[mythtv-users] Alternative to Mac Mini?

[Brian Long]

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 6:10 AM, JWA <jwa at macbidouille.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 08:15, Ken Mandelberg <km at mathcs.emory.edu> wrote:
> > In another thread it was suggested that the Mac Mini was overpriced as a
> > Myth frontend/backend. I want something with a similar footprint.
> >
> > The atom/ion2 boxes won't do. As a backend I need firewire to get input
> from
> > a cablebox and the boxes I've seen don't have it. I also want enough cpu
> to
> > do efficient commercial marking, and the atom's are too slow.
> >
> > Is there really a box with similar size to a Mac Mini that is at least a
> > core2/nivida and cheaper (or more powerful).
>
> I'm in a similar situation, except I don't want to do commercial
> flagging and I just want the firewire for channel changing (IR
> blasting is just to unreliable).  But I can't find any Atom/ION boxes
> with firewire or at least with a PCIe so I can buy a Firewire card.  I
> could build my own with a Mini-ITX board (I've seen some Ion boards
> that have a PCIe slot), but I can't find any Mini-ITX cases that I
> like (meaning small, but still with a slot for the firewire card) that
> are less than $300, so adding it all together it'll be around the same
> price as the Mac mini anyway.  I'd love it if there were a $300-$400
> nettop with ION and a firewire port, but those just don't exist.
>

It appears there are Firewire Mini PCIe cards, but they're expensive:
 http://www.bwi.com/prod/13006

/Brian/
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