Hi!
 
 
I want to build a HTPC, based on Linux (and as everyone knows there is no motherboard that is 100% compatible with it) but this time i want to build one that would have the less power consumption possible.
 
Via's mini-itx boards need around 7w, but their processing power is almost limited (almost!) to do this task.
 
Laptop cpu's based motherboards need as much power as a normal desktop one.  
 
So, what i want is a system, that could be bought in Europe, new or in second hand, x86 or other architecture (as long mythtv is supported ). Underclock the cpu is also an option.
 
Price and Linux support is also important.
 
 
For starting up, i'm thinking about using one or two laptop drives in some RAID mode (depends on their output), small case and plenty of memory RAM.
 
 
What about you guys?
 
 
 
Thanks for your replies!!
 
 
 
P.S.: You tomshardware guys ROCK!!

>no motherboard that is 100% compatible with it
 
Hah. Rubbish. Most modern motherboards are 100% compatible with Linux - only the very new, bleeding edge ones aren't.
 
>Mini-itx
 
MythTV supports hardware encoding/decoding, a mini-itx board will do more than enough.
 
For example; http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6191021075.html
 
<quote>
Via Epia MII-1000 board, 512MB of RAM, a 3.5-inch Western Digital 250GB hard drive, a slimline DVD burner, a WinTV-PVR 350 capture card, a tiny PicoPSU 120-watt power supply, and an 80mm Silenx fan -- all housed in a Hoojum Cubit 3 enclosure.  
</quote>
 
You can do software RAID under Linux very easily.

What about hardware sound mixing support? How many supports that? I had to buy a creative for that...
 
RAID is easy yes. I can deal with Linux software with some ease. My problems are power consumption, enough processing power and total cost. I want to achieve the minimum power possible, if possible, less than 100w, much less.
 
Anyone dealed with a mac mini? How much power does it need?
 
 
Thanks for the help.

AIUI, your generic onboard sound doesn't do hardware sound mixing - it's all done in software by the CPU. Linux can do it with appropriate drivers, in the same way as Windows can do it with appropriate drivers. All modern, decent Linux distros will "just work" - there are even ASIO drivers for Linux which provide as good if not better sound support than for Windows (though I suspect you have to pay money for them...)
 
People have been using Linux for sound for several years - take a look at;
 
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/fe [...] xaudio.asp
 
More than 3 years ago...
 
The problem with hardware sound mixing support isn't the software or the drivers, it's the fact that the onboard sound doesn't do it!

Well, i didn't know about that...
 
Then i only want to know about systems based on athlon, sempron, pentium4 that were underclocked, (undervoltage) that would need less than 70w for all the system. Just saw a guy with a sempron 64 @ 1.125 => Complete system power consumption = 59w
 
Systems based on powerpc or other archs are welcome also!!
 
 
Thanks for your help!!!