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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.
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...
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?
Play iCLOD
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.
sorry 'bout the mess...
= 3,389.61 USD
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
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...
Boycott everything - they're all trying to fuck you one way or another
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.
Trusted Reviews has been /.'d already, so try this:
Google cache...but I still think the cube was nicer, for a fanless beauty. Too bad it was just waaaay too expensive.
The CB App. What's your 20?
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.
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?
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. :)
Agile Artisans
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.
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?
--
make install -not war
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.
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.
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/7828089409e015360 4f3cc8ce82c9189/index.html
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?
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
http://www.ausmedia.com.au/hush_technologies_E3_MC E.htm
used XBOX game console, $120.
...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. :)
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...
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?
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
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
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.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.
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!
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)
Why not run this
with mythtv or freevo?
Not that I've done it myself yet.
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.
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
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.
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.
"brxref
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.
TODO: come up with a clever sig
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.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
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.
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.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
-TV sucks, and will make you stupid. Go make something with your hands in stead.
sudo ergo sum