So in a previous posting I’d said I was planning on using a Mac Mini to do my media acquiring needs.
Having reviewed the costs (£700) and considering Apple haven’t announced any upgrades to their mini line, I’ve decided against that option.
Instead, after a lot of research by my good mate Owain, I’ve opted for a mini-itx solution. Specifically:
- Intel D945GCLF2 Dual Core 1.6GHz Atom Mini-ITX Board
- Travla C158 Mini-ITX Case – 90W
- Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 667MHz DDR2 Non-ECC
- Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB S300 16MB hdd
Onto this contraption I’ll install either Ubuntu or OS X though I am leaning towards Ubuntu at the moment. All the software mentioned previously will run on it happily, and I could potentially turn it into a MythTV box too.
Total cost for the above, including delivery, £230. Add on two 750Gb-1Tb external drives and the cost is still far below what the Mac Mini solution would have been.
Win.