---
title: The Media Box will Live!
date: '2005-04-22T00:00:00+00:00'
categories:
- blog
- gadgets
- geek
layout: post
---

Yay!  The parts have turned up for my media box.  I'm building a machine to sit next to the TV and Hi-Fi, solely to store and play music and video.  At some point I'll add a Digital TV card so the machine can do TiVo like duties for us.

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Anyway, here's what I ordered:
<ul>
	<li><a href="http://www.viaembedded.com/product/epia_MII_spec.jsp?motherboardId=202">VIA EPIA MII 12000 Mini-ITX Mainboard</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/PartSpecs.asp?imodule=CT6464Z40B&cat=RAM">512Mb Crucial DDR RAM</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://206.14.132.88/products/Travla/c137/C137-120.html">Travla C137 Case with 120W PSU</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/0,1081,613,00.html">Seagate 7200.7 200Gb HD</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=5#p2115">Panasonic Slimline slotload DVD/CDRW drive</a></li>
</ul>
The mainboard has everything I need on it, plus a couple of bonuses.  A CompactFlash slot means I could get it booting off a memory card instead of harddisk, possibly speeding everything up and making it more of a 'switch on and off' device.  A PC-Card slot means I can add a wireless card at some point (to avoid wires and keep the other half happy!).

I intend to run the whole thing on GNU/Linux, probably <a href="http://www.pixelhum.com/archives/2005-04-13/ubuntu-linux/">Ubuntu</a> given my recent good experience with it.  I'll post more later, possibly with pictures!