Richard Jones' Log: Starting to settle on HTPC components

Tue, 08 Mar 2005

Having done a bunch more research, I've started to settle on the following currently-available components:

  • Shuttle SN85G4 - small box, potentially quiet with a simple fan change, optical digital audio in/out, SATA drives. Good Linux support for all components.
  • AMD Sempron 3100+ - quite capable, and cooler than the regular Athlon64s.
  • AverTV DVB-T 771 - digital TV reception at a very reasonable price, and AverMedia have Linux installation instructions (Word doc).
  • Western Digital Caviar 200Gb Serial ATA (no review) - as far as I can tell, it's the coolest, quietest available drive for under $1 per GB.
  • Antec 80mm SmartCool fan - replaces standard fan in the Shuttle case; thermally-controlled to lower fan speed when cool enough.
  • ATI RF Remote Wonder - seems to have good Linux support.
  • Existing Matrox G400 MAX video card.
  • ... and some other components like the DVD-RW for the Shuttle case and some memory.
Comment by Paul on Tue, 27 Sep 2005

So at this stage you would recommend this shuttle over others ?
ie are others just as good for the price?