I converted an old 17″ LCD to a touch screen. I want to use it with VMC to do the following (and only the following – nothing else):
-Play music through VMC interface
-VMC plugin for mControl for home automation
-A good VMC weather plugin
-Picture slideshow as screen saver (optional)
So no movie or TV viewing.
I want to either build it into a wall or attach hardware on the back of the monitor. Not decided yet and also dependant on hardware.
Question is what hardware should I use? I am looking for very small and quiet but able to run Vista Premium (with bells & whistles turned off but need to drive VMC). Now I am trying to use spare parts I have lying around and end up as cheap as possible. Here is what I have but not sure what will work and end up the overall cheapest option:
1)Intel D845GVSH barebones. This is based on the 845G chipset and is a very rare Celeron 1ghz passive setup and about a mini-itx size. Problems: No vista graphics driver (will see if I can get it running on Vista), and not directx9. Aero needs dx9 but not sure if VMC needs dx9??? Also will need PSU – not sure what to get. No sata – I have sata laptop drive (7200rpm) and 200gb 3.5″ IDE noisy drive to choose from. (cost – $??)
2)Shuttle XPC with AMD opteron 165 but no built in graphics. So needs low profile AGP graphics (what graphics is sufficient?). This will be big but strong setup (cost – $50+)
3)Buy Atom barebones (cost – mobo + PSU = maybe 100, or MSI Wind or equivalent for $130)
4)Other buying option?? Like Pico-itx (but should be able to run vista)
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