Mini-ITX based systems - worthwhile or not?

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I would like to build a very simple PC to act as a music system / possible HTPC and was wondering about basing it on a mini-ITX mobo/cpu. These contain a 1GHz CPU so I'm (obviously) concerned about the lack of processer power if I do start to use the system to record / playback TV (I'm assuming that playing mp3 files is not going to tax even a slow processor!) My other option is to build a micro-ATX based system (using a cheap celery / semp) but I am rather taken with the ultra small format.

I'll be controling the system with a touchscreen monitor and using either 2.0 or 5.1 speaker systems (depending upon format / cost)
 
I've had an (800mhz) EPIA mini ITX PC running for a couple of years now, in day to day use it's a file server (~100 gig of MP3s plus other stuff) to the various PCs, XBox (running XBMC) and my Topfield PVR. It also provides music when I'm working in the garage (where the server lives).

A while back I built a linux based media centre PC for the lounge (now replaced with the Topfield), the initial build used the Mini ITX box, but it wasn't really man enough for the recording side of things without a hardware MPEG2 encoding TV card (with it, it was fine, as it has hardware to decode MPEG2), it would generally struggle through, but if you tried using a 2nd tuner to watch live TV whilst recording another, or anything like that, you were screwed.

I can't imagine the 1ghz board would perform well enough to improve on that situation.

Bear in mind tho that a Mini ITX P4 board is available, which might suit your purposes in a small system.

Gav.
 
I have seen an ITX P4 northwood board, but never anywhere in stock.

Quite nice little systems when you get the going, especially a Dothan based PM system, they really fly.
 
You can get p4 boards, as well as Core Duo mini-itx boards with ddr2.

Look at the commell ones :)
 
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