Mini-itx Music System

[polkacat]

Hi
I'm completely new to mini-itx, but I would like to make a digital music system. I think I'm looking for a fanless mini itx board, with some RAM and a large hard drive (larger than 80gb probably) to store music on, and a LCD? It's only going to be used in one room, what I'm hoping is that I can connect this straight to my speakers. I've heard that you can also stream music from PCs which could be useful.
I have a limited budget but if anyone could help me to start this project I'd be very grateful.
Thanks

[saltynay]

what is the budget please

[polkacat]

I was hoping not too much over £150. Depends if you think its worth it, I can always save more!

[jimbouk]

Think I'd start by directing you to http://www.mini-itx.com/

If you are only going to be using it for music then any cheap mini-itx board should do. I'd get a seperate sound card to get the best quality sound out (pci one). The boards take standard hard-drives, and for the price these days it'd be worth getting at least a 160GB one.

For streaming the music you just need a bit of software at each end, server and client. But if you have a reliable network between them (wired or good quality wireless cards) then you could just share and map drives.

The only thing I could think is the LCD screen could be quite limiting in what you can do. If you have a TV in that room then hooking it up to that might be a better option. Check out the mods that use LCD screens and see if that's enough for you.

Deciding on the case is another big one. The mini-itx ones can be quite expensive for what they are, so lots of people just make there own. Or you could just get a mATX one.

You should also be able to use one of the fanless PSUs if you stick with only one hdd. And if noise if a real issue then maybe spending a bit more on a laptop hard-drive and an adapter could be an option.

Snip [What's your budget for the project?] too slow!

[jimbouk]

£150's going to be tight, have you thought about just a retail media streamer thing? I'll find a couple of links

[dave87]

Squeezebox would sound like the perfect idea for you, but no fun in building and configuring

[saltynay]

oooo £150 is a near impossible budget you will be better off by going with a micro-atx build then you will have a small amount of lee way with your components

[dave87]

Not really, you van get a Via C3 for £60, half decent soundcard for £20, case for £30, and stick of ram for £20, plus £30 for a hard disk, and you are laughing. Especially if you use google checkout with ebuyer

[polkacat]

Could I salvage my old pc's hard drive and soundcard to make this? I also have an external memory which I could put loads of music on.
I would much rather have a stand-alone database of music than have to stream it to be honest.
Thanks for all the help though, I appreciate it. I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to this so I'm afraid there'll be a lot more questions to come..!

[polkacat]

Could i have some pointers so I know what I'm looking for to buy?
What am I looking for for a decent soundcard thats cheap?
And are all mini-itx's basically all the same as jimbouk said any one would do?
do all the cases have space for a soundcard in it and have a USB port?
So if I get a soundcard, case, mini-itx board, 3.5" memory and some RAM, is this all I need to make a music system from this?
I'm assuming I need a psu too. Im hoping that I can just hook it up to my PC screen for the moment.
Also if anyone could give recommendations from ebuyer or another site I'd be grateful.
Thanks