Very old Shuttle SN45G

[Flibster]

As in the title, I've just yanked from the back of the cupboard a very old, dusty and slightly modded SN45G *had the grills cut out from the rear to make it run a touch cooler*

I've been thinking of setting it up as a XBMC machine in the bedroom after replacing the motherboard. It's got the uprated PSU from the time in it, so I think it's got a wopping 200w of power at it's disposal. It'd also be a step up from the original giant xbox that I've currently got running in the bedroom with XBMC on it.

I've been looking at a few Mini-ITX boards and I think they'll fit with a minimum of adjustments needed. If I was to get a D525 board with HDMI, one of the many SATA HDD's I've got spare, 4gb of ram, stick Windows 7 on it and then XBMC on top. Finished off with the old USB MCE remote I've got around somewhere too, it should be reasonably girlfriend friendly *which is the important bit*

As long as it can handle blurays and BBC HD iPlayer and can output HD audio over HDMI without any problems, it's doesn't need to be a powerhouse.

As I know nothing really about the various low power solutions around, does anyone have any recommendations of boards I should be looking at or other possible solutions?

Cheers.

 

[freebooter]

You might already have seen it but if not there are a couple of conversions in this thread. One quite extreme but the one towards the end of the thread by ian54 might be of interest.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=18810412

I have an SN45G as well that isn't being used now and I had thought of doing something similar. One thing that you may find a problem for your intended use is the noise. Mine is very noisy. I think the biggest problem is the small fans in the psu. I considered putting an itx board in but as you can't use the ICE cooler that was what really made the concept work so well I don't know whether it is worth doing instead of buying an itx case. The boards are surprisingly expensive as well.

 

[Flibster]

Hmmm. Don't want to go full PC route, not for XBMC and the bedroom. I'd be happy with an Intel D525 or AMD Fusion board. It's not going to be used for anything more stressful than playing a bluray.

Coolling won't be a problem. I've got some practically silent fans that run of a thermistor so will only switch on when the temperatures go above 35°c. PSU fan is an interesting one. May rig a larger fan at the front of the PSU and push the air through instead of pulling it through from the back.