My Entertainment Machine

| Monday, March 01, 2004 | 2:14 AM

This is all I want, it's all I need.

So, I'm building an entertaiment machine. The machine is being designed to do the following:

Store and play all of my music (mp3's, ogg's, as well as cds)
Store and play all of my video files (TV Shows, Movies, misc. Internet clips, as well as DVDs)
Store and play video games from a number of systems (emulators for Nintendo, Genesis, Super Nintendo, Sega CD, Turbographix 16, Nintendo 64, Playstation, Arcade, as well as PC games)
Allow access to files (audio, video, etc) from other PCs on the network)
Allow Tivo-like TV video recording, and scheduling of regular recording.
Fit (physically and aesthetically) within my entertainment center setup.
Be relatively quiet

So I've been looking for parts, off and on, and the biggest problem I had was finding a case that I liked, but I think I finally have. So now I'm hoping you guys can help me out with the other parts... I have a few ideas (I think I'm all set with the video capture dealie, and the hard drive), but if you guys have any suggestions, I'd very much like to hear them. Anyway, here's what I've got so far:

Case:

Cooler Master ATC-620 Desktop Micro ATX PC Chasis (ATC-620C-BX1)

Power Supply:

400 - 450 Watt ATX Power Supply

Motherboard:

MicroATX 333FSB, DDR333, AGP8X, USB2.0, LAN, (Good) Audio, Socket A [Athlon XP] (Chaintech 7VIF4 ?)

Processor:

Athlon XP > 2200+ Socket A

Memory:

512MB 333MHZ PC2700 DDR

Video Card:

ATI RADEON 9200se 128MB DDR AGP 8X

Hard Drive:

Maxtor 250 GB 7200 RPM 8 MB Cache

Capture Card:

WinTV-PVR-usb2

OS:

WinXP or Redhat Fedora

Keyboard:

Black wireless keyboard

Mouse:

Black wireless optical mouse.

Controllers:

Microsoft Sidewinders

Oh yeah, here's what the case looks like: (Admit it, it's sexy)

Add/Read Comments

8 comments.

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joel

| Monday, March 01, 2004 | 4:05 AM

I noticed a MS wireless keyboard/mouse combo at Best Buy -- they share a wireless receiver, so you have a little less clutter on your shelves. I have the mouse in the combo, and it's fantastic.

Do sidewinders come in wireless, as well? If so, you need those.

Tuuk

| Monday, March 01, 2004 | 11:30 AM

That case is really sexy.

jonathan

| Monday, March 01, 2004 | 12:57 PM

Good God it's beautiful. Can I sleep with it?

Dave

| Monday, March 01, 2004 | 8:39 PM

so where's the optocoupler

Al

| Monday, March 01, 2004 | 11:38 PM

Hey Ron,

It's Al from Chicago area. Just happened to stop by your site and see that you were building a media pc. I did this a while back and thought that I let you know about something that I found that works very nicely for this.

First off I hate the company, it's X10 the popup ad people, but dangit this thing is sweet. The mouse remote (http://www.x10.com/products/x10_mk19a.htm). You can program any button on it to lauch any program or any key code for example you can program a button to launch winamp and then another button to advance the track while in win amp...i was able to change channels on the pc while watching tv by using the channel +/- buttons or by keying in the channel number on the remote...and the mouse buttons are trigger buttons underneath the remote with the thumb pad on the top for the cursor. To me this was the key to making my system worth while, wireless keyboard was just to bulky for my tastes. Oh and the other cool thing about it is that it uses RF instead of infrared so you can be three rooms or more away and change tracks/adjust volume or what not.

My board died on my system last year...and i ended up gutting it for parts...maybe i'll have to build me a new one.

I also suggest the ATI All-in-Wonder over the WinTV card...i just didn't like it's software...i liked ati's much better, but that may have changed...the wintv card i have is pretty old

anyway, later, -Al-

John Doe

| Tuesday, March 02, 2004 | 4:15 AM

Hey it's John from Champaign and I happened to see your interpretation of Dark Side of the Moon. Waters got very deep with some of his lyrics including the song "Brain Damage" which was actually about the conspiracy surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Waters believed that President Kennedy was a part of an international conspiracy known as the Illuminati. Their goal was to slowly take over the world. John F. Kennedy began to stray from the beliefs of this secret society so rather than jeopardizing their conspiracy they had him killed. When Waters says "The lunatic is on the grass" he means the illuminati are on the grass. The grass, of course, means the grassy knowle where it is believed shots were fired at the president. They've "got to keep the lunies on the path" refers to JFK as the lunie that they are making an example of to other illuminati members. "The lunatics are in the hall" means that the illuminati members are in the Hall of Congress doing whatever they must for their conspiracy to be completed. "The paper holds their folded faces to the floor, and everyday the paperboy brings more" means that the members of this conspiracy are the faces we see in newspapers, mostly politicians. "And if the dam breaks open many years too soon" means that if the conspiracy is blown open before it is completed; "And if there is no room upon the hill" means if the conspiracy is completed but you didnt help them; "And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too" they made JFK's head explode (the title of the track is "Brain Damage"); "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon" basically means we couldn't care less about you or I'll see you in hell. Waters is a great musician who puts alot of thought into his lyrics and his music. Maybe he caught on to something that most people don't as they go about their daily lives.

Dr. Edmond Zachary

| Saturday, March 06, 2004 | 5:19 PM

Hello Ron,

You may remember me. I posted on your site shortly after it first began.

Anyway, sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I've been very busy with my psychiatry practice, so I haven't had an opportunity to respond to your email. To make things worse I deleted your original email, so I have to respond on your webpage. Sorry in advance for the whole lack of patient/doctor confidentiality.

The thing you need to understand is that all humans have bowel movements or as you referred to it as "making poops." This doesn't make you evil or dirty--it's normal. However, this should be happening on a daily basis, not a monthly one. I advise you start drinking prune juice on a daily basis and SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION ASAP.

Your Friend,
Dr. E