plea for help with "convergence" product

["paul gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

This might be a "little" off-topic, but I don't think its _too_
far
out...

I'm intending to build a "convergence" PC (just LOVE those
buzzwords!")

What I basically want is a state-of-the-art WINTEL PC to live in my
AV rack in my lounge, along with the hi-fi / TV / VCR's etc.. The
intention being for it to perform several functions, and replace
several other seperate boxes:

1) Games playing - replacing the Sony Playstation
2) DVD movie's - removing the need to buy a consumer DVD player.
3) Web-TV - via my ISDN line, for browsing, banking, shopping, online
gaming, TV guide, etc.. AND for accessing by home intranet which will
be the front-end for my MP3 jukebox.
4) MP3 jukebox player - replacing my current CD player.
5) Remote control of other PC's in the house via PC-Anywhere
6) Possibly some HA control as well??

The existing 33" TV will be used as the monitor, via a S-video
connection, the keyboard/mouse will be wireless, so only a base unit
will need to live in my rack. I've already specified most of the
parts, and already sourced some of them as well. BUT, my main problem
is this:

I _REALLY_ don't want a beige PC in my living room!! - I'm having a
pretty hard time sourcing a base unit that's black (I mean really
black, rather than a sort of muddy dark brown!), and black-fascia'd
drives to go in it...

So I'd be REALLY greatful if all you helpful guys and gals would let
me know if you hear about anywhere I can get any of these items:

Black DVD-ROM drive (zone unrestricted, latest 5X / 6X etc.)
Black CD-ROM drive IDE or SCSI, latest 32X / 40X etc.
Black ATX (slimline or full) desktop case (not midi/mini/full tower)

I could probably dispense with a dedicated CD drive, if the DVD drive
gives good enough audio CD playback (dual-pickup?) - the reason being
that my wife hasn't "quite" come around to the idea yet, so I've
had
to promise to leave existing CD playback functionality available
alongside the MP3 jukebox facility.

The idea would be that this PC would be 'always on' - IE available at
least as quickly as any other consumer equipment, so it'd have to
conform to the ACPI power-management spec, and the "OnNow" spec,
so a
mere press of the front panel sleep/resume button gives me a useable
computer in about 5 seconds, and I'd want to be able to wake it up
automatically by selecting the appropriate TV channel as well,
(somehow), so in practice, all I do is pick up my URC, select the TV
channel number for the PC, and after a few seconds, I see my intranet
homepage, which has links for all the services offered by the PC....

I'm not in any hurry - I'm planning on using Windows 2000 as the OS
on this machine, so we're unlikely to be putting it together until
Q4, so I'd really appreciate it if you could bear this in mind in the
coming months.

If anyone's interested, my planned spec for this machine is as
follows: (subject to change!)

Intel P111/500Mhz
128MB RAM
10GB  Wide-ultra SCSI disk
3COM 10/100Mb Ethernet card (running at 100Mb)
Creative SB Live! soundcard
RIVA TNT-2 AGP 32MB 3D graphics card with S-video out
Adaptec AHA2940UW PCI wide-ultra SCSI controller
5X SCSI DVD-ROM drive. - Black!
32X /40X SCSI CD-ROM drive. - Black!
As yet undecided MPEG2 decoder card for DVD-movies (open to
recommendations!)
Infrared cordless keyboard/mouse.

Here's hoping someone can help me.

Thanks y'all

Paul Gordon.


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