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A Truly Silent Home Theater PC Built for Linux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the fun-toys-to-play-with dept.

slimrabbit writes "LinuxDevices is reporting on a truly silent home theater PC that comes with its own Fedora 5 based quick install Linux DVD capable of installing a fully-configured FC5 system with LIRC, KDETV, TV-Time and Kradio in about 15 minutes. The most notable features are its "church mouse quiet" 14dba power supply, TV-Out (SVideo and composite), component video, DVI and VGA out, and hardware MPEG support(XvMC). The company also supports and engages the Linux community through its sponsorship program. It is sponsoring knoppmyth and the Debian User Project and makes the mechanical drawings of its face plates available under the GPL."

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good price tag too by rolfwind · · Score: 4, Informative
    Well, you still kinda have to build it yourself.....

    TFA:
    The Lx8100-MN, available "barebones" (sans CPU, memory, and hard drive) for around $300


    Still should come in under $600, depending on your components though I hope they have guidelines on what is necessary for smooth operation and what that socket lets me install on CPUs.

    But I don't think this system will save anyone that much cash. It looks like it should be easier to set it up than a diy myth TV though, while still having control of the box.
  2. Truly silent? by sparrowjk · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. The power supply is 14dbA? Yea right. The reviewers didn't even test it. That number is highly unlikely, especially from an unbranded PSU.

    2. What about case fans? What's the dBA on those? What about the CPU fan, which isn't even included? Both of these will have a big impact on the total overall noise of the system.

    3. Not to mention the hard drive! But enough.

    This is not a "silent" HTPC. It's a quickstart HTPC. It should be judged on those grounds. Calling it truly silent is just going to confuse people.

    See http://www.silentpcreview.com/ for real silent computing.

  3. This has already been done and for a cheap. by peeon · · Score: 5, Informative

    By following this guide, http://www.silentpcreview.com/article16-page1.html , I have built two machines identical to their setup and modded my power supply cpu with a low rpm fan. These machines have run solid for almost 4 years, until one of my motherboards crapped out. They are quietest piece of hardware I have owned since I sleep right next to them.

  4. Re:Replacement for XBOX by BoberFett · · Score: 3, Informative

    I realize bashing MS around here scores you points, but please be knowledgeable before you try to bash them.

    http://www.xboxmediacenter.de/

    For people with a modded Xbox, other than lacking TV tuner support it's a pretty full featured system.