If you didn't need windows 7 then you could pick up a rasberry pi for less than $50, add in a USB I/R receiver (I'm thinking of one) and you've got a cheap set-up.
(2012-04-15, 14:21)pseudo7 Wrote: [ -> ]If you didn't need windows 7 then you could pick up a rasberry pi for less than $50, add in a USB I/R receiver (I'm thinking of one) and you've got a cheap set-up.
Depends on how soon he wants it... people in the first round of pre-orders are saying they are seeing estimated ship dates of May... the one I just ordered shows an estimated ship date of August.
Kinda hoping that's a very conservative estimate as I'm hoping to build a small, portable HTPC with it and one or two 1TB laptop hard drives so I can easily take a good chunk of my library with me when traveling in my RV or on my dad's sailboat. Would be so much easier and lighter than carrying my three 300 disc binders to the RV and having to find a place to store them.
... back on topic.... There are some refurbished, barebone Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11-U's on ebay for $150. If you have a spare laptop HD and memory laying around then this seems to be a really cheap option. The Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11-U is a group 4 HTPC per eskro's guide which, doesn't seem bad to me. Took me a while of looking at the list before I found the difference between group 4 and 5 is only stream netflix at SD and not HD like the group 5's.
@aconell-
Have you seen this "
Lenovo IdeaCentre Q180"? It is fully equipped (Intel 2.13GHz + AMD HD6450 + W7 64-bit) and it should be ready for XBMC out of the box......
Guess I should have clarified, I want to PUT Windows7 on it, but doesn't need to be installed. Bare bones hardware is all I need. I've got the OS.