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A Truly Silent Home Theater PC Built for Linux
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."
This is interesting - for $300 they've created something that beats me spending my own time and money on building myself. Previously when I've seen "silent" under-the-tv boxes, they've been closer to $800. This is enough to make the average geek think "I'll just build one myself". That, however, takes time and effort, and there's no guarantee that it'll work properly at the end of it.
To get a barebones, including a nice case and decent psu for this price makes it worthwhile getting over a diy system. Only question is, does it suck because it's cheap?
There is nothing interesting going on at my blog
I've been battling my MythTV install for the past couple days, and am working on it as we speak, so this article is perfect timing.
This device appears to be little more than a barebones PC and a lot of marketing induced FUD. Others have already touched on the lack of HDD, CPU and RAM, so I won't bring those back up. What I will bring up is my suspicion of the true reason why it doesn't have MythTV - Because MythTV under FC5 is a serious pain in the arse. To quote Axel Thimm from this posting on the Atrpms-users mailing list:
"Anyway, all in all currently mythtv on FC5 isn't an easy ride. If you
don't want to get in adventures, don't upgrade yet. Wait at least
until the fixed kernel makes it into updates proper."
I had originally loaded FC5 on my MythTV candidate, only to run into whacky issue after whacky issue. I formatted and reloaded to FC4, following the holy grail of MythTV install guides, and the install has been much smoother. (I'm just trying to nail down the audio / video sync issues - I gotta get my line out to stop playing 'live' audio, dammit!)
I think you'd be better off speccing out a PC from NewEgg or something, rather than purchasing one of these boxes.
I'd like to see a thorough comparison between the LixSystems' $560 system
/ cPath/24_27/products_id/237
h p?cPath=9&products_id=81.
http://www.linuxtechtoys.com/ltt/product_info.php
and Interact-TV's $600 system
http://store.interact-tv.com/store/product_info.p
And any others that might be out there.
Unfortunately, it's uber-expensive, costing around 2500 USD
$2500? For a 1GHz G4?!? You could buy a used "table lamp" style iMac on ebay or cragslist, rip off the monitor, plug a mini-dvi to S-video adapter into it, and have the same capabilities for 1/10th the cost.
Just to let you know, these guys http://www.monoprice.com/ have awesome deals and great quality cables. I'm not an employee, just a fan. I started with a 6' Monster HDMI cable that was outrageously expensive ($120 USD) and monoprice had one for $15. The $15 cable was identical. Zero problems with it for four months. I also bought the 5-line composite cable (3 yb cables and a pair of analog audio rcas all in the same ribbon) and it has been perfect as well.
HIGHLY recommended.
The PSU looks quiet, but it's not fanless.
There are two case fans - I couldn't see how loud they are, they say "Case fans as low as 1200rpm", but they look pretty small and small fans are usually pretty whiney.
The model that comes with a CPU seems to use a stock heatsink/fan and there doesn't look like there's a lot of room in there for a quieter solution. Also there are air holes straight above the CPU which are going to let the noise straight out.
I didn't find anywhere where they quoted a sound level for the whole system - maybe I missed it?
I have no idea how this compares to other HTPC form factor solution, but it sure isn't "truely silent".
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
After seeing and discussing a very interesting mythtv frontend at Lugradio, I went out and bought myself (on ebay) a T-Online Vision S100 set top box. These were built for a german VoD service, but they're easily available on ebay.
It is *totally* silent (no moving parts) and comes with wifi, ir remote, ide slots, a pci slot, tv/audio/spdif out, usb and runs linux beautifully. I can even use it as a Wifi AP. It's only 766MHz and the 128Mb DRAM is soldered on (non upgradeable) but this is all you need for a silent box.
And whereas most set-top-box PCs are reminiscent of a massive mid 80's VCR, this is actually no bigger than your average DVD player.
Note I say "frontend". You probably need a bigger case to get a PVR-150 into it, so it might work as a combined back/frontend, but in its natural form factor it's easier as a frontend. Though you can buy USB based DVB tuners, and assuming there's linux support, you've got your backend.
Requires some hardware hacking if you want to get a DVD drive or a 2.5" HDD into it (mine runs off a 1Gb USB stick), but remember - there are no moving parts, and it's got wifi built in!
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
Because I'm TOO LAZY to do so! Try taking Reading Comprehension 101, please. I said in the post that I didn't have enough interest to go through the work and frustration of setting up the system and getting Myth to work ONCE, for MYSELF. Do you really think I would go to the additional difficulty of setting up something for mass production if I'm not willing to do it once?
I have plenty of money...if someone else sold systems like that working 100%, then I'd happily pay for their services. Me=Part of the market, get it?
Correct. The device in the article is not silent.
If you're looking for a really silent (as in fanless) system then I'd
recommend to look at an mCubed.
I have an "HFX classic" myself and it runs my Athlon64 3500+
perfectly. No overheating, not even in the summer.