On my inaugural visit to Fry's Electronics, I saw they had some of the baby barebones PC's there. That got me to thinking, gosh, I should look into building a new HTPC for the DVR. The one I've had for nearly five years still works, sure, but I guess I'm tired of having a jet engine in my living room.
When I spec out components for one of these baby boxes, assuming that they're quiet in the first place, they end up costing about the same as a Mac Mini, which I know without question already is small and quiet. That's a no-win. The Mini is $563 with an MS discount.
The other possibility is to re-use the "stereo system" case for the existing machine, gutting it for new stuff. The trick is to find a power supply that's nearly silent, and a motherboard that would fit and in a perfect world, has passive cooling. I admit that I'm just not up on following computer components anymore, ever since I went Mac. I don't know if such a thing even exists.
It's not critical, but it is something I've been thinking about.
First, I can't believe it has taken you this long to get to Fry's. USB sticks are cheaper at Micro Center, but apart from that, Fry's is one thing I wish we had here in Ohio.
Second, it looks to me like you're running into the Apple pricing myth. The new Minis are powerful, quiet, have DisplayPort (learned about that the hard way at work...)...basically the downside is the HDD, but a NAS will take care of that. Depending on what you want to do with it, EyeTV and Front Row might actually do most of what you really want...I know that's the solution I'm trying to talk myself into...
(yeah, right. Gotta get a desktop machine that can edit 1080i first!)
Hey, I didn't know Fry's existed until one of my co-workers mentioned it!
I'm aware of the myth, which is why we have three Macs at home and not some shitty Dells. That said, BeyondTV is the best I've seen for DVR'ing, and has been now for the five years I've used it.
Try the 27" iMac, Dave. I've been cutting 1080p converted to ProRes no problem, and with your edu discount it's not that expensive.
Mmmm. Would make my 22" el-cheapo acer monitor look tiny.
It's all money and timing and getting over my own cheapness. Justification isn't hard; I bought my current desktop in 11/2002!
Well, there you go. It seems improper to do so, but you *could* install MCE on a Mini. I'm sure there's probably some geek at the office who can show you how to do it...maybe even make it play the Imperial March while it boots up... 8-)
Anyway, you've been missing out with Fry's. IIRC, I think there's one up there in an old Incredible Universe building, if you remember that short-lived disaster. I don't know exactly where you are, but I think that's up in the Seattle area...or am I thinking of one closer to Portland, near Jantzen Beach...?