Earlier this year I did my final year project for my Informations Systems and Applied Sociology degree and ran a feasibility study on setting up Open Learning Labs (basically free IT training centres using Open Source solutions and Thin Clients for rural communities).
As a result I have a couple of HP Thin Clients (2x T5300 and 1x T5700).
The T5300 are useless for HTPC's because they have no PCI slot and no way to expand the RAM.
The T5700 however is different kettle of fish and comes with a PCI slot and a SODIMM slot which can take PC2100 RAM (233MHz). It also has an IDE connector (the same as the T5300) which ships with a Windows XP Embedded flash card attached. It has a Transmeta Crusoe 1GHz CPU and 8MB ATI Rage Graphics.
I know someone using the same hardware as an Asterisk server (CPU Intensive) so it should be able to handle MythTV with ease.
In order to actually use the PCI slot I needed to buy a PCI Expansion Module with Riser Card as the standard case does not support a PCI card. I replaced the 256MB RAM with a PC2100 1GB SODIMM and I am using a Hauppauge PVR250 PCI TV Card. I have also removed the Windows XP embedded Flash card and am waiting on a 250GB 2.5" IDE Laptop Drive.
The system will run MythTV backend and hopefully frontend as well with a very small footprint (about the size of a large external hard drive caddy). It will run on 12V at approx 800mA making it incredibly power efficient and apart from the HDD has no moving parts so is pretty much silent.
Total cost of the system will be around £190 when it is finished but it could be done for as little as £130 as I paid over the odds for a couple of the components so I could get them fast (for example I paid for expensive shipping from Canada for the PCI Expansion Module as I couldn't find any in the UK).
Once the HDD arrives I will take some photos and do a build log along with hopefully some screen shots of the fully working system once it is built.
As a result I have a couple of HP Thin Clients (2x T5300 and 1x T5700).
The T5300 are useless for HTPC's because they have no PCI slot and no way to expand the RAM.
The T5700 however is different kettle of fish and comes with a PCI slot and a SODIMM slot which can take PC2100 RAM (233MHz). It also has an IDE connector (the same as the T5300) which ships with a Windows XP Embedded flash card attached. It has a Transmeta Crusoe 1GHz CPU and 8MB ATI Rage Graphics.
I know someone using the same hardware as an Asterisk server (CPU Intensive) so it should be able to handle MythTV with ease.
In order to actually use the PCI slot I needed to buy a PCI Expansion Module with Riser Card as the standard case does not support a PCI card. I replaced the 256MB RAM with a PC2100 1GB SODIMM and I am using a Hauppauge PVR250 PCI TV Card. I have also removed the Windows XP embedded Flash card and am waiting on a 250GB 2.5" IDE Laptop Drive.
The system will run MythTV backend and hopefully frontend as well with a very small footprint (about the size of a large external hard drive caddy). It will run on 12V at approx 800mA making it incredibly power efficient and apart from the HDD has no moving parts so is pretty much silent.
Total cost of the system will be around £190 when it is finished but it could be done for as little as £130 as I paid over the odds for a couple of the components so I could get them fast (for example I paid for expensive shipping from Canada for the PCI Expansion Module as I couldn't find any in the UK).
Once the HDD arrives I will take some photos and do a build log along with hopefully some screen shots of the fully working system once it is built.
