indiboi.com

I wrote a while back about how I want to build my own sort of Tivo unit based on MythTV running on a Linux core. I’m pretty sure I will go with an Asus Pundit ‘barebone’ system because the cost v. feature comparision is very good. The case is attractive and doesn’t look too much like a computer. Total cost of my “MythBox” will be somewhere between $600 and $700 depending on things like wireless keyboards/mouse, etc. I really don’t think I’d need a keyboard/mouse, since the remote provided by the tv tuner card should do everything necessary, but it might be nice to use it as a “regular” computer too sometimes.

There are a few cases from companies like Ahanix that are absolutely perfect for usage in a home theatre environment; however, they require an absolutely massive budget… $200 for JUST a metal box is far too much to spend for ‘looks’ in my opinion. It would be an additional $150 for the power supply, the ‘cool’ VFD (like an LCD/LED display on a vcr/dvd player, etc), and a ‘remote’ control. So we’re at $350 and still haven’t reached the same level of functionality as the Asus Pundit because there still needs to be a motherboard of course, plus the Pundit also provides a media reader.

I keep looking for something better than the Pundit and generally don’t succeed, but I stumbled across the Cubit P4 system this morning. Whoa! I always wanted an Apple “Cube” computer, but they discontinued them before I ever had significant cash and that was pre-OSX anyway and, er, prior to OS X, eww. Shuttle started up the ‘cube’ frenzy again with their barebone systems and just about every company is starting to come out with their own version. They’re pretty damned expensive too, but it is understandable to a certain extent because all of the components need to be “micro-sized” to fit into such a tiny box. The biggest concern with ‘cube’ or “SFF” cases is the airflow and cooling… otherwise you’d truly end up with a toaster.

Anyway, back to the Cubit P4 systems. That mirrored chrome is extremely nice, but the price isn’t. . . $962.99 for JUST the barebones — power supply, motherboard, case. Just for the hell of it I created a rather minimal config to see how much it would cost to get everything included (also including the PVR-350 card) and it came up to a very Apple-esque price of $1,960.06. *Gasp* While those ‘toasters’ are extremely attractive that’s a hell of a lot of money for the sake of appearance! If I had that sort of disposable income though I’d definitely go for it.

They also have the Cubit 3 version which is based on a rather interesting ‘new’ CPU from VIA. I really think that the Nehemiah C3 processors are a good thing, especially if they ‘take off’ and are able to establish a decent sized market share with AMD & Intel. The Cubit 3 systems are considerably less expensive than the P4 systems, but they’re still in deep space compared to other less ‘attractive’ solutions. Personally I haven’t a clue as to where one would buy a VIA C3 processor anyway, heh.

The router project, which still doesn’t have a ‘better’ name is more underway than it was. The motherboard arrived today, I let it ‘adjust’ to room temp and broke it out this morning, looks nice, compact, etc… It’s a MSI KM2M Combo-L motherboard with the KM266 Chipset. The main reason for going with this particular one was that A) it wasn’t completely generic and B) it has both DDR & SDR slots for memory. I rather like that option because for its current purposes regular old SDRAM is perfectly acceptable and we have TONS of it even when not considering the 512MB chips I recently took out of the Dali fileserver because of suspected ‘badness’ with them. Clark Connect only needs 64MB of ram and I have easily 256MB to put into it.

I did run into an unexpected ‘problem’ though when testing it out. Apparently one is REQUIRED to use the p4 12 volt auxiliary power connector in addition to the standard motherboard connector for power. None of the ‘old’ power supplies have this special connector and as such the board won’t turn on. I was testing it with the components placed on a anti-static matts on my side desk because the proper case hasn’t arrived yet. I’m truly hoping that the power supply in the Inwin case has that special p4 connector; I searched around the net for a while and couldn’t find any definitive info, but I did stumble across a photo that shows that power supply model number with p4 power cable coming out of it so I feel somewhat at ease. Fedex should bring the case this afternoon anyway.

The other potential problem was that the all of the information says that it supports processors from 1GHz up to 2.8GHz, but I have only an 800MHz to put into it. I finally found some obscure document on the MSI website referencing that it would work with CPUs all the way down to 600MHz so all good there.

The third potential issue was one I didn’t really consider at all. When I stuck the components into my brother Matt’s old system (totally unstable, it powers off randomly, etc) neither the Fujitsu 1.7GB or the Samsung 8.4GB drive would get recognized by the BIOS. I chalked that up to the computer just being a hunk of shit, especially after I tested the Fujitsu in my workstation and it was recognized without issue. Matt’s computer did detect the 40GB drive though. It didn’t dawn on me until this morning why that inconsistency could have been and the reason is that the motherboard in Matt’s old system simply may not support ATA33 drives. This worries me because this new motherboard states that it supports ATA66 through ATA133… no mention of ATA33 at all. The older and subsequently smaller drives are most certainly ATA33 while the 40GB Maxtor drive is ATA100. I’ll be justified in my disappointment if the tiny Fujitsu drive isn’t detected by the BIOS because it’s only ATA33. This isn’t a blocker, but it does mean that I need to use the 40GB Maxtor drive in the router; using such a large drive in something like that is an incredible waste. I’d much rather use the 40GB drive in the fileserver and while I can still use it for the same purposes on the router, it just strikes me as a security d’oh to have SMB running on such a device EVEN IF it is specifically firewalled off from the ‘red’ ethernet adapter. Oh well, in about six or so hours I should be able to figure all this out provided that Fedex actually does deliver the case today like they’re supposed to.