SamS wrote: > Has anyone thought about using an Intel fanless NUC as a software > player? > http://www.fanlesstech.com/2014/04/intel-releases-its-fanless-nuc.html > > A bit more expensive than a Raspberry Pi solution, but maybe not > extraordinarily so? And I'm thinking it would be more flexible, and > maybe easier to troubleshoot? Yes, I had looked at the NUC, and other similar mini-computers - but dismissed them mainly thanks to Steen and his brilliant (and free!) piCorePlayer Linux distro for Squeezebox.
I have just built a complete Squeezebox "Player" from a Raspberry Pi based on this for £60 ($90) including case, SD card, wi-fi dongle, power supply and audio cables. One major advantage of this setup is that piCorePlayer is pre-configured to get audio out of a Raspberry Pi - and nothing else. This means that it took about 10 minutes to build and 10 minutes to set up. An absolute doddle. If I want to make it "hi-fi" there are now supported I2S DACs and digital out cards (to supply an external DAC) that can be attached for another $50 or so. You can also go down the slightly more fiddly route of a USB DAC but support for that is rather more hit and miss. Once you have it running, it is quite possible to adopt the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" maxim and just leave it to play the music. I find that if I don't fiddle with stuff that I rarely need to "troubleshoot". Remember a NUC does not come with memory, storage or an operating system. I am assuming you are not au-faix with setting up your own Linux installations and will therefore need to buy a copy of Windows. That, of course, will need a sizeable hard drive for the OS (piCorePlayer fits on a single 1GB SD card!). I reckon, with Windows, you will not get much change from $400. Of course the resulting computer will be capable of very much more than piCorePlayer on a RPi. You could use it as an LMS server and/or the hub of a complete media center if you wanted, so it really does depend on what you need it for. With the other options made available at the moment, a NUC is complete over-kill for a simple player. If, like me, you just need a couple more "headless" players like the Receiver then the RPi running piCorePlayer is just the job. Matt http://www.last.fm/user/MJL-UK *SqueezeBoxes:* Two SB Duets (Living room and kitchen) *Server:* Synology DS111 (2TB) NAS running LMS 7.7.2 *Network:* Netgear DG834GT ADSL modem/router, Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH access point *Livingroom:* Receiver, Naim 42/110 amp, B&W CM2 speakers *Kitchen:* Receiver, Topping TP20 Mk2 Class T amp, B&W 686 speakers *Study:* Linn LP12, Naim 72/Hi-cap/Headline. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TheLastMan's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16021 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881
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