Soupdog50

This seems to be the right sort of thing. Needs to be run from a windows machine. It might be possible to create some scripts for the FreeNAS command area.

@h3%5kr3w Yeah I linked to it in the OP, its a very helpful guide. Bought my new dremel the other day but haven't got round to cutting anything yet. I spent ages cleaning up the case the get the weird Yellow tint that old consoles get off. I'm still looking at Motherboards but Computer Systems revision keeps getting in the way.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I really like the Sheeva Plug idea. Do you think 1.2GHz 512MB RAM would be enough for what I need? I have my Xbox 360 Premium or Pro (I don't remember the name Microsoft went for in the end) but its a launch and I expect it to Rrod any day now. I broke the warranty ("adjusting" the firmware on my DVD drive...) already so that's a whole other issue. The whole web browsing in the living room thing is also tempting, as are older emulators, probably up to N64. If it ran quietly and used little power I would use it for my legal torrents as well. EDIT: I like this mother board Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF2D with Integrated Intel Atom Processor Dimensions (WxDxH): 17.1 cm x 17.1 cm Chipset Type: Intel 945GC Express / Intel ICH7 Max Bus Speed: 533 MHz Processor: 1 ( 1 ) x Intel Atom 330 / 1.6 GHz Cache Memory: L2 - 1 MB ; RAM: 0 MB (installed) / 2 GB (max) Supported RAM Technology: DDR2 SDRAM Storage Controller: ATA-100, Serial ATA-300 USB Ports Configuration: 8 x USB Storage Ports Configuration: 1 x ATA, 2 x SATA Graphics Controller: Intel GMA 950 ( 224 MB ) - Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0 Audio Output: Sound card - 5.1 channel surround At 17.1cm by 17.1cm it looks like it will just fit but judging by that picture it looks quite tall. This will be a problem because I want the DVD drive to eject through the cartridge slot. I think I might have to find another way to cool the damn thing. Because of space it looks I'll definitely have to use a laptop Hard Drive or even a USB stick, I'll investigate whether the board can boot from USB tomorrow. I think 1.6Hz should be enough, booting off of a USB or SSD (if I can afford it) would speed things up a bit too.

Ok, so that's the EEE PC idea out then. It was just a minor thought anyway, having everything so well contained seemed to good to be true. I'll spend the next couple of days looking at micro atx boards and power supplies. Fitting it all in is definitely going to be an issue, I'm not sure how cool this is going to run either, its not like I have space for a big HSF ;) What would be the minimum specs for hardware that could stream at a useful level of HD quality? Like 2Ghz and 1GB+ RAM? I guess the wireless wouldn't have to be internal either seeing as I have a buffalo airstation about here somewhere it would probably be far more efficient to use that in conjunction with my Xbox 360 (and yes I do realise I could stream to that). I was considering using XBMC as the front end but I've really fallen out of love with it on my Xbox 1 and my PC recently so any tips on what Distro I should use would also be appreciated. Thanks for the suggestions and input. Sorry if my posts are a bit long, I tend to go on a bit.

This is my first forum post but I'm a long time viewer! I've been considering building a media pc for streaming videos and music to from my main deskop which runs loud and isn't exactly lounge worthy. When I got given a NES the size looked quite nice for a media PC case under a TV and I remembered this. I have some questions that it would be great if any of you could help me with, I don't want to get to far into this and realise I've made a stupid mistake. My first consideration was if I used an EEE PC 900 motherboard there would be several advantages: Low Power Small Form factor which would fit easily inside the NES case quiet, only the one fan (CPU) Power supply doesn't have to be inside the case Quite cheap Small built in SSD big enough for the OS and maybe some emulators To save you looking them up here are the specs of an EEE 900 board: 900MHz Intel Celeron Processor SD Card Reader VGA out Mic+Headphone sockets LAN 3 USB ports Sound+Graphics built into the board 512MB RAM Wifi card First off, I'm not sure whether this is powerful enough (With an undecided Linux distro) to handle the HD Video Streaming I require (can VGA out handle high enough resolutions?), any thougths there? Seccondly seeing as I want it to be a neat and tidy mod. All of the ports are on the sides of the board, and I want everything to plug neatly into the back, I'd have to make my own I/O Area which sounds like a bit of a nightmare. I'm considering going for a Mini or Micro ATX/ITX (I'm not sure what the differences are) becuase it will offer more power, even if it is much hotter, more expensive, bigger and louder. I haven't decided what Optical Drive I want to go for, but it will pop out of the cartridge door. I was hoping Blu Ray but there's no way and EEE PC could handle that. I'm also assuming that I'll have to go for a laptop sized drive which will bump up the price. Having the ability to use the dolphin emulator to play Wii games on it would be pretty kick ass, only something I just considered because of the latest couple of eps. Any thoughts would be appreciated Sadly I have 1st Year Computer Science Exams coming up, so this will probably have to take a back seat. EDIT: Fixed a bullet point that was annoying me