Small form factor system as a media server

[robot_parade]

So I'm considering setting up a small form factor system in the entertainment center to stream audio to our receiver. I don't need a lot of space on the system itself, since I already have a file server set up. I've looked around, and the Shuttle KPC systems seem pretty good - for instance the K45 (or it looks like there's a new model coming out called the K48). Anybody have any experiece with these? I'm planning on installing some version of linux on it (or maybe keeping the foresight install the KPC one comes with).

Anybody out there done this recently? Any hardware or software suggestions?

[passthru]

This is a fairly large topic. Define "media". If you literally mean audio, and that's it, don't buy a computer.

..I now realize I can't remember the name of the thing I'm thinking of

I think they're $200. It will receive MP3, FLAC, and a few other formats via network, and there's a wireless version if you can't run cat5. It has some other neat stuff, like displaying RSS feeds while idle. I'll ask what they're called and append this post..

[telekinetic]

Originally Posted by passthru

This is a fairly large topic. Define "media". If you literally mean audio, and that's it, don't buy a computer.

..I now realize I can't remember the name of the thing I'm thinking of

I think they're $200. It will receive MP3, FLAC, and a few other formats via network, and there's a wireless version if you can't run cat5. It has some other neat stuff, like displaying RSS feeds while idle. I'll ask what they're called and append this post..

squeezebox?

[passthru]

Too quick for me twistedmosaic!
It looks like they now only have one version of the original and they increased the price: http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html
Too bad, but it's probably still worth it for a simple music player.

[robot_parade]

Originally Posted by passthru

Too quick for me twistedmosaic!
It looks like they now only have one version of the original and they increased the price: http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html
Too bad, but it's probably still worth it for a simple music player.

Hrm, neat. That's got some advantages over my idea, but it ends up being about the same price, or even more expensive as the shuttle KPC thing I was thinking of, with a lot less flexibility.

OTOH, it's small, does one thing (hopefully well). So I wouldn't have to spend ages setting something up on a general purpose box. It's also made by logitech, and I've been happy with their hardware in the past.

So, thanks for the info, I'll have to do some more thinking.