

Just because you and the article submitter don't know about something doesn't mean that the rest of slashdot doesn't know about it.

media center for 400 $

[ghee22]

xbox = 150 $ modchip = 40 $ (not including installation) netgear wireless g router from compusa = 40 $ wireless linksys g bridge for xbox buy.com = 78 $ xbox media center = free from www.xboxmediacenter.com The Project The XboxMediaCenter Project: XboxMediaCenter is a free open source (GPL) multimedia player for the Xbox(TM) from Microsoft. Currently XboxMediaCenter can be used to play/view most popular video/audio/picture formats such as MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF plus many more less known formats directly from a CD/DVD in Xbox DVD-ROM drive or of the Xbox harddrive, XBMC can also play files from a PC over a local network and even stream media streams directly from the internet. XBMC has playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast and many audio visualizations. All these features enable the Xbox(TM) running XboxMediaCenter to fully function as a multimedia jukebox. XBMC is easy to use, it's convenient, flexible and offers great price/performance ratio. (This, The XboxMediaCenter Project is also known as "Xbox Media Center" or simply "XBMC"). Note! XBMC is a hobby project that is only developed by volunteers in their spare-time for free. (Remember that XboxMediaCenter does require a modded Xbox to run on or it will not function). XboxMediaCenter 1.1.0 point release source code supports the following: Supported hardware platforms and Xbox options: - Compatible with modded retail Xbox, Debug/Development-Xbox and DreamX - Fully control XboxMediaCenter and its features via a Xbox(TM) IR DVD-Remote - Fully control XboxMediaCenter and its features via Xbox(TM) game controller Supported output media formats and devices: - TV-output: 50hz/60Hz NTSC-M/J (America/Asia) and PAL (Europe/Africa) - RCA, SCART, RF Coaxial, S-video, Component/RGB adapters available - Widescreen (16:9) and normal-TV (4:3) aspect ratio video output support - NTSC playback on PAL Xbox/TV and PAL playback on NTSC Xbox/TV* - HDTV support (multiple resolutions 480p/720p/1080i and progressive scan)* - VGA-output is also possible via third-party adapters or VGA-hacked BIOS - LCD-display output support to view status and control XBMC with TV OFF* - Analog audio-out (stereo/mono) via phono connection or scart adapter - Digital audio-out (mono/stereo/surround) S/PDIF optical (adapter required) Supported input media formats and devices: - Read files directly from a CD, VCD or DVD media in the Xbox's DVD-ROM drive** (Support CD/DVD formats: ISO 9660 - Mode1/2/XA, UDF 1.02 and XDVDFS/CDX) (DVD-ROM playback is on-the-fly only** (no option yet to auto-cache to HDD first) - Play files directly from Xbox built-in hard drive (copy first from DVD** or network)**** - Stream media files from a computer over a local network via XNS*, XBMSP or SMB, (including all NAS, Network Attached Storage devices that support SAMBA/SMB). - XBMC XBMSP-client code updated to support "Auto-Discovery of XBMSP servers" - Stream supported media files from the internet (if stream format is supported too)* - iTunes Music Shares via DAAP (network stream from Apple iTunes on Mac or PC)***** - Xbox Memory Cards (note that only FAT-X formated memory cards is supported)**** - USB Mass Storage Devices (USB-HDD's/memory) with FAT-X file-system**** Supported file/container formats: - Audio-CD (CDDA) playback for normal audio CD's - VCD and SVCD (Video CD) (SVCD/VCD menu's are not supported yet) - DVD-video directly from Xbox DVD-ROM (no DVD-menu's support yet)* - MPEG, MPG, M2V formats (inc. VCD's .dat and .bin and DVD's .vob) - MPEG-TS (TY/TS/DV) DVB transport stream format - RIFF AVI (AVI 1.0) container - OpenDML AVI (AVI 2.0) container* - BivX (AVI with several audio streams) container - Microsoft ASF/ASX/WMV/WMA containers ***** - QuickTime QT/MOV containers (inc. those with raw audio) ***** - Theora Video (VP3) format - Nullsoft Steaming Video (NSV) containers* - Nullsoft Steaming Audio (NSA) containers - MPA, MP2, MP3 and WAV containers - AAC, M4A, MP4 (MPEG-4 audio) unprotected containers ***** - Raw

Shame they don't just sell the case

[Tanlis]

Their cases are gorgeous compared to most of the other HTPC cases I've seen out there. About the only nices I see are fairly large compared to the size of alot of dvd players and other home theater components.

It's a shame they don't sell just the case.

Uh...no.

[OmegaBlac]

"Could this be the perfect media center box?"

Only if it was running MythTV instead of Microsoft's proprietary solution. ;)

Live next to a freeway?

[vhold]

Adjust your level of ambient noise and suddenly it'll seem important.

I used to live near a really busy street and never noticed the fan noise. When I moved out into a quieter neighborhood it became rather noticable. Once it becomes something you can actually control, you think of it differently.

The 'perfect' media box

[lakeland]

I don't know about you, but in my world a box is perfect if it is also affordable. I reserve the term 'ultimate' for the best at any cost. Maybe this is being pedantic, but IMO the Hush boxes are as beautiful as they are unobtainable. Try configuring them online -- the charge for ram is double what it is at newegg.

Personally I went for a pegasos (http://www.pegasos.org/) because the CPU is fast enough that you don't need hardware MPEG. Of course I would have liked the hushpc better, but I have better uses for the $2000 that a fully decked out hushpc costs...

Mirrordot Link

[Planky]

http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/7828089409e015360 4f3cc8ce82c9189/index.html

Wife...Slashdot...does not compute

[mhesseltine]

Of course, I'm joking. It does seem that everyone gets irritated at potential noise levels. Are you really watching Kill Bill with the volume at "1" and complaining that you can't hear the dialogue over the fan noise? Also, what's wrong with a glass door in front of the PC?

Re:Wife...Slashdot...does not compute

[baba]

Also, what's wrong with a glass door in front of the PC?
How about heat buildup due to lack of air circulation?

Re:Wife...Slashdot...does not compute

[Suburbanpride]

what's wrong with a glass door in front of the PC

Heat is the problem, the reason why there are fans is that heat needs to escape and glass is an insulator, not a conductor.

My 500 watt reciever has a heat sink thats about 4x10x4, and has a fan that turns on a very high tempertures, which it usaul only reaches when it is cranked up for an extended period of time.
What I'd really like to see is a volume controled fan controler. When the movie gets quiet, the fans slow down and then crank back up when it gets loud again.

Re:Wife...Slashdot...does not compute

[famebait]

what's wrong with a glass door in front of the PC?

Try substituting "PC" with "amplifier", "light switch" or any other device that you don't expect to make a noise, and you'll see how silly that argument is. Of course this is good!

There's no reason you should have to take extra steps to handle noise from a media player. And you don't, if you just go buy one of those boxes that are actually designed to be used in your living room.

Re:Wife...Slashdot...does not compute

[HawkingMattress]

It's supposed to be a general use media box. For watching a movie, the fan noise is not that important. For those moments when you're listening to music at night for example, it is. You can hear the fan noise as much as the music, and it sucks.
Anyhow i don't want a single fan in my friggin living room. I'm sooo tired of those things. Even gaming consoles makes too much noise now. Can't we have *silence* in this techno centric world ?

But it seems solutions are coming, there are wifi/cat5 boxes you can hook on you tv and stereo that look basically like a vcr and use a remote control and a tv interface to access your divx, mp3 whatever. And no fans, of course... Now i'd like one of those to be sufficiently open to have alternatives to their proprietary interface. Because they never think of everything. I want really good playlist support, and APE image tag viewer for my mp3s for instance. I want lots of things, but it seems you can't have it all at once...

But at least, it's aiming in the good direction. That way you can have a big ass file server hidden somewhere, and just hook one of those terminals in the places you want to listen to music / watch movies. Ideally the terminal should have a DVD/audio cd player too so you don't need to walk to your server to load a disk. Then you have the perfect solution for digital medias, imho.

Re:Wife...Slashdot...does not compute

[dave420]

So your PC will crash during quiet parts from excessive heat? :) Is that good? It's like having a car that steers in a straight line when your favourite tune comes on the radio - great for you to chair-dance to, but crap for keeping you and your car in tact.

Well, we know what sever could not do the job~

[Vanayr]

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:1.1.4322.573; ASP.NET Version:1.1.4322.573

Alternate link here:

[bsupak]

http://www.ausmedia.com.au/hush_technologies_E3_MC E.htm

Re:Alternate link here:

[bsupak]

Damn linewrap!

http://www.ausmedia.com.au/hush_technologies_E3_MC E.htm

well i ain't no fan

[Anonymous Coward]

with that price :P

Sound dampening

[kaleco]

Would it not be possible to construct a case from materials which absorb sound on the inside? This would definitely not be silent, and may increase the size of the media PC though.

Shuttle form-factor PCs fit the media centre niche quite well, and at a fair price and the newer cases are gorgeous.

Re:Sound dampening

[imsabbel]

Yes, its possible, but not really easy, because everything that absorbs sound doesnt really conduct heat well, and fan-openings are also sound-openings.

So no total silence....

Direct link to Hush product page

[glass_window]

http://www.hush-technologies.net/start.html

Far cheaper solution...

[deke_kun]

Far cheaper solution is to simply build an oldish coppermine-based machine in a micro-atx form factor. Ive got a celey 866 running fanless, with a good quality copper heatsink, without fault. Coupled with a passively cooled video card and a silent PSU, and the only noise is the hard drive going crank!

Re:Far cheaper solution...

[bdcrazy]

Buy a laptop hard drive and a converter, and even the drive will be fairly silent, if not utterly unnoticeable when the case is put back together.

I already have one!

[ReeprFlame]

Why dont I just pirate Media Center, install it on my all so powerful Media Center-like PC and set it up in the living room? Why? I can just use my Pc the way it is and maybe use my spare time making a gadget that will let me use any media on my computer anywhere in the Local Area [amateur radio remote control-ish device]. Or maybe its also called Best Buy. I hear they have some awesome Home Theater Systems [non-Microsoft]

sounds expensive is right...

[Khyron]

used XBOX game console, $120.
used game with software exploit, $5.
recent build of XMBC, free.

flawlessly playing every codec you've ever heard of and most ones you haven't?

priceless.

some people have a lot of money to burn... ...for the rest of us, there are inexpensive gaming consoles which are actually just PC's with component video and 5.1 digital audio waiting to run some powerful open source software. :)

Re:sounds expensive is right...

[Oriumpor]

Cept... it's got a loud-assed fan.

God damn noisy Xbox. And don't hack it with anything but the MechAssault hack or you'll be trying to DL a downgraded XBox Live pack forever and ever.

Is it on Pimp My Ride?

[gelfling]

Because that's about the only practical use I can think of for a midrange performance PC that costs about $3000.00. Can I get it in platinum with spinner rims, neon tubes and a waterfall?

What is their target market?

[Murphy Murph]

Christ, for £1,791.38 the thing better be rack-mountable like most other audio/video equipment in that price-range.

Fin Fans

[loid_void]

Fins minus Fans equals Fun!

critical requirements

[the-build-chicken]

There are two critical requirements for a Media PC that's going to reside in your living room, it has to look great and be quiet as a mouse

Call me crazy, but I would have thought being able to 'play media' would have been right up there as well......go figure

Re:critical requirements

[Anonymous Coward]

It would also need to be a PC.

Re:critical requirements

[karnal]

You're crazy.

Ouchhh

[vmaxxxed]

3,389.61 USD !!!

I can build something like that for 2000 +/-....

... am I paying 1000+/- for a fancy box????

No way, I rather buy expensive fans !!

Re:Ouchhh

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, they can also build it for $2000.
Problem is, then they can't just sell it for $2000...

Different processor for heat requirements?

[Atmchicago]

They mention it passively cools a 2.8ghz pentium 4. Would an AMD or a Centrino processor not be a better option? (granted of course the centrino-desktop mobos just came out, it wouldn't have been possible, but the AMD certainly would). Even an AMD64 laptop processor would do fine.

Re:Different processor for heat requirements?

[Hellasboy]

If I had mod points, I would mod you up.

Of all the processors they picked, they picked the worst one. My opinion.

What stopped them from using a Pentium M or an XP-M chip? I believe there was an earlier slashdot story on using the Pentium-M chip in desktops and it's performance was very good at encoding and even better in games than the P4 alternative.

There are people who have volted down their XP chips to 1.1 volts and are running a very respectable 2200+ rating.

It's a shame that they wasted 5cm of aluminum to waste it on a P4 2.8.

Re:Different processor for heat requirements?

[bm17]

One reason to stay with a faster processor is the ability to grow beyond the codecs supported by your dedicated decoder. HighDef Window Media 9 springs to mind. I'd generally rather spend the money on generic CPU silicon than a dedicated MPEG decoder.

Re:Different processor for heat requirements?

[merdark]

From my experience, AMD chips are much much hotter than the P4. Of course, it is possible the newest AMD chips have improved in this department.

In terms of pentium-m, I'm not 100% certain, but I doubt it was out when this box was designed. This has been around for a while now, despite slashdot claiming it's new.

Re:Different processor for heat requirements?

[Anonymous Coward]

From my experience, AMD chips are much much hotter than the P4.

Well, that depends on which AMD chip and which P4. If you are comparing a 130nm AMD chip to a 90nm P4, that's not fair.

You can now get an Athlon64 in 90nm, and I'll guarantee you that an Athlon64 3000+ 90nm will run cooler as a media center PC than any Pentium 4. Especially because the Athlon64 has "Cool-N-Quiet", the feature where it underclocks itself when it is not working hard.

Note that playing back a DVD is not working hard, and recording video with a PVR card that has MPEG accelerator hardware is also not working hard. If you built the system with the 90nm AMD part, it would never get hot unless you were playing Quake3 or something.

Re:Different processor for heat requirements?

[Coppit]

2 things requires such a processor: hi-def encoded content (e.g. MS HD Media) and heavy postprocessing of the image using ffdshow. But neither is mandatory, so you can get away with a less powerful and heat-generating CPU as you say.

I'm a FAN!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a fan of the Fanless Media Center Box. Does that still make it fanless? --oh get over it, someone had to type it!

Seems like a bit of overkill

[Sledgy]

I have used a VIA epia-m as a media center for a while now, has more than enough processing power to handle video decoding, has on board tv-out and sound and doesn't have any fans. Do you really need to use a processor that doubles as a heater to decode video or is that just to run windows. =o)

Re:First

[Steve Embalmer]

Hi there piece of shit. Congratulations for being such a fucking failure that you managed to have one decent remark followed by only brainless idiot posts since you began your worthless /. account.

Really, you are truly l337. We are all so impressed </clapping>

i built myself a quiet computer

[Anonymous Coward]

i called it the STFU-2000

HELLO? HARD DRIVE NOISE?

[CrystalFalcon]

These boxen may be as fanless as they want, but that's not the only source of noise.

What about the hard drive? Anybody who has turned off a computer a couple of times knows that the main change in sound is not the fans going silent, but the hard drive spinning down.

Saying "no noise from fans" about a computer is as useful to me as saying "no noise from cockpit" in an aircraft when I'm sitting next to the engine.

Does anybody have these machines so we can get some subjective feedback?

Re:HELLO? HARD DRIVE NOISE?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought it would be pretty obvious, but I guess not..

Dude, the hard drive goes in another room, where your mega media/porn server is. If your network cables are making noise, you have big problems.

Re:HELLO? HARD DRIVE NOISE?

[Kenja]

"What about the hard drive? Anybody who has turned off a computer a couple of times knows that the main change in sound is not the fans going silent, but the hard drive spinning down."

Had you ever looked at one of the Hush systems you would know that the hard disk is enclosed in a sound dampening box. You can hear the drive if you put your ear up to the side of the case but thats about it.

Re:HELLO? HARD DRIVE NOISE?

[evilviper]

What about the hard drive?

Direct quote from the story you (and the moderator) didn't bother to read:
The hard disk is mounted in an acoustic casing to keep the noise down

Re:HELLO? HARD DRIVE NOISE?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been running diskless XP boxes in my home theater for three years now. Your information is pretty dated.

Re:HELLO? HARD DRIVE NOISE?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm posting anon because I sell these.

Yes there is hard disk noise on the first series of Via Epia M 10000 models. It is a nasty low hum that is amplified by my cheap Ikea desk. There is also quite a bit of thermal recalibration chat from my disk.

Most noise is made by the DVD drive spinning. And the other flaw is that it becomes unstable when room temperature approaches 35 C.

On the other hand it does hardware mpeg2 decoding with the Unichrome open source driver. This permits using a budget DVB-S card for digital TV.

Re:HELLO? HARD DRIVE NOISE?

[richie2000]

What about the hard drive?

You need to listen to some of the newer models of hard drives. Like the Seagate Barracudas, or any modern (last six months or so) Samsung or Maxtor. I can barely hear some of my year-old 'cudas when they step but in the newer ones I can't even hear that. No spinning noise whatsoever escape the case. Coupled with slow 12cm Papst case fans, the large temp controlled Arctic Cooling CPU fans and a Zalman heatpipe for the graphics, there's just the PSU fan left to hear over the low *woosh* of airflow in the case vents and the intermittent sound of the DVD player (ASUS works wonders here).

Git yer ass up here some day and I'll show you. There's really no need to keep your computers in a cupboard anymore. ;-)

Another option.(Cheaper)

[hambone_p]

Why not run this
with mythtv or freevo?

Not that I've done it myself yet.

This is exactly the solution....

[Belial6]

Just get a wired IR repeater (for the ultimate in reliability), and run the video out to the TV. This way you have far less clutter in the living room, and since you have to run coax in to your entertainment center for cable or satallite anyway, the IR repeater and audio/video line should not be a big deal.

As for the CD/DVD in the other room issue...It's a media PC! When you get the disc the first time, you drop it in the media PC once, rip it to the hard drive, and then put it away for safe keeping until some time when you have a hard drive failure. DVDs and CDs are no longer a medium that you use to watch/listen to media. They are now a long term storage solution to be used for loading on the hard drive. If your not going to store your media on a hard drive, you might as well just use regular components.

This is terrible...

[ulpb]

I like being able to hear the fans in my PVR box... If I hear them stop spinning I know WinXP MCE has crashed it again.

Perfect?

[ButterDog]

Here's a review of one of those beautiful fanless machines running media center 2005. Could this be the perfect media center box?

What? Media Center 2005?
Not a bloody chance this can be a PERFECT box

Pfft

[kryptkpr]

Pfft, the whole low-noise thing is over rated if you ask me.

I have an Xbox with the 12V fan mod done (I put in a larger, faster, hotter HD and was worried about airflow). It sounds noticably loader then the stock xbox fan, particularly when starting up .. but once the movie is on, nobody can hear it.

Mind you, the xbox is right by the (HD)TV .. those cables don't have very good range. The whole setup is a good 6-8 ft away from the couch, depending on where you are.

PCI Slots

[sosegumu]

From the article:

It's also worth remembering that there is so much functionality integrated into modern motherboards these days, that the need for more than one PCI card is shrinking.

Yeah, yeah--that is until someone comes out with a hot new technology and you don't have enough slots. Or maybe the onboard NIC (or some other device) craps out on you and you have to replace the whole board.

Is it just me or does it sound like you'll have a big fat case of buyer's remorse in a year or two if you buy this thing?

OT: The media center PC's killer app

[Anonymous Coward]

I think what the media center PC needs to really take off would be multiple-headed configurations. That would really set it apart from simpler, cheaper appliances like TiVO.

There'd be a main TV which would be used pretty much normally, but the other TVs could be used to display dynamic infographics time-synced to the main video's content. That might be sent over broadband, instead of over the air or over the TV cable, which would reduce the investment required of cable companies and broadcasters.

This would work well for sports, of course, but also news and educational shows. "Mythbusters" or "Monster Garage" could use additional displays to show detailed plans of the things they're building.

Wow!

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

SECOND Slashvert (tm) in as many days!

Re:wow!

[AKnightCowboy]

Comparing the prices and the times when it is actually useful to have a silenced machine, id say that headphones are the best solution to a machine that makes noise.

Clearly you've never tried to assemble a home theater system then. I like my listening area silent so I don't have to jack up the volume to unreasonable levels to hear normal speech during a movie. Even 25db is way too loud in that situation. You really need something that is passively cooled with a huge ass heatsink.

Use Pentium-M or XP-M or even XP chips

[adesai9]

I wonder why they did not choose to use Pentium-M or XP-M. Will bring down the heat significantly enough to not require too much custom heat dissipation solutions. Mobile chips are not that much more expensive than Pentium 4 anymore!!!

HUSH PCs and VIA mini-itx

[tacocat]

These have been around for a few years now in Europe. You can find a ton of stuff here that specializes in low power, low noise computers.

While I have not been using one of these for MultiMedia applications, I have been using them for mail and web servers. They are excellent machines, but I can't afford the Hush computers.

But I think that they are on the right track of making silent computers. We don't really need that much horsepower to check email and do 99% of our jobs

Horsepower is over rated.

Re:HUSH PCs and VIA mini-itx

[Axem]

Tell that to Longhorn. ;-) But seriously, my Dad has an old Compaq 133MHz that he uses to play his MP3 on his stero system and my brother has a 200MHz Pentium Pro that suits most of his needs. The average person doesn't need much to do everyday things. I however have a low-high-medium end computer for gaming and such, so I welcome the horsepower there. =D

Quiet Case

[Anonymous Coward]

Dell PowerEdge 400SC. Extremely quiet, good looking, and GigE to boot. I've managed to cram 5 HD and a DVDRW in it.

$249 after rebates... (watch for them on gotapex.com)

extrusion

[wwwillem]

From the article: Hush must have started with solid billets of aluminium of almost five and a half centimetres thick to create the side panels. Oh dear, seems like people know more and more about digital and software, but when it comes to old fashioned manufacturing, it becomes lah-lah-land.

These "side panels", cooling ribs would be a better term, are not created by cutting it out of a solid piece of aluminum. That would be horribly expensive, no, this is created by extruding the aluminum. In layman's terms, it's like that thing (in dutch it is called a "slagroomspuit" but my online dictionary doesn't know the translation) you use to put nice shaped whipped cream on a birthday cake. But in this case, you keep the nozzle steady, make the opening a kind of comb shape and of you go. Meters and meters of a profile that just needs cutting to get these cooling ribs.

Re:extrusion

[Anonymous Coward]

In layman's terms, it's like that thing (in dutch it is called a "slagroomspuit" but my online dictionary doesn't know the translation) you use to put nice shaped whipped cream on a birthday cake.

Pastry bag?

Re:extrusion

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called a 'piping bag' in the UK. Another language difference to be aware of. :)

Re:extrusion

[Gorak]

Heh.

Slagroomspuit is a "whipped cream dispenser" to some, a "cream siphon" to others, and to yet a third group, a "bulberator". :)

Total Lack fo Support?

[Mulletproof]

"Fanless Media Center Box..."

It must hurt to be such and unpopular media center...

Waaaaaaait for it....

Not good enough for me

[Anonymous Coward]

When they included support for HD and lets us record (WITH OUR OWN MACHINES BOUGHT AND PAID FOR) MPEG2 then I might *think* about buying one of these. I want to record my shows and do what I wish with them, payment for blairing those damn radiowaves into my brain for my entire life.

kruzen

[Anonymous Coward]

repost

Am I the only one...

[neilb78]

that thought fanless meant that nobody liked them?

An under $1000 alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

Not as stylish, but just as quiet:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/quiet_cube.htm l

Re:An under $1000 alternative

[wjsteele]

No, this is not an alternative. Any alternative should be running Windows XP Media Center Edtion, it should have some form of Video Capture card, some form of "fast" video card, some form of keyboard, mouse, etc, etc. Did I mention the remote control?

What you are linking to is just a simple MiniATX style computer with a fanless powersupply... I can buy one similar at MicroCenter for less.

Bill

My (almost) noiseless HTPC

[MWales]

Athlon Mobile-XP 2200+
Zalman CPU Heatsink and Fan (1600RPM - QUIET)
NVidia GeForce4 MX
Hauppauge PVR-250
Streamzap Remote
Actisys IR Blaster
Windows XP
Beyond TV 3 - PVR Software

The GeForce4 MX GPU is passively cooled with just a heatsink. The only fans in the system are the power supply fans and the CPU fan. The CPU fan has been "underclocked" down to 1600 RPM.

The CPU I use is Barton core at 1.6 GHz (I think). Being a mobile part, it has a much lower stock voltage, and can't change clock multiplier on the fly. I use CrystalCPUID (Toms Hardware) to underclock the CPU to save power and keep it nice and cool. The system runs great. It's very quiet, the HDDs make more noise than the fans do, and I have no thermal issues. Best of all, it was very inexpensive. I put it together for around $500. No monthly subscription fees for Beyond TV either, and their SW works great.

I'm running Mandrake in my office now, and I'm gonna try to create a similar setup with Myth TV too just to try it out.

Anybody know what happened to

[slashdot.org]

CalmPC? (original link is dead, here's a review.

I bought one of their chassis which is entirely fan-less (and a _LOT_ cheaper than this thing, I think less than $200.-). The case is butt-ugly, but you can move the cooling system to a purtier case if you want.

Very weird to turn on your PC and hear absolutely nothing. I used CompactFlash for the OS (although you could also network boot).

I actually would buy more of these if I could.

It always seemed that they did very poorly in the marketing department, I think with a good US rep they would have done very well.

Almost anyone can make and sell Media Centers now

[spywhere]

Microsoft, after previous versions of MCE failed to set the world on fire, released Media Center Edition 2005 through the OEM System Builder channel.
This means anyone who can buy MCE 2005 OEM software can manufacture Media Centers. This sets us free to Do This Right.
When I sell one, I use the following:
A sweet Athlon 64 FX on a good MB
1 GB DDR400 SDRAM
Antec Overture case
A 60-80GB UATA 133 drive for the OS
At least one 200GB SATA drive for the video
One or more Hauppage WINTV150MCE capture cards
256MB GeForce video card

I can build one out for about $1600. I sell it (installed and configured) for $2500-$3000.

What sort of DRM comes with these machines

[Dechah]

I would assume that Media Center 2005 comes with WMA DRM. If so, does that mean that everything I record from television will be DRM encoded, or can it be optionally switched off like with Media Player? I hate DRM

wow!

[Striker770S]

im telling people that it would be a waste of money to pay for any more when there is a $20-30 silencer (as in headphones). Comparing the prices and the times when it is actually useful to have a silenced machine, id say that headphones are the best solution to a machine that makes noise. It is not just me, many people relize this, but i thought i would use me as an exaple knowing that i have the most information on me as possible... sheesh.

silent?

[chocolatetrumpet]

You use the word silent like I use the word starving.

I tend to record with my powerbook... the noise is low enough that it is not a big issue.

Also, I am just doing little recordings for little old me so if some imperfection creeps in there, it's not like it's my job or anything.

Re:silent?

[superpulpsicle]

I am on the currently returning my 3rd ATI radeon 9800 pro card in 1 year due to overheated fans one after another. Noise as with most desktop users is not the problem. Effective heating is.

I am convinced there is just not enough real cooling solutions for PCs. When I hear media-center PC, I am immediately horrified with the thoughts of returns and RMAs.

Re:silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

Powerbooks have been very variable; early ones were quiet, later models were extremely noisy. I think of late they have gotten better again. Ditto for their desktops. The noise level of Macs is just unpredictable from model to model.

For would-be US customers...

[smithmc]

...here's one place you can buy these, as well as other low-noise/small form-factor stuff. No, I have no association with them except as a satisfied customer. (I didn't buy a Hush PC, but I got a couple of mini-ITX boxes from them that are also reasonably quiet.)

I had a fanless media center once

[enrico_suave]

... for about 2 minutes, before I wanted to also upgrade to the smokeless media center =(

e.

Not 1,791.38 GBP, try 2599.00 USD

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, a look at www.logicsupply.com, Hush's US partner, reveals a price of US$2599.00.

The discrepancy is related to the EU's 17.5% VAT and the fact that all electronics priced in British pounds are more expensive just because (i.e. iPods, etc.).

lian-li to the rescue (really!)

[chocolatetrumpet]

I am really excited about this case.

It has a lot of noise customizations done already.

If I end up with another pc, that will be my next case. However, I accidently got addicted to my powerbook :P

these have existed...

[Striker770S]

for some time. I remember reading an article in one of my gaming magazines some time back that talked about a fanless computer. Instead of fans, it has many aluminum heatsincs(due to its great heat absorption). Of course this is shown in the article, so i dont need to go into detail. Maybe they just waited to post this on /. so then the site could be prepared to be /.ed. The site must not have prepared too well...

Method to the madness...

[NotQuiteReal]

Economics is a complicated (seemingly random) thing.

Among other things, cheap dollars help (US) exporters improve their bottom line (stocks go up) while subtly stroking inflation, which, in turn, makes the freaking huge deficit "not so bad".

A John Maynard Keynes [economist] quote is good here; "In the long run, we're all dead."

Re:Method to the madness...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not "random", that's what is supposed to happen. What is strange is that the US has been getting away with such a huge foreign account deficit for so long. The dollar should really have been devalued many years ago; that would have been better both for the US and for everybody else.

Re:Method to the madness...

[killjoe]

Wow in that case countries like Mexico and Turkey should be economic powerhouses.

Re:Method to the madness...

[Anonymous Coward]

Except they make the mistake of exporting things priced in real money. If they export anything of value.

Mexico has some oil and a lot of labor. I don't even know what Turkey has... but that's just me.

Re:Method to the madness...

[Coryoth]

Part of the reason the US has been able to carry such a large current account deficit for so long without any noticeable depreciation in the Dollar is the fact that Japan, and recently also China, have been buying large amounts of US bonds and securities, propping up the value of the Dollar. There are other reasons - for instance the budget surpluses during the Clinton years, and the worldwide view of the US as an economic powerhouse (so they are a little more forgiving of the imbalance). A good discussion of the current account deficit, and why it was carried in the past is here. A discussion of why this careful balance may be tipping toward instability can be found in my journal. feel free to follow the link in my sig if you're interested.

Jedidiah.

MediaPortal

[glamslam]

Somewhat off-topic tip: http://mediaportal.sf.net/ is a new, slick open source media center package.

Its not linux, but getting drivers to work in Windows is much easier.

Take a look, I've been using it for awhile and its quite nice.

Fanless web server

[robsonde]

I have made a fanless web server.

Take a AMD K6II 350 and underclock it to 266MHz then remove CPU fan, remove fan from power suppily, remove hard drive and replace with flash card. install openBSD.

the result is a web server that has no moving parts.

now all I have to do is get it to run M$ media center :-)

www.theanswerguy.co.nz

Fanless, Media Center Box without enthusiasts

[Uukrul]

Fanless Media Center Box
There isn't enthusiasts for a 3,389.61 USD Media Center Box.
May be a every-day-$500 PC with a not-so-usual case running GeexBox it's a better, cheaper solution.

- GeexBox Fan Club -

Here's a more "local" source for them.

[wjsteele]

Logic Supply has these for $2,675.00. So, they're not quite so expensive... but, they are quiet (and expensive!)

Bill

darn...

[torrents]

how can something that sexy be useless to me...

Operating Systems

[Anonymous Coward]

From their homepage: http://www.hushtechnologies.net/start.html

Operating Systems: Windows XP Home/Professional or Linux

So it seems you can order them with Linux pre-installed.

laptop CD??

[SuperQ]

I love the look and design of the hush machines, but they alwyas use laptop CD drives.. I wish they would use a desktop drive in one of their designs.

Re:laptop CD??

[Javanista]

I agree, using a laptop drive is going to be a pain what with the 'snap-in/snap-out' mechanism. I can see my wife or kids breaking this easily.

don't worry...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, small caveat. The above assumes that Russia doesn't start selling its oil in Euros. If that happens, all bets are off :)

Don't worry, the US will just take them over, in the name of combatting global terrorism, like the last country that was considering pricing oil in euros...

Why painted heatsinks

[yorkpaddy]

They went through all the effort of making the whole case into a heatsink. Cool. Why then paint the heatsink? painting reduces the thermal efficency compared to bare metal.

Re:Why painted heatsinks

[grammar nazi]

it depends upon which kind of paint that you use. If the heatsink-to-paint interface has high thermal conductivity and the paint-to-air interface has hight thermal conductivity, than painting is more thermal efficient.

Re:Why painted heatsinks

[yorkpaddy]

good point, never thought of that.

Re:Why painted heatsinks

[jabuzz]

Thermodynamics 101: the case mostly looses it's heat by radiating it into the surrounding atmosphere. For maximum effect you want the inside nice and polished, and the outside matt black.

Re:Why painted heatsinks

[Blurfle]

Partly true. Good radiators are also good absorbers, so the inside should also be matte finish for a heatsink. It's only when in direct contact with the heat source that you want a polished surface to maximize conductivity. This is also why you wrap the tinfoil around baked potatoes shiny side in and matte side out; they tend to cook faster. Tinfoil hats are another matter.

Re:Why painted heatsinks

[jabuzz]

Except when the processor is linked via a heatpipe to the case heatsink. Go look up the details on a Hush case. The reason for the polished inside of the case is to minimize the heat that it will radiate back into the case. While having a matt black exteria for maximum radiation to the surrounding atmosphere.

mod parent down...he's completely clueless

[Anonymous Coward]

Current wireless tech does not have the bandwidth to play DVDs (unless you DivX them first or something).

Wireless has plenty of bandwidth to stream full DVD mpeg. People have been doing it for years.

$2500 worth of TV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there anything worth watching?

Seriously - am I missing something?

I don't watch much tv...

Re:$2500 worth of TV?

[NotQuiteReal]

That's just the recorder - don't forget you need to get some content, which in most areas, means $40-$50/month in cable/dish bills.

Heh, if someone came to you at the start of the year and said "how about $600 worth of TV?" - what would you say?

That's a couple of first run movies, in the theater plus a lot of good books.

High Definition UNCOMPRESSED video.

[PhYrE2k2]

Lets see- High definition component video, or DVI should eat up a TON of uncompressed bandwidth. Add a coaxial or optical audio connection. Add a remote receiver so that you don't have to leave the room to pause it or change channels. So is it really worthwhile? DVD is MPEG and is compressed. By the time you get to transmit it, you need to be able to handle the uncompressed signal without quality loss. -M

nice

[mixmasterjake]

I just built a PVR, so I can appreciate the challenge of making it quiet. You don't really realize how loud your PC is until you actually put it in your living room full-time.

I have to say that making the thing quiet turned out to be the most expensive part of the project. You have to get special versions of everything - special power supply, special cpu fan, special hard drive (laptop drive w/ adapapter in my case).

I finally have it pretty quiet, but the DVD drive is the final kicker for me. I can't seem to find a quiet *black* dvd drive and these things are noisy as hell! luckily, it only makes noise while its playing a movie, so the volume is usually up.

Re:nice

[richie2000]

I can't seem to find a quiet *black* dvd drive

Try an ASUS. They're very quiet and come with ATA-100, just for the bragging rights. As for hard drives, I've found that the latest crop of modern fluid bearing drives are very, very quiet. Think Seagate Barracudas, Samsung and some of the newer Maxtors. For case fans, I use temp-controlled Papst ball-bearing fans, preferably 12cm if the case allows it (slower revs with same airflow).

Re:nice

[HawkingMattress]

For the black part i don't know, but AFAIK you can make any DVD player silent by using one of those little resident programs which will make sure the drive don't spin faster that it needs to watch a movie. I know my toshiba laptop has such a program in the bundled software, and once it's turned on the thing is nearly dead silent. This particular program is maybe hardware specific, but IIRC i've seen some generic ones as sharewares or freewares. I'm taking windows here, but i'd be surprised if the same thing didn't exists for linux...

TiVo Versus PC

[c_waddington]

Certainly a beautiful looking PC. No doubt I'd like one myself. But I'm wondering why would I bother paying upwards of $3000 (depending on the exchange rate) on something that can act as a PVR(DVR) when TiVo can do the same thing for very much less? I spent the thanksgiving weekend contemplating supplementing a PC I had so it could be used as a MythTV for my other television. After figuring up the cost of a Hauppauge PCI card and suffiicient HD space I decided against it. As a hobbyist I'd love to do it but the economics are against me.

Fanless?

[ajd1474]

"Fanless?"

But surely someone likes them!?

Badoom tish!

Re:glass is an insulator

[zmollusc]

Hah, those car manufacturers sure are a bunch of assholes! They put heaters on the INSIDE of the windshield to try and melt the ice on the OUTSIDE! Ha ha ha ha ha! Losers! You should write and tell them.

Hush Unreliable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just came across this review with a detailed comment from an unhappy customer (and bizarre response from Hush).... http://www.jamiejamison.com/tech/2003/09/hush_pc.h tml

Not machined

[froh]

"Hush must have started with solid billets of aluminium of almost five and a half centimetres thick to create the side panels. Those solid blocks of aluminium have then been machined into vertical fins, then each one of the fins has again been machined with ridges for ultimate heat dissipation."

The part is not machined, it is made by exstrusion
This is a very common way of manufacturing heatsinks.

Yeah, but...

[famebait]

-TV sucks, and will make you stupid. Go make something with your hands in stead.

Does it play DivX?

[Phatmanotoo]

I read the specs and it seems that this little box can decode mp3 (audio) and mpeg2 (video), but not DivX; it seems to need the server to do the conversion for it. But this thing runs Linux, so... any hacks available? (assuming it has the raw cpu power to handle Divx decoding).

For me the Holy Grail is this: a small, fanless "media player" like this one that can simply browse smb shares and play all kind of files. That's really all one needs in a wired house, where you have a server running in the basement. Except that I'm looking for something which doesn't require proprietary streaming systems, just pure smb client and local decoders.

Re:Does it play DivX?

[enrico_suave]

visit the forums section of SHS PVR

there's a section dedicated to the mediamvp and mediamvp "hacking"/ flashware replacments....

there's been work on a mythtv client, beyondtv client, sagetv client, etc...

Although it's not as sexy as gbpvr, my understanding is the latest update for mediamvp default software *does* do DivX decoding (no idea on what version, to what extent, other limitations etc)

It doesn't solve ALL multimedia client problems... but it is a reasonably priced solutions that's pretty flexible, and quiet.

*Shrug* not sure why you are bolding proprietary streaming system... it's a reasonably "open" system from what I understand... ymmv

e.

Re:Does it play DivX?

[Phatmanotoo]

Sorry if I jumped the gun too quckly, my comment on proprietary streaming systems was meant to be in general. I don't really know if the mediamvp in particular falls under that category, but now that I know that there are hacking communities around this product, it certainly deserves attention. Thanks for the info.

Do you think this gadget will become the WRT54G of the "media players"?

Amazing media center cases

[PhraudulentOne]

Check out This Site. It has a bunch of awesome cases for making media center PC's - not NEARLY as expensive as the Hush box, but just as sexy IMO. Xoxide has the best (read: most interesting) case selection that I have seen on the internet thus far. I am considering purchasing one of these cases for a MythTV Box.

Ever heard of...

[KendyForTheState]

Hush must have started with solid billets of aluminium of almost five and a half centimetres thick to create the side panels. Those solid blocks of aluminium have then been machined into vertical fins, then each one of the fins has again been machined with ridges for ultimate heat dissipation. About 15mm of the side panel has been left solid, in order to soak up all the heat, that is then radiated out through the fins.

...extrusion?

Re:Ever heard of...

[KendyForTheState]

Damn! I forget to check page 3... a day late and a dollar short. I withdraw my comment. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Too much emphasis on noise...

[limabone]

You certainly don't need to stuff a 3ghz P4 inside a media center PC. I have a geforce 3 for the svideo out and dvd playback assist, a low end athlon xp and a 200gb HD inside an antec aria case and noise and heat are not issues. My biggest gripe are case manufacturers who continue to put LED's all over their 'media center' cases. When you are watching a movie in the dark, the LED's can be quite distracting.

Perfectly Expensive?

[Oriental_Hero]

I think to be even approaching perfectly expensive, you'd have to re-mortgage the house and sell at least one family member to the salt mines.

The Cube is the way to go

[beetle496]

Silent, beautiful, spouse friendly, and the combination of OS X and iLife is soo much better than Windows Media Center. You will have to upgrade it up quite a bit (at the very least the RAM, and HD) and add a FireWire tuner but it would still be half the cost.

GameCube

[CastrTroy]

For a small, cheap, quiet, PC, Just get a Gamecube and run GameCube Linux. They may not be fanless, but I can't hear the fan. They are also, lightweight, small, and energy efficient, with no parts that are moving because it boots off the network.

Play-Doh extrusions

[Migraineman]

Play-Doh (now owned by Hasbro) has a toy called the Fun Factory. It's all about extrusions, and even comes with multiple extrusion dice. I'd expect this to be more familiar to the young'uns than a pastry/piping bag. Hasbro even uses the term "extruder" on the website.

Also relevant - you don't need a piping bad to make Ramens, but I'll bet the Slashdot audience has used Play-Doh.

DRM? not really

[Anonymous Coward]

I know, no one will ever see this, cuz I am AC and all, but with MCE, there isn't any DRM, at least not on my box. There are several software packages that will let you burn DVDs. Nero Express will convert the television recordings to pretty much any format you've got a codec for. I've converted to Divx 5 and the mpeg4 codec that came with Nero, no problems.

XBox Media Center

[kbg]

or take a regular XBox add mod chip replace the GPU fan with a heatsink and replace the case fan with a silent one add XBox Media Center application and you have the perfect media center, it even plays games too :)

Re:glass is an insulator

[KUHurdler]

Wait, are you saying we should install media PCs on the INSIDE of our windshields?

Nisvara

[John Sokol]

http://www.nisvara.com/

Ok Here is a shameless plug for a company I have been tring to get off the ground for 2 years now.

I had developed a silent PC including the drives, no moving parts, no heat pipes, just a big ass heatsink. But it's the same weight and size as a mini tower. We have 2 patents on the technology.

We also developed a carbon fiber material (with help from NASA Ames) that has much higher thermal conductivity then copper for keeping the cpu cool without fans.

I was tring to find a media center PC vendor to get to use this technology since most have some real heat problems. I talked to Maxtor but they didn't want to present our solution to their customer because it involved changing the design.
You can't have a passive heat removal solution cool below the ambient air temperature, but they didn't seem to get it.

Also talk to RicaVision but they also never moved.

At this point I am trying to work on a open source type of reference design for thermaly conductive cooling solutions and to see if there are any computer makers/Media Center PC companies that would like to work with the inventions I came up with.

The cooling solution was original designed for blade and cluster computers, and works great on a desktop configuration. The drive is 100% silent even with your ear against it and runs cooler then in a fan based solution. It's also water tight! Incase you wanted to clean your computer off with a garden hose.

Photo HERE

Re:Am I really the only one who doesn't mind a fan

[srleffler]

It depends how and where you plan to use the computer. In a home office the fan may be fine, but if you plan to include the computer in your home entertainment system it may become annoying when listening to quiet dialog in movies, or quiet passages in classical music.