Alx9r's Materials
| Alx9r's Sample Setup |
I did my best to keep track of all the materials I purchased in putting my system together. Note that prices are in Canadian dollars before taxes, duties, brokerage, shipping, etc unless otherwise stated.
Hybrid Core Kit
I started with a core/hybrid topology to keep my costs down. The original plan was that this hybrid box would become my core server that lives in a closet, and I would go to a smaller dedicated media director in my living room.
Criteria
In addition to the criteria I already mentioned here, the design of my hybrid was also guided by the following:
- Only components available through ncix.com, preferably in stock.
- Tend toward components that lend themselves to eventual use as a dedicated core serving 2 or 3 media directors.
I opted to put two HDD in the system to allow for easy software upgrading and re-installation without losing media. I have read that installing LinuxMCE on a partitioned HDD is not well supported. Having a separate system HDD should allow me to install LinuxMCE from bare metal without losing media or spending time tranferring it.
Bill of Materials
| Component | Model | each | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motherboard | ASUS M2NPV-VM | $94.01 | used in Video, now out of production |
| breakout | ASUS SPDIF-OUT/OPT | $9.02 | SPDIF breakout board |
| breakout | ASUS 9PIN Serial Port Header | $6.60 | two of these to breakout COM ports |
| CPU | AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ EE Dual Core Processor AM2 Windsor 2.4GHZ 512KBX2 65W 90NM | $80.92 | Video used 4400+, 4600+ is cheaper and maybe faster |
| heatsink | Scythe Mini Ninja Heatpipe Fanless Heatsink AM2 | $38.98 | should be good enough to cool w/o CPU fan |
| RAM | Kingston PC2-5300 512MB DDR2-667 CL5 240PIN DIMM | $16.70 | 2 sticks |
| second ethernet adapter | ENCORE ENL832-TX-RENT | $8.68 | based on Realtek_8139 |
| TV Tuner | Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE | $79.78 | comes with a remote that looks like a Windows MCE Remote |
| HDD 1 | Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 3.5IN | $87.20 | media drive |
| HDD 2 | Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB SATA2 2MB 11MS 7200RPM Hard Drive | $42.64 | system drive |
| SATA Cable | nGear Serial ATA SATA Right Angle Cable 18IN 7PIN | $2.69 | 2 come with mobo, straight cable would be fine too, right angle was cheapest |
| optical drive | Pioneer DVR-212D Black 18X6X18 DVD+RW 18X8X18 DL 10X SATA 2MB | $32.19 | |
| CD Audio Cable | $3.00 | to connect optical drive audio out to mobo onboard audio | |
| case | Silverstone Lascala LC17B | $129.99 | HTPC form factor, big enough to accomodate conversion to core |
| power supply | OCZ StealthXStream OCZ500SXS 500W | $61.99 | cheap, works, fairly quiet |
