Hello All

I recently purchased two Rio Receivers. I am now seeking a mini-computer with a very small foot print to act as a mp3 file server to free up my main system. I don't need anything overly special but I do have the following criteria: At least a 500 MHz Celeron (or equivalent) processor, 128 Mb RAM and a 10/100 NIC. If your system comes with a large HDD, that would be great too. A legacy-free system such as the AST Century City Microtower, Compac iPaq or the Book PC would be ideal.

I am willing to pay any reasonable price in the currency of your choice.

Thanks -

Go for a NetWinder.

Given that he is going to have to run the Rio Receiver manager (Windows only) or JReceiver ("interesting" to setup in normal circumstances) on the machine (to serve the Rio Receivers), using a Netwinder is probably not the right route to take. A bog standard PC would probably be a better choice in the case.

Mini ITX ; ) c3 800mhz processor w/o hd for like $150 or so.

-Greg

simple.. shuttle SV25, or similar box.
http://www.shuttleonline.com/spec.php3?model=sv25

smal box, standard parts... just add drive/cpu/ram

May I remind everyone that the PERFECT COMPANION to a set of Rio Receivers is the Rio Central HSX-109. Sure, it's more expensive than a PC, but boy does it ever kick butt for the purpose of being an MP3 server.

I don't have time to go slobbering all over the page here describing how cool the HSX really is, but perhaps someone else can hop in here and cover that for me.

One of the main advantages I did want to mention is that it doesn't have a huge hot power supply with a noisy constantly-running fan like a PC would. It's basically silent most of the time...

This is the machine that serves my [gasp] Audiotron. Unlike the Shuttle machines, it is quiet (actually almost silent) and cheaper. And it is much smaller. I chose the Eden CPU at 533MHz over the C3 at 800MHz because it was designed to run without a fan. You can run a C3 with just a heatsink as well, but I wouldn't want to trust it running non-stop 24/7 without one.

I bought mine from Caseoutlet.com. Available in black and white.

Tony, I considered getting the HSX but it was too expensive and couldn't do as much as a PC. The machine I have in the previous post is very quiet. If you close the glass door on my stereo cabinet, you cannot hear it. If the glass door is open you still can't hear it unless you are less than 2 feet away from it. And, since it's a PC, I have VNC set up on it so I can get into my network. I even have a webserver running on it with files I commonly need when at other locations.

While the Rio Central is great for what it does, buying it for the sole purpose of serving Rio Receivers is overkill. Having most of my music ripped already, and being sold on --alt-preset-standard, I don't see myself ever buying a Rio Central. It serves no purpose to me, since I don't need a box to rip all my music to CBR, burn music CDs, or squirt music to a portable player.

The Rio Central is great for the non-techie to replace his 500 CD player with. And had you not gotten a Rio Central as part of the beta test, I doubt you would have plopped down the money needed to buy one. Great idea, but it's target market is not most of the empeg owners. Mark 3 owners (had it existed) would be another story.

OK now I feel old. To me "Mini Computer" means anything but a small footprint! I was trying to work out why you wanted to stream from an old MicroVAX or some such before I realised what you were talking about

Rob

Actually I was hoping for an Amiga 500 with a 20 Mb HDD ...

Seriously, I really appreciate all of your suggestions. I too, would love a Rio Central for the "coolness factor" however $1400 US is WAY out of my price range. I agree with Tom's observations about it being overkill for this purpose as well.

I am really happy to have been turned onto the Via Mini-ITX form factor though...after some research today I think that this MoBo / processor combo will suit my needs perfectly. Rob (Robricc), I would be very interested in hearing how well your setup works for you....I am already hunting down an ultra cool case to house it in.

Thanks again for your replys -

I am running Win2k on it right now. There is no monitor, keyboard, or mouse hooked up to it. It just sits there silently and serves.

It just sits there silently and serves

It sounds like a really good butler

pca

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/computing/5a98.shtml