well kept secret out

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:50 pm

Thanks for the link Phil, I'll try some of the OS tweaks mentioned on the site to lighten XP a bit....

Ed, tried looking for an expansion kit but failed....its working OK at the moment and I don't want to spend any more!

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:33 pm

All done and running, amazing how much faster you can make XP with a little tweaking...OK I'm only running SqueezeCentre but adding a RAMDisk and putting a small swap disk on it along with the system variables speeds it up no end...power consumption is a lot lower than the Fujitsu Siemens tower I was using before just got to sort out the backup now...

pre65 · Post by **pre65** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:38 pm

So Neal, does one need a monitor to see what's going on ? (with regard to track selection)

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:04 pm

Hi Phil, no...track selection is either made directly from the Squeezebox or from the Logitech app for iPhone/iPad...or you can use the paid for iPeng app....or use a web browser on another PC and point it at the SqueezeCentre IP address...

Hope that make sense!

Getting music on is either via download or ripped from a CD using a USB CD player or ripped from another PC over the network directly to the server...

pre65 · Post by **pre65** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:06 pm

Ah, so one needs a Squeezebox as well ?

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:19 pm

For my setup yes as this PC is in the Garage! So I stream from it to the SB attached to my HiFi over wired Ethernet.

The other way to do it is to use a PC close to the HiFi and play your music directly from it using either a USB DAC or SPDIF if the PC has it...a laptop is better in this instance or a cheap Netbook....

If you wanted to use the HP T5700 in this way you would need a USB DAC...you could control it by installing UltraVNC and VNC into it from another 'puter or iPad but I think a netbook with integrated screen/keyboard/mouse would be better...

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:09 pm

Power consumption looks good, with my previous setup consumption was 220W+ whilst streaming...the little HP unit together with display, router and drives draws 42W! ...and 36W at idle. 15W is from the router alone which I use for wired and wireless access...result!

Greg · Post by **Greg** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:29 pm

Neal wrote:Power consumption looks good, with my previous setup consumption was 220W+ whilst streaming...the little HP unit together with display, router and drives draws 42W! ...and 36W at idle. 15W is from the router alone which I use for wired and wireless access...result!

Oh I know what it's like for you. Same for me. As soon as we got those panels on the roof and generating, we became oh so consumption concious

bostod · Post by **bostod** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:47 pm

Just bought a HP t5540 off Ebay. the operating system is windows CE. What method is the best way to change the operating system. Swapping the flash memory for a hard drive appears the easiest for me then installing windows xp. I have no experience of Linux is that easy to use and install?. A simple explanation is probably the best.

the second Picture is with the coever off showing the hidden 2usb ports. the first is inside. would this be suitable to convert into a music server.

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:57 pm

Looks OK from the spec sheet, uproc is x86 based but I've no idea how it performs...could do with more RAM seems to be able to support 2Gb.

Disk drive is a good idea if you have one to hand or you could go microdrive / compact flash although the microdrives are limited in capacity and not that fast.

support page is here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... nvOID=4003

I'd get the latest BIOS on there and try it...

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:02 am

Greg wrote:
Neal wrote:Power consumption looks good, with my previous setup consumption was 220W+ whilst streaming...the little HP unit together with display, router and drives draws 42W! ...and 36W at idle. 15W is from the router alone which I use for wired and wireless access...result!
Oh I know what it's like for you. Same for me. As soon as we got those panels on the roof and generating, we became oh so consumption concious

Yep! Whole family are eco warriors now

Its been very sunny recently

ed · Post by ed » Fri Mar 23, 2012 5:33 pm

I've just been pondering and done a recap on this...

It would have been interesting to watch the ebay prices on these things over the last 2 months...the graph would likely look like 45 degrees rising left to right....

If anybody is still tempted then the max price has got to be about £55 because for that you can still buy a last gen atom board and and a micro itx fanless case........ok a bit more for some memory and a PS, but you'll likely have to buy memory for the thin client anyway......

they were good value at £15 though!

shane · Post by **shane** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 5:47 pm

These look good:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-T5710-800M ... 1c24de3ed4

bostod · Post by **bostod** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:11 am

i have just removed a sata hard dirve from an old atom netbook that doesn't work. Does anyone know if there is an adaptor for sale to make it slot into the 44pin ide flash memory slot ?

Neal · Post by **Neal** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:26 am

bostod wrote:i have just removed a sata hard dirve from an old atom netbook that doesn't work. Does anyone know if there is an adaptor for sale to make it slot into the flash memory slot ?

any good?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-Hard-Driv ... 866wt_1041

You'll need a cable as well...

audio-talk

well kept secret out

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