This will be a satellite unit that only displays content that is sent from a server. So it does not have to store any content. It will not be a DVR so it does not do any encoding. Its for my bedroom so it does not need anything more than stereo output. And it will either drive a 19" monitor, or Ill do TV-out to my cheesy Samsung TV.

I'm looking for CPU/MB recommendations. Preferably AMD CPU. I don't want to plan for the future, this box is for today so no extra power required. And I will hopefully be using Linux unless I get too much grief. I'm giving myself 6 months to get up and running.


I appreciate all your help and insight.

Check out Fry's sales for Nvidia-based motherboards. I often find the ECS 7050 mobo + an Athlon X2 BE processor combo on sale for less than $100.

That's exactly what I was going to suggest- an Nvidia 7050/7050PV or 7025 based board.

However I have been burned with Epox and ECS motherboards going bad on me, and have switched to MSI and Biostar with great results in the past 2 years.

This board is a great deal

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GF7025-M2&cat=MBB

with great on board video and sound for our needs. However, it doesn't have Svideo/composite out for standard CRT TV's

I prefer ATI cards for Svideo/composite out anyways. These should do the job-

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=RX1550-TD256EH-DT&cat=VCD


or

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=RX2400PRO-TD256EH-DT&cat=VCD

I am assuming EnvyNG on Ubuntu 8.04, MythBuntu 8.04 or Mint 5.0 (due in a few weeks), or Mint 4.0 with Envy would install the latest ATI driver fine, but I have not tested these cards specifically.

I just used a Mint 4.0 box with an ATi 9550 card with Svideo out over the weekend to watch mp4/avi Xvids on a 27 inch CRT tv with excellent results. I just fed the analog stereo out from the on board Intel audio to the analog RCA inputs on the TV. I used SMplayer and Geexbox (separately) to play the TV shows and movies easier and better than XP Pro had been ;).

I think Geexbox is your best media playback solution, assuming you don't want to web browse/etc on the bedroom machine.

http://geexbox.org/en/index.html

It's easy for people on these boards to forget about the value and utility on playback on good old tube CRT's- there's a great picture to be had on a lot of 27"-36" 480i CRTs

Thanks for the info. I like Asus brand. I have used it for years. They are getting a bit flaky lately, but not enough for me to switch. Yet...

Ill be sure to get an X2 "BE" whatever that is. I assume BE is energy efficient? The computer is going to have to be silent.

From what I read in other threads, I shouldn't worry about the video card so much, except that it can do TV-out or Component, or SVideo at least. hardware decoding is not required since I can do it in software for a few $$ more applied to the CPU!?