Aywun MD-100 Media Centre
Continuing with the minimalistic approach, this media centre has the following features:
- Small case
- Low power comsumption processor
- Nvidia graphics processor
- More than 1TB storage
- Dual high definition tuners
- IR remote control/keyboard
- Nearly silent
There is not a lot of information around on the internet about this case. I do think it is a great case for these reasons:
Very small size
- Not bad looking
- Allows up to two 3.5" hard drives, which is great for a media centre that usually requires lots of storage. Small cases usually only allow small 2.5" notebook hard drives wich offer a lot less storage than the 3.5' ones.
- Silent DC to DC PSU
This case costs the same as an ATX Pico PSU's power supply and it comes with a DC to DC power supply, which is not as small as a Pico PSU but it is totally silent. Even if you get rid of the case, the PSU is worth it.
The cons are:
- Not very good ventilation. The case comes with a small noisy fan
- Power supply is 60 Watts, but many Atom systems would work ok with that
- Aywun MD-100
This motherboard has a dual-core Intel® Atom™ processor D525 which uses very little power. It also has an integrated next generation NVIDIA ION graphics processor.
Power Consumption:
1W @ OFF
2W @ Sleep
26W @ Idle
30W @ 1080p h.264 mkv
It has HDMI & DVI-D videooutputs, SPDIF output, analog audio output and 2 USB 3 ports, which makes it perfect for a media centre.
The only disadvantage I could find about this board is that it needs a fan. When I tried to use it fanless, temperature went up to the roof to arounf 80 degrees. I had to install a nearly silent fan on this system to cool it down. Now it runs around 45 degrees when playing a 1080p video.
To find more information about this board check the official site.
Click the following link to Make the Audio of the Asus AT5IONT-I MiniITX Motherboard work in Linux.
If you want to use a DVI to HDMI cable and you still want to get audio on that monitor, you might have to use a trick to disable the hdmi audio from the edid information of the monitor. This way the monitor will use analog input instead of the hdmi audio input that most likely will have no sound. Check the DVI to HDMI analog audio section.
I'm using dual HD tuners in a USB stick. This is one of the few tuners that has a dual tuner inside a USB stick. It would also fit inside the tiny case so it doesn't have to be kept outside the media centre.
More information about this tuner can be found here.
I decided to give it a try to this remote control from Deal Extreme.
Unfortunately, this remote didn't work properly on Linux.
Fortunately, there are a few tools out there that can make this remote control work perfectly on Linux.
I really don't understand why they keep adding the mouse functionality in these remotes. I find it completely useless. You can disable it by pressing the blue key (toggle).
In you want to integrate the Wireless Multimedia Infrared IR Remote Controller - Deal Extreme 34435 click here for the instructions.
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