Im after a small silent media box, not so bothered about assembling it myself if theres nothing pre-built available, but Id like to come up with a solution that allows me to plug in my own PCI sound card, as I plan on networking it with my main PC which will act as file server, to stream FLAC/OGG/MP3s to my hifi.
Anyone got any experience of this or some suggestions? Oh and when I say silent, I mean silent. Not a fan in sight or sound. :)
A Laptop
Dont have a lot of experience personally but I did look into it for a while. Main reason i didnt get any experience was that silent costs a fortune!
Some nice pre-build systems at endpcnoise.com (//endpcnoise.com)
I got a p3 500 box off ebay, put a modestly sided heatsink on it and ran it passively. Worked nicely, the psu was only little and the psu fan was plenty quiet enough.
Dunno what spec youd want tho.
Eggtastico you missed the point of PCI expansion entirely, but nevermind...
Just enough spec to run Foobar and play music files, the most demanding being FLAC 24bit/192khz files. Nothing ninja really.
Im thinking your idea is the best so far sdp.
Quote from: Clockd 0NeEggtastico you missed the point of PCI expansion entirely, but nevermind...
Just enough spec to run Foobar and play music files, the most demanding being FLAC 24bit/192khz files. Nothing ninja really.
Im thinking your idea is the best so far sdp.
Whys that, when you can get a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS ?????
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127901/rb/0
cause he probably has something from mpower.
Edit: lol mean m-audio :)
They are sh*te, thats why :lol:
Actually Im looking more at E-MU
Having said that Id consider an M-Audio Audiophile external maybe. I dont think the analogue stage is as good though.
if you can find a 2nd hand one on e-bay : http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF25a/35123-342039-342039-342039-637507-12330068.html
doesnt take a PCI card, but they are absolutely silent and i know at least one person who uses one to run his torrents rather than have a full working machine.
That looks spot on! No fans at all in it then? Apparently there is a PCI expansion module if I wanted to find one. Ill have a scour for one of these...
Quote from: Clockd 0NeThat looks spot on! No fans at all in it then? Apparently there is a PCI expansion module if I wanted to find one. Ill have a scour for one of these...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/T5720-HP-Thin-Client-PC-Brand-New-Sealed_W0QQitemZ230166460875QQihZ013QQcategoryZ179QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Alternatively, you could get a Shuttle? Some of them come with a passive power supply (like a lappie one). Nice and compact too?
ps. I thought you could put PCI cards in laptops? :shock:
Mini-itx.com
Cheers Nath, Ill have a proper look at that later.
mrt, you cant fit PCI cards to lappys, youre thinking of PCMCIA (the chunky credit card sized cards) :) A shuttle will still be too noisy, Im really after totally silent.
TBH, A chipped xbox1 would be ideal, though it does have 1 fan.
Running XBMC, it will run any file you throw at it with the benefits of being on your TV and on the network.
No PCI though.
What about http://tech.nocr.at/gadgets/a-basic-server-for-under-100
that I mentioned in the bargains forum
?
XE
Quote from: XEntityWhat about http://tech.nocr.at/gadgets/a-basic-server-for-under-100
that I mentioned in the bargains forum
?
XE
those used to be badged up as AMD machines, and the blue bits were green. I imported 3 for someone to use for field engineers. Those ran an embedded windows CE though.
The spec seems very low compared to those thin boxes, Im not sure that it would be quite enough.
Quote from: Beakerif you can find a 2nd hand one on e-bay : http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF25a/35123-342039-342039-342039-637507-12330068.html
doesnt take a PCI card, but they are absolutely silent and i know at least one person who uses one to run his torrents rather than have a full working machine.
Nice idea but theyre flaky as feck in my experiance (~600 of the bloody things).
They are dead silent though, so probably cool if you dont want 24/7 uptime.
Be gentle with the power on button ;)
Its going to be a case of turn on as and when I want to stream some tunes to my hifi, which given I still need a small tft and such I may not even bother with at this rate. But Ive got ideas now anyway, and that little HP Thin Client seems perfect for the job. :)
Quote from: sdpNice idea but theyre flaky as feck in my experiance (~600 of the bloody things).
They are dead silent though, so probably cool if you dont want 24/7 uptime.
Be gentle with the power on button ;)
ive only got a few out with a customer, though i was quite impressed. They arent too shabby for using in public areas, or if you want users to not make a hash of things. He uses them in an internet cafe type thing, means users cant feed CDs and disks in without using the machine he wants them to use, and they are pretty much immune to viruses.
Quote from: Clockd 0NeIts going to be a case of turn on as and when I want to stream some tunes to my hifi, which given I still need a small tft and such I may not even bother with at this rate. But Ive got ideas now anyway, and that little HP Thin Client seems perfect for the job. :)
which is why you should look at a laptop.
Ive been loooking for a media player for ages, but cant find any that will do what I want to do... Had a laptop lying around, so decided to use that instead.
Quote from: Clockd 0NeCheers Nath, Ill have a proper look at that later.
mrt, you cant fit PCI cards to lappys, youre thinking of PCMCIA (the chunky credit card sized cards) :) A shuttle will still be too noisy, Im really after totally silent.
Clockd ... my sarcasm is wasted on you ... clearly PCI card do not fit in lappys, I was responding to the previous post. ;)
When I said Shuttle .. I meant one which has a totally silent external power supply (much like some of the tiny iTX setups). Or is it a case of the components being noisy?? To be honest, you could look at a website
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products who specialise in quiet stuff. I think the only totally passive machine is made by Zalman and costs about a grand.
What about one of these?
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=16&product=14191
Quote from: mrtClockd ... my sarcasm is wasted on you ... clearly PCI card do not fit in lappys, I was responding to the previous post. ;)
:whoops: My bad, should have read between the lines!
Hmm I dont like the looks of that Creative jobbie at all, I bet it has some nasty audio circuitry at work and its not really going to do what I want in terms of acting as a plain network client to pull data off another machine.
Egg, a laptop would be nice but they arnt silent :(
O, what about one of those
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/prods_mvp.html
thinking of getting them for the home, but they lack HDD Support, should be dead silent though
OK, what you need is a Squeezebox ... they have had some seriously good reviews!
http://www.slimdevices.com/
Thanks guys, but neither of those solutions are really what Im after.
Quote from: Clockd 0NeThanks guys, but neither of those solutions are really what Im after.
Well what exactly do you want to do?
Sounds like you want to stream music from your PC to your HiFi using a device of somesort.
Dont know why you want an Uber card because MP3s would have lost any half decent sounds anyway
THink you want
https://www.ripcaster.co.uk/node/71
Also, any type of media player thatll do what you want?
plenty here http://kjglobal.co.uk/
Hmm, the whole idea of using a second PC was so I didnt have to keep duplicating my music files everywhere, which is what Id have to do with one of these PMP solutions.
But your going to need a screen of somesort to actually scroll/browse your music collection.
Ive been looking for somesort of TouchScreen player, but everything I find is lacking in somthing I want/need.
Also want one that does Videos. I can browse Titles (pref by pictures of the cover), Select Titles, it then Connects to IMDB or somwhere & gives me the cover & some movie details.. Theres software out there that does that, but none have a PLAY NOW Button.
Its annoying as f000k - Really Wish they done ID Tags in XVids Like you get with Mpeg3s
I do not get why one of the media streamers is no good? Can you be more specific as to what your exact requirements are?
Quote from: EggtasticoQuote from: Clockd 0NeThanks guys, but neither of those solutions are really what Im after.
Well what exactly do you want to do?
Sounds like you want to stream music from your PC to your HiFi using a device of somesort.
Dont know why you want an Uber card because MP3s would have lost any half decent sounds anyway
Okay Ive obviously not been 100% clear.
All I want to do is network to my main PC to play back the files on my main PCs HDD through my hifi. I absolutely do not want to have to:
* Copy my files anywhere
* experience any noise from the hardware
*degrade the sound quality (eg radio streamers)
Most of my music is in FLAC format (or if not its virtually transparent MP3 quality), so routing through a decent soundcard is ideal.
That transporter is silly money when I can put together a rig to do the same thing. The Thin Client is still the best option so far.
Also I only need 2 channel stereo - all these network media devices seem geared for 5.1
So if you built a shuttle which comes with a passive power supply (ie. totally silent) and also used selective quiet components ... why would this not be suitable? The only real way to have a totally silent setup would be to have a streamer.
That would be perfectly suitable, but Shuttle dont make passively cooled heatsink units for the CPUs do they? This is why the Thin Client looks so good. It doesnt even have a hard drive to make any noise :)
Quote from: Clockd 0NeThat would be perfectly suitable, but Shuttle dont make passively cooled heatsink units for the CPUs do they? This is why the Thin Client looks so good. It doesnt even have a hard drive to make any noise :)
They are all flash memory based, and you can add a USB HDD or CDROM if you feel the urge.
OK .... how about one of these http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/wireless_music_systems/devices/216&cl=gb,en
I am clutching straws now! ;)
EDIT: http://www.silent.se/solutions.php has some silent solution ideas? May be of help?
Actually I like those two, the only thing that puts me off is how good the internals will be... Ill look into them more closely, cheers. 5 stars for all your efforts :)