I have built for myself a simple Media Center, based on Zotac ZBOX ID41 Plus, XBMC-Live, Transmission, Flirc and other useful stuff. The idea is having a low-energy consumption machine that I control with a remote. And it has to be always on. One thing I was concerned about is how to deal with my external HD connected to it: I’m of course expecting those to eventually fail if they are always spinning. ...
Our lounge recently welcomed an Apple TV first generation. It’s a simple, slick, beautiful piece of hardware. It’s Intel-based, has good hardware specs and has all the necessary output ports that a modern media center should have. And can do 1080p because is powerful enough: the new one can’t. Very self explanatory I bought with one aim in mind: Boxee! This media center project is just super, and I wanted something to run it on. Initially I though about a Mac Mini, but figured out that was too expensive (even a 2nd hand one) to do “just” mediacenter. ...