[mythtv-users] Cheap Possible Frontend

[Brian Wood]

On May 8, 2006, at 12:05 PM, dick at photoclerk.com wrote:
>
> Looks like it MIGHT work, but then you need to buy a harddrive &  
> RAM...
>
> I put together a front end for $115 (in fact, I've built 5 now).
>
> Very small & quiet.  I don't have pics or anything, but it's a Compaq
> SFF Deskpro EN (PIII-866, but 733 will work too), you can get them  
> on eBay
> for $80 (+shipping, unless you find one w/in driving distance, like I
> did).  And a eVGA GeForce MX 4000 / 64MB DDR / PCI / VGA / Video Card
> (E145-5102) for $34.99.
>
> Here's a link for the computer:
> http://cgi.ebay.com/Compaq-Deskpro-ENS-SFF-P3-866-866Mhz-128- 
> Linux_W0QQitemZ8805041735QQcategoryZ51119QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZ 
> ViewItem
>
>
> About $10 more for remote - about $3 in parts for an IR receiver and
> circuit (which can be mounted internally - I replace the HD light  
> on the
> front w/the IR sensor), and a $7 remote control from Target.
>
> These boxes are super quiet as long as the HD you get with it  
> doesn't make
> much noise.  I just pawed through old 10GB hard-drives until I found
> an old IBM that was noise-free.
>

Agreed, I wouldn't have considered it if I didn't already have the  
required additional parts hanging around. You always pay a premium  
for laptop-sized components, and the performance usually lags the  
desktop stuff as well.