Revisions for New computer up and running

It’s actually for HTPC usage — so i’ll still be gaming on the trusty thinkpad. I finished putting it all together and tweaking tonight.

Zotac IONITX D-E Motherboard … basically a nvidia 9400 with a dual core Atom CPU stuck on it
Atom Dual-Core 330 (stuck permanently to mentioned motherboard), fanless
2GB of OCZ RAM (DDR2-800)
30GB OCZ Vertex SSD
Antec ISK 300-65 Case
Hauppage remote control (soon to be replaced by a Logitech Harmony)

Running Ubuntu Linux 9.04 (minimal install – no desktop) with XBMC providing the pretty stuff on the 42” TV. Media storage is provided by a couple of external 1TB HDDs hidden behind everything.

Whilst playing a 1080p movie (smoothly) and ripping a DVD in the background it runs silently and draws 35W whilst hitting a max temp of around 60 degrees. At idle it draws only 10W, so I leave it on all the time. It does, however, boot up in about 15s if need be.

I haven’t bothered with TV tuning or recording yet, as I don’t really find much on TV to interest me. Maybe sometime later.

All in all a successful build for about $700 in bits, not including the external drives which I already had.