Looking for the cheap solution

[ScottMayo]

I'm looking for **low power, low cost** hardware that can run XP (yeah, I know) and SlimCenter, 24/7. I want to spend as little as possible, ideally under $300 for the whole deal. (That's probably too aggressive a goal, given that I want to have at least 160G of disk.) It doesn't need an integrated video screen or keyboard. It doesn't need to be portable. Arguably, it doesn't need a case (though I'm trying to steer clear of build-it-myself projects). It needs to have video out, USB ports and an audio output (not used for the music; can be lo-fi).

I know the ability to run XP is going to make this harder, but the box also has to handle windows file sharing, it has to share a printer to the rest of my windows systems, it has to run some windows-only software, etc. It doesn't have to do any of that QUICKLY, however. It just needs to be generally capable.

What have people had success with? I'm only interested in "I use X and it rocks" or "I tried Y, don't go there" stories.

Thanks! I have 3 squeezeboxes and I love these guys. But reliability is critical and my current solution has suddenly become unstable. So the right answer - wait 6 months - doesn't apply.

[MeSue]

If you can do Windows Home Server instead of XP, how about $299 for a MediaSmart Server from HP?
http://www.homeserverhacks.com/2008/...r-from-hp.html

This is what I have been running SqueezeCenter on since last December and it's great. You can also install other software on it and it will back up all the computers in your home automatically.

It comes with 500GB and is easily expandable with 3 extra internal drive bays, 3 USB ports, and 1 eSATA port that has a port multiplier. But it doesn't have video or audio outputs. You could do audio with USB. Not sure about video.

[jmourik]

Or check this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=54766

[syburgh]

In US, barebones is $140 (includes 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU) + DDR2 SODIMM (2GB is $20-30 these days) + storage (3.5in SATA disk of your choice, 250GB is pretty inexpensive), so it could probably fit easily in your budget. It also supports WOL and suspend to RAM (ACPI S3), so you could configure windows to suspend when idle and save some power when idle, if you like.

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=51672

[ScottMayo]

*Sigh* I just remembered. My current (dying) system will auto-boot when power is applied, and it will auto-login. These are important features. I don't know if boot-when-powered is available in cheap hardware. I wonder if there's a motherboard setting for it... I use squeezebox as my alarm clock, among other things, so I need something that will recover *unattended* from a 3am power glitch. (Yes, I have a UPS, but still...)

The fit-pc is over $400 for XP. I like the power consumption, but the price is too high.

The HP media center price just went back up, and I very much doubt it even tries to be energy efficient.

Barebones.. if I have to buy XP separately, that's about $160, yes? Alright, someone educate me: there's Full and OEM, for buying Windows. What's the difference?

[syburgh]

*Sigh* I just remembered. My current (dying) system will auto-boot when power is applied, and it will auto-login. These are important features. I don't know if boot-when-powered is available in cheap hardware. I wonder if there's a motherboard setting for it... I use squeezebox as my alarm clock, among other things, so I need something that will recover *unattended* from a 3am power glitch. (Yes, I have a UPS, but still...)

Wind PC has a setting for when power is restored (On, Off, Last State are the choices). Seems to work OK.

Barebones.. if I have to buy XP separately, that's about $160, yes?

Yes, looks like an XP OEM license is about $90 (order it with the barebones system). You could definitely hit your $300 price point if you use Linux, but if you're not already familiar with it than it's probably not worth the effort to save $90.

[Goodsounds]

I'm not sure what your expectations are, but PC prices have probably never been lower. I can't remember a time when more was available for less money. If you are unhappy with what you see, then maybe you should be looking at used equipment. Or, something like the Dell Outlet?

Retailers are forecasting a bleak holiday season, it may be reasonable to expect seeing interesting sale prices in the coming months. But it's unlikely you'll see much new stuff for $300.

[ScottMayo]

Linux is not an option. I *like* Linux, don't get me wrong. But I want my existing windows machines to use this new box as the print server, I want to share windows files with it, and - the killer - I want it to run an app I wrote that is tied to the Windows OS. I know there are unix answers to all that - print services that speak windows, samba, wine (or I could port my code, sigh). I also know I'll grow old before I get it all to work perfectly - and with a houseful of technically-unsavvy people here, it all has to be perfect.

I can feel the will to fight drifting away: for $400 I can just use this little toy laptop thing from Acer(http://www.amazon.com/Acer-8-9-inch-..._tit_7_rdsssl0), and between the batteries and a UPS it can probably stay on through any power flicker I encounter. Having a screen attached is a waste of hardware and power, and it's $100 over where I want to be, but.. I could turn it on, install SlimCenter, copy the music over and be DONE.

Must.. resist... easy solution... must.. resist...

[ScottMayo]

I'm not sure what your expectations are, but PC prices have probably never been lower.

Yeah, I know. I'm being unreasonable. The problem is, as a programmer, I *know* just how little actual machine I need to run Windows printing, SlimCenter, and just enough of a GUI interface that I can configure what I need. I don't even need to run a browser. I could get by with 256M of memory and a low power 300MHz processor, as long as it could talk to a big disk. And as an owner of an OLPC I know that the amount of machine I need, *could* be sold for about $250, easily, and that's *with* a screen and XP installed.

The fact that no manufacturer wants to sell me any such thing is infuriating. Give ms a Geode, a 1/2 meg of memory, a disk with XP, an ethernet port at 100Mb and some USB ports and I have all I need. Why doesn't someone sell it for $250? And yes, I know the answer: because the big boys in this market have things locked up so that it's hard to sell such a beast. If more people knew that $250 worth of hardware did everything they wanted - browsing, email, chat, printing, light text editing and video playing - no one would ever sell a $600 PC again. And the industry can't have that. *mutter*

[upstatemike]

I know that the hard drive, at 80G, is smaller than you want but apart from that why not consider the Eee Box? It comes with XP. The Atom processor has plenty of horsepower for SqueezeCenter. Mine cost $290 from ZipZoomFly but you might be able to find it cheaper. I shut off the wireless card and it never draws more than 16W and it is also dead silent. Seems like it comes pretty close to what you are looking for.