Slashdot Mirror
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
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 cachePocketPCs 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
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
*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.
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!
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...
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.