Small Form Factor Building a networked MP3 player

I recently got my hands on an old SCSI box that will make a perfect mp3 player for my room. Originally had room for 4 drives, came with 2 7200rpm barracudas (5 gigs each). I yanked the PSU, since it only does 12v/5v. Probably gonna yank the drive rails, since they're unnescessary....

Anyway, I'm wondering what the best board would be for this. I need either something that comes with a good sound chip, or something that can expand. Also, I'll need a TV-Out as well....dont need s-video, and would prefer coax, but whatever will do....adapters are cheap, and I already have one or two. I already have a TV in my room....I don't want to put a monitor in there as well.

I would prefer something via, so I don't have to worry about a processor, but I know the eden boards leave a bit to be desired.

If anyone wants me to, I can post some quick pics of the case. I plan on modding it so it looks nice in my room, of course....definately some windows/lights, maybe a layer of paint if I get ambitious. But that's for later, heh.

 

What processor do you have now... that is the decision. I would stay away from the epia boards unles syou need something small. How about an entry amd xp xhip with a matx board...

 

I don't think there's room for a micro....forgot to mention that. It's going to have to be a mini-itx

As for processor, I have an AMD t-bird and xp chip lying around....though I haven't seen any mini-itx boards that take an AMD chip. I'd also like to keep this as quiet as possible, so a hot AMD chip won't help things much.

I know it'd be much easier if I could use a micro board, but that's a no go.

 

picture please

 

ask and ye shall receive.

pop can is there for size reference (product placement ), and yea those are 80mm fans. I already gutted everything, including the psudeo power supply....if you want, I can get some pics of that stuff, but it's really unnescessary.

Dimensions of the cage without the cover or plastic front are 28cm deep by 27cm high by 18.5cm wide. I'm still debating on where to put things.....but I'm most likely going to have a window on each side and on the top, and probably a few LEDs on the bottom to make it glow from below.

linked some of them to make this thread 56k friendly.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3213/IM001029.JPG

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3936/IM001031.JPG

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9104/IM001030.JPG

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1496/IM001032.JPG





I should probably post this in project logs soon. I just want to have a good start on it before I start posting over there, heh.

 

sweet, nice find man.

i think i found that things bigger brother (also to be posted in project logs soon).

anywho.. im pretty sure you will have to go mini-ITX with that. i have a miniATX, and judging on size, it wouldnt fit.

Via really do lack power... what form factor are the suttle motherboards? as their systems have similarly sized cases to that. if a shuttle mobo would fit, then you could get an AMD board a plop that t'bird right in there.

 

yea, via has a serious lack of power, but the last thing I need in this machine is power. I just need something powerful enough to play MP3s, which isn't much at all.

Also, I was in the thread with the mini-itx table ( http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=56789 ) and noticed that a few of them have 5.1 audio on them. Anyone know where I can find these boards? I searched a few sites and couldn't find Commell anywhere....never even heard of them, really. eh, I suppose google would help....but if anyone could provide me a link to a reseller that'd be great. Only problem I have with them is they're socket 497....I would really rather not buy a processor for this project if I don't have to.

hmmm I think I may have found a candidate...

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=2#p1606

Seems to have everything I need. Does anyone know of any good US mini-itx suppliers? I tried newegg, nothin. Directron has them, but I'm wondering if there are any better prices to be found for these.

edit:

it seems the EPIA MII is what i'm looking for. Directron has them, if a bit pricey. Anyone know of a good resource for these boards? Also, anyone have experience with the MIIs?

 

I have a MII10000 board and had no problems at all. People keep on knocking these boards for been under powered etc but they are not designed for gaming etc.. I don't play games just listen to music which takes very little processor power. The good thing about the epia boards is that they do come passively cooled and when listening to music you dont want lots of fans whinging away, very important. You might be interested if you are going for the mp3 thingy as to how I setup my system. I rip all my cds with EAC uncompressed (looks up cd info on the web for you and rips with one press of the button. Then compress them with Monkey Audio which turns them in to .ape files. .ape files are great as you can uncompress them at anytime, abit like zip files but for music and when played back the are played back umcpressed on the fly so no loss of quality!! Very easy not settings need changing etc.. then using winamp 5 I play them back. As a frontend program I use Xlooby with is freeware but by far the best going. Google will bring up a the links.

 

i know you dont need power, but if the guy already has processors hanging around of much greater power they might as well be used.

i also run SETI, and on a via it would just be painful, thats why i personally recommended shuttle.

 

I do the same, but I use FLAC because its open source and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy...

However, I rip the whole CD to a single WAV file with a cue sheet, then compress that wave into a .flac file, and then edit the .cue to reference the new filename

For playback I use foobar2000, it loads the .cue file and lets you see each track as a track etc - also has a good dynamics compressor plugin which keeps the volume nice and steady when listening late at night and cant crank the tunes as loud as they are supposed to be heard.

 

How many HDDs are you planning on dropping in that thing ??

If you keep the drives to a minimum and go with a mini-ITX board, you may be able to pop in a fanless mini PSU with an external power brick for a quiet setup.