Quiet + efficient PC for always-on audio and video
Reply #6 – 2009-12-11 09:33:20
i turned my old pc into something like that (but its more of a file/web/ftp server with some desktop attached as well), what i did was new/cheap small housing, (took most of the HDs into the new machine), huge fan for the dual-core opteron, removed anything that had a propeler and replaced it with something without (GPU for example). The os is mint7 x64 (sort of ubuntu) and then i somehow managed to get cool and quiet working, so the cpu sits at 1Ghz most of the time..., of course no avisynth here and i didnt really bother with sound at all (i know its working, but thats all). This new nvidia passively cooled gpu is still good enough to make some use of those zexy compiz stuff so its: - web server (lighttpd + php + mysql) - ftp server - ssh server - samba server - netatalk server (talks to my mac) - print server - 2nd desktop inxi -F returnsSystem: Host kravca Kernel 2.6.28-11-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Distro Linux Mint 7 Gloria - x64 Edition CPU: Dual core AMD Opteron 170 (SMP) cache 2048 KB flags (sse3 nx lm) bmips 4020.44 Clock Speeds: (1) 1000.00 MHz (2) 1000.00 MHz Graphics: Card nVidia D9M-20 [GeForce 9400 GT] X.Org 1.6.0 Res 1280x1024@50.0hz GLX Renderer GeForce 9400 GT/PCI/SSE2 GLX Version 3.0.0 NVIDIA 180.44 Audio: Card nVidia CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller driver Intel ICH at ports dc00 e000 Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.18rc3 Network: Card-1 Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver skge v: 1.13 at port a000 Card-2 nVidia CK804 Ethernet Controller driver forcedeth at port b000 Disks: HDD Total Size: 329.4GB (51.2% used) 1: /dev/sda HDT722516DLA380 164.7GB 2: /dev/sdb HDS722516VLSA80 164.7GB Partition: ID:/ size: 149G used: 38G (27%) ID:/home size: 151G used: 120G (84%) ID:swap-1 size: 3.04GB used: 0.00GB (0%) Info: Processes 160 Uptime 23 min Memory 495.5/988.8MB Client Shell inxi 1.0.6 btw, did you consider mac-mini with (obviously) windows (or maybe the new quad-core 27" imac)?