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Hardware

Building a PC Equal to XBox for the Same Price or Less? 129

Posted by Cliff from the a-challenge-to-the-readership dept.
Lonnold asks: "Every time the topic of Linux on the XBox and/or XBox modding comes up, some one always responds, 'I can build a better PC from scratch, why waste time modding a game console?' So that's my challenge, can anyone demonstrate that it is cheaper to build a PC comparable to the XBox specs?"
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Building a PC Equal to XBox for the Same Price or Less? More

Building a PC Equal to XBox for the Same Price or Less?

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  • Impossible (Score:5, Funny)

    by GigsVT ( 208848 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:08PM (#6346069) Journal
    build a PC comparable to the XBox specs

    There's no way you could find hardware that will only run signed binaries on the open market. Only an idiot would buy such crippled hardware, and the company that came out with it would go under quickly, unless maybe they were some kind of monopoly or something.
    • That's not what the article writer is asking.

      He is asking if you can build something with similiar hardware for cheaper or the same price that's NOT crippled.

  • Um, loss leader anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ByronEllis ( 22531 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:10PM (#6346081) Journal
    Well, since Microsoft is taking a loss on the XBox hardware so you might not be able to accomplish that. Its pretty standard Gillette-style marketing practice (give the razor away and make a killing on the blades).

    Of course the 'killing on the blades' part is proving to be more difficult than they anticipated, but so it goes.
    • Don't forget that they are having these systems built with some specialized hardware (e.g. it's motherboard), which costs mad loot!
    • do you have secret internal memos from microsoft that states that, or are you just repeating the conventional wisdom?

      The XBox isn't cutting edge -- it's made from 1-2 year old components, and they drop in price rather fast.

      • I posted this in a previous dicussion when someone asked almost the exact same question.

        Q: How long will Microsoft support a platform that seems destined to be in the red for the next few years? After all, you have invested $3.5 billion on the Xbox and are still losing money on the sale of each unit.

        A: We are being smart about bringing the cost of producing the Xbox console down. We can decide to not make it a long investment business and price it to get a better return, but this is a 10-, 15- and 20-year

        • -MSFT has over $3.5 billion wrapped up in X-box so far.

          Maybe Microsoft should have named it the XBox.com

          Only a .com could piss away $3.5B in two years and have nothing to show for it one more year after that.
          • I think it would be interesting to see how much Sony used when they first came out with the PS. At that time, Sony was the new guy going against Sega and Nintendo. While a chunk of the $3.5b went to development, I'd imagine that a bigger chunk has gone towards marketing. It doesn't matter how superior the system is or isn't, if it doesn't get marketed well, it will fail.
      • No, of course I don't, and Microsoft (or anyone else for that matter) isn't obligated/inclined to report this information. The business model is simply The Way It Is Done and you are correct---the stuff is a couple of years old now and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that their loss per unit is maybe 1/2 or 1/3 of what is was originally (IIRC the expected loss per unit at launch was something like $100-$150 so that would make the loss somewhere between $30-$75 now).

        Unfortunately, Microsoft gets to buy in

    • Re:Um, loss leader anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ivan256 ( 17499 ) * on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @09:26AM (#6348743)
      Of course the 'killing on the blades' part is proving to be more difficult than they anticipated, but so it goes.

      Perhaps they overlooked the fact that blades wear out, but game discs don't. You can't trade razor blades with friends or sell them back to "Razor Stop" and replace them with other used blades unless you like pain.

      We won't even get into the fact that Gilette using existing patent law to protect their business model and didn't have to lobby congress for new protections that didn't exist to prevent reverse engineering.
    • I think a lot of people are not getting this point.

      - Microsoft is a big company who can buy in bulk
      - They are losing money on each Xbox
      - They would have used less costly hardware if it existed
      - A DIY PC will most likely not have as small of a footprint as an Xbox (yeah, leave the jokes aside).

      Many of the posts in this article fail to meet the sub $200 price, and even on top of that, they often leave out 5.1 sound AND how about a graphics chipset which is at least comparable to the Xbox? Geforce 4 MX is *
      • First sentence : "Every time the topic of Linux on the XBox ..."

        This isn't about recreating the gaming experience of the XBox on a cheap PC. It is about no longer needing to buy the $220 XBox + mod chip to run Linux.

        Hence leaving out the 5.1 sound and a uberVideo subsystem (both of which are pretty much wasted on an XBox running Linux - by and large.)
        • > Hence leaving out the 5.1 sound and a uberVideo subsystem (both of which are
          > pretty much wasted on an XBox running Linux - by and large.)

          Why would those be wasted on a linux kernel running on a video game console?
          Those piece of hardware are the REASON you are running linux on the thing in the first place.

          If you were only putting linux on it to use as a server or a workstation, then yes, but that would be stupid as hell.
          If you want a server, build a server. If you want a workstation, build a work
          • What games can effectively be played on Linux on the XBox?

            This is a serious question, BTW, and I do not know the answer.

            Heck for all I know the game of 'run Linux on an XBox' is the best game of all /grin
            • > What games can effectively be played on Linux on the XBox?

              Well since linux doesnt yet run on an unmod'ed xbox, none of course.

              Again, i said, if one knows how to program for linux, and knows how to make games, one can MAKE games for the xbox.

              Instead of reverse engeneering the xbox controller, you read /dev/js0-3 just like now. Instead of figuring out how to access the dvd through the drm chips, you just read/write to /dev/cdrom

              Right now noone can use linux on the xbox, so of course noone has made
          • Why would those be wasted on a linux kernel running on a video game console?

            No 3D accelerated drivers for NVIDIA's hardware in the xbox.

            The reason to put linux on an xbox, is to play games on your xbox.

            I agree, which is why I personally don't care about Linux on the xbox, beyond the 'Huh, that's neat' appeal.

  • form factor (Score:2, Insightful)

    by wharrislv ( 250917 )
    I'd really like to see any suggestions make specific reference to both the form factor and the noise issue. I'm imaging that the major desire to mod the xbox is that it fits in well with a home theatre landscape...its not so much the price anymore. Even though the xbox is huge (lol) its still a hell of a lot smaller and quiter and cooler than a typical cheap pc.

  • Lets see here (Score:5, Informative)

    by Glonoinha ( 587375 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:22PM (#6346170) Journal
    CPU : PIII 733MHz w/ 128k cache
    RAM : 64M
    Video card : GeForce 3ti or maybe even a low end GF4.
    Sound card : Regular ol' sound card.
    Media : CD/DVD reader.
    Hard drive : 8G

    $220 without a floppy drive, keyboard, or OS? I think we can probably do that pretty easy, or should I say yes, very easy. Probably do twice as much performance (Celeron 1.4GHz or even higher cpu, twice as much memory, hard drive space) for $250.

    • Re:Lets see here (Score:3, Informative)

      by seinman ( 463076 )
      Scratch that "regular old sound card..." the Xbox does 5.1 digital audio. I don't think your bargin bin sound card can handle that one, can it?

    • Re:Lets see here (Score:4, Informative)

      by crisco ( 4669 ) on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @12:14AM (#6346504) Homepage
      pricewatch:

      geforce 3ti: $63
      celeron 1.3GHz(*): $40
      mboard(**): $58
      64MB: $9
      20GB: $45
      Case, power: $11
      DVD Drive: $31
      controller ??

      (*)Much lower than Pentium III in the 733 to 900 range
      (**)Probably cheaper motherboads, searched for one that listed the Celeron at 1.3GHz

      Total $257

      Cheaper buying used stuff, or if you can get everything from one place, but you're going to be hard pressed to get below the xbox price unless you come across some sweet deals. You're right, higher CPU performance is cheaper. The vid chip in the xbox is somewhat geforce3 era but does some stuff that is only now showing up in pc graphics cards.


      • Total $257

        Um, does this include the cost of a Windows 2000 license? (Not sure whether or not I'm joking here...)

        • good point.

          If we're going to get nitpicky about xbox equivalancy (and I was about some of it, talking about exact graphics equivalents and the like) we have to include either the OS on the PC or the steps to get Linux on the xbox. Now that the software only mod is public we don't have to factor in a modchip if we want to run Linux on it. Now we can start thinking about labor costs - building the low cost PC we're talking about vs whatever mod we want to do with the xbox.

          I really think it comes down to

    • Re:Lets see here (Score:3, Interesting)

      by photon317 ( 208409 )

      What would really make this interesting would be if someone would make it possible to run x-box games on such a box. Assuming the same graphics and sound chips the games should almost run unmodified, would just take a little bit of compatibility layer and perhaps a copy of the xbox rom?
      • You probably won't see that happening very soon. The XBox is after all a UMA machine and is not not quite "a PC in a box".
      • I thought the whole purpose of this exercise was a cheap Linux box. The only reason a /.'er admits to buying an XBox is to a) buy something MS is selling at a loss, and b) try and run Linux on it ... you mean the XBox plays games too?

        Granted it wasn't explicitly stated in the OP, but I honestly thought the whole purpose of buying a $200 XBox (plus the cost of the mod chip) was to run Linux, particularly as one of many in a cluster (cheap supercomputer, in theory.)

    • Re:Lets see here (Score:1, Insightful)

      by zonker ( 1158 )
      i'd think you'd need a processor that had a little better memory bandwidth though seeing as how the xbox has a unified memory architecture. i suppose this all depends on whether we are talking about a machine that could run actual xbox code or a similar machine that could run games similar to an xbox. it is my belief (unfounded maybe) that the xbox is a little underpowered on the cpu end but makes up for it with its ability to access the ram and gpu very quickly, moreso than a cheap celeron and standard g
      • Having 64MB of UMA isn't as good as having far more main core memory paired with a video card with 64MB or more.

        Very few games bang on the texture or models with the CPU, so the AGP bus isn't really a choke point.

    • As somebody else mentioned, it actually has Dolby 5.1 surround sound audio, but you're also missing a controller, the OS (sure you could get Linux for free, but then you'd have the problem of only having three decent games to play on it), as well as a GeForce that does HDTV, not to mention the capability of making your DVD player remotely controllable for only $25 (I suppose this last might be doable on a PC these days, I've seen it mentioned, I just don't know what it costs or what the remotes come with).

      • Re:Lets see here (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jafuser ( 112236 )
        I thought the XBox itself doesn't have an OS installed, and that the OS comes on each disc?
      • The purpose (as I understand it) of this exercise is to see if hardware prices have come down enough that modding an XBox to run Linux is no longer profitable - meaning if we can build a machine of the same power for the same price it no longer holds the magic 'powerful machines really cheap because MicroSoft is selling them at a loss'.

        We are not trying to recreate the game playing functionality of the XBox using today's PC hardware, we are trying to recreate the Linux platform available on a modded XBox c
        • The original article said it is cheaper to build a PC comparable to the XBox specs?

          Things like Dolby 5.1 surround-sound are part of the spec, and a big part of what the device can do, so I have to disagree strongly. Also kindly note that the wicked-cheap XBox now sells for only $170, so your target just moved farther away. :)

    • Does this include a controller? What about a bundled game?

  • Including lawyers fees? (Score:5, Funny)

    by anthony_dipierro ( 543308 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:22PM (#6346172) Journal
    Is this with or without the cost of defending yourself from a DMCA lawsuit?
    • Sorry if I'm going against the conventional Slashbot wisdom here, but what exactly about building a standard PC (note the original question - comparable specs, not an exact replica) is illegal under the DMCA?

      Last I checked, it was quite easy to legally pick up a few PC parts and slap them in a case...

      • Sorry if I'm going against the conventional Slashbot wisdom here, but what exactly about building a standard PC (note the original question - comparable specs, not an exact replica) is illegal under the DMCA?

        I was referring to the potential illegality of modding an X-box to run Linux.

  • Walmart PC (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:22PM (#6346177) Homepage
    Easy:

    1. Go to walmart.com
    2. Get a Microtel SYSMAR550 PC With 1.2 GHz Duron (without OS) for $200
    3. Done

    This PC has 128mb of ram (vs X-Box's 64), a 1.2 ghz processor (vs X-Box's 700mhz), 20 gig hard drive (vs X-Box's 8 gig).

    It's worse than the X-Box because it doesn't include a monitor (where on the X-Box you can use a TV) and it doesn't have the 3D graphics. Also, it lacks the DVD drive.

    It's BETTER than the X-Box in most ways, and you could give it a new graphics card and a DVD drive, but you already get a keyboard and mouse (would cost $20 maybe + $20 for a USB->X-Box adaptor) so it's entirely possible. The Microtel also has parallel and serial ports, audio in, speakers, and it has 2 PCI slots (it would take one to upgrade the graphics) so you could still put in a TV tuner or something.

    So for $200 you get a VERY nice PC (compared to anything I have, MORE than enough to do anything including games, all you'd need is a better graphics card). Compare that to $178 for an X-Box (according to Walmart.com) and you have your comparision.

    You could do much better if you were to go for that MS pays (since they take a hit on every X-Box, as has already been pointed out).

  • Oh dear god (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nickgrieve ( 87668 )
    This is utterly pointless. Who cares?

    the x-box/Linux thing is not, and has not and never will be about a cheap PC, it about getting Linux to run on something its not supposed to.

    as for a $PC $x-box they are different beasts, one has a Mobo that does USB/RS232/Parallel/eth/etc... the other is a 3D accelerator card with a cpu onboard...

    Your asking if people can find a substitute for apple juice made from oranges.

    • You Go (Score:3, Funny)

      by blazerw11 ( 68928 )
      This is utterly pointless. Who cares?

      Yeah and anybody else who's curious about something that I and the parent poster think is boring, just don't post your questions where we might be able to see it and not care enough about your pointless question that we feel the need to point out how pointless your questions is and how we really don't care about it.

      Whatever, I don't care, it's all pointless.


      • Thanks, at this point I need to call procurement and ask for a new monitor without coffee and snot on it. Coffee stings coming out your nose, did you know that?

      • Yeah and anybody else who's curious about something that I and the parent poster think is boring, just don't post your questions where we might be able to see it and not care enough about your pointless question that we feel the need to point out how pointless your questions is and how we really don't care about it.

        Whatever, I don't care, it's all pointless.

        Good point!


        Sorry.
    • Getting linux to run on something it's not supposed to? nah, it's about "hacking". One of the cool things about Linux is it's ability to run on a variety of platforms, from handhelds to mainframes to TiVo boxes to you name it. So "not supposed to run on" is not part of the Linux vocabulary.

      Secondly, getting an x-box for $179 and using that as a cheap pc is definitely a draw

      Thirdly, the x-box does have a network interface, for online gaming.

    • This is utterly pointless. Who cares?
      Some people do, either for the sake of comparison/analysis or just feeling like taking a jab at M$ for building something cheaper than what they're selling, which DON'T require a mod-chip.

      the x-box/Linux thing is not, and has not and never will be about a cheap PC, it about getting Linux to run on something its not supposed to.

      Ok, how about the other way around? Building a cheaper XBox from readily available PC parts to run using XBox's firmware bios? To run XBox ga

  • Here are some recommendations for your comparable box.

    • Shuttle SV-25 $185: case with 150W power suppley; motherboard with tv-out; nic; audio (surround sound); keyboard/video/mouse connections
    • memory chip 64MB: $13
    • hard drive 20GB: $50
    • cpu celeron 700-1,400 Mhz: $40

    Total comes to about $290.

    An Xbox is a modified celeron 733, with 64MB and 8GB HD. Not sure about the nic built into an xbox, I have a PS2. =)

    You could also check out the walmart machines which use the VIA boards/chips and sell as low as $20

    • Not sure about the nic built into an xbox, I have a PS2.

      The XBox has a built in NIC. (10/100)

      And if you want to get really comparative you should provide RGB-out and SPDIF asd well. (It cost a little extra on the XBox to get that, but the quality is quite different.)
  • If you visit www.xbox.com its only $179 , a bit harder to beat now eh? Plus the xbox has multimedia features, a special video card for instance, that makes it ideal for home theater use. That being said, you can always build it for less at www.pricewatch.com , of course it'll be butt fugly with a nasty case, and probably not as quiet.

    • Re:Its even cheaper (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ameoba ( 173803 )
      The big problem with a modded xbox is that it's only got 64MB of memory, and you can't upgrade that. A modern desktop distro is going to want to use 128MB or more. With only 64MB of ram, the machine's not good for doing much of anything too interesting.
    • The problem is that out of the box the xbox isn't that useful, for $179 all you get is the hardware. At the minimum you'll need a mod chip which will run you about $50 + shipping, so the price is now up to $229. Also, you'll need more than the one controller that comes with it (unless you like playing with yourself!) so thats another $30 a piece. And if you want to play any games on your liberated xbox thats another $50 * # of games. The real price is much closer to $250 - $300.

  • pricewatch (Score:2, Informative)

    by enigmatichmachine ( 214829 )
    you can get a duron 950 128 megs ram, surround sound speakers, tv out, eth. modem, cdrom, 20 gig drive for 180 pluss shipping. thats identical to an x box in terms of price, signifigantly faster. and it doesn't have that ugly x box logo all over it...
    oh, and a year from now its 20 bucks to double its speed, thats a big part too.

    • Re:pricewatch (Score:3, Informative)

      by ameoba ( 173803 )
      You forgot the video; I doubt anything at that price point is going to have worthwhile onboard video, so you're going to want to drop another $50 or so to get a better GPU.

  • Try this... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    From NewEgg.com:

    * MSI motherboard w/ generic "3D" video - $50
    * Athlon XP 1700+ CPU - $45
    * Kingston 128MB SDRAM - $24
    * Seagate Barracuda 30GB 7200RPM drive - $50
    * Dynapower METIS ATX Mid-Tower /w 300watt PSU - $22
    * NEC 52x CD-ROM drive - $15

    ~ $206.

    This isn't skimping on things here - you can probably get a cheaper CPU, hard drive as well. FYI, a DVD drive is only $15 more.

    And this configuration should pretty much blow the Xbox out of the water for anything *but* games. And if you're thinking about moddin

    • Re:Try this... (Score:5, Funny)

      by KurdtX ( 207196 ) on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @12:30AM (#6346573)
      * MSI motherboard w/ generic "3D" video - $50
      * Athlon XP 1700+ CPU - $45
      * Kingston 128MB SDRAM - $24
      * Seagate Barracuda 30GB 7200RPM drive - $50
      * Dynapower METIS ATX Mid-Tower /w 300watt PSU - $22
      * NEC 52x CD-ROM drive - $15
      Realizing you don't have to make Linux run on something "just 'cause it's there" - $priceless

  • Here's the problem... (Score:3, Informative)

    by maunleon ( 172815 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:58PM (#6346421)
    PC games are made to run on a PC.. they usually assume keyboards, mice, etc. They get launched from an OS with a generic user interface.

    XBox games are made to run from an appliance-type PC.

    So, even if you were to create a PC as cheap as the X-box, unless it ran X-Box games, you would be crippled by the PC games. I may be okay with a large computer next to my TV, but I really do not want a keyboard there as well, just to launch and manage games.

  • In the spirit of recreating an xbox, why don't we also recreate a Dreamcast-like PC setup. Its development community was just about as active as the xbox's is today, plus it ran windows CE.. Its hardware specs were: - 128 Bit custom hitachi cpu (equivalent of Pentium II?) - NEC PowerVR2 Graphics card (I'm sure you can an equivalent at a used computer parts store) - 16 megs of ram - 12x cdrom - no harddrive - add on modem/network card. IMHO I think all would cost about 20 bucks, but getting it to run wou

  • Pretty darn close. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zsazsa ( 141679 ) on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @12:53AM (#6346669) Homepage
    $276 for a system specced out at Newegg.com (yes, there are cheaper places online, but none as reputable). The kicker is video - most of the posts I've seen on this thread have generic onboard video, which is easily outclassed by the Xbox. This system would have been competitive pricewise if it didn't need a GF3/GF4 class video card with TV out.

    Here's the specs. Here's a mirrored copy of the cart [polpo.org] if you feel like shopping.

    Dynapower Model# METIS CS-I3ALB.701 (Light-Blue) ATX MID-TOWER CASE w/ 300W POWER SUPPLY -2 x USB RETAIL : $22.00
    Aopen Internal EIDE 16X DVD ROM / 40X Max CD-ROM Drive Beige RETAIL : $28.00
    Seagate 30GB 7200rpm EIDE Hard Drive Barracuda V ST330013A - OEM : $50.00
    SimpleTech (Simple Technologies) 128MB DDR PC2100 - OEM : $22.00
    ECS K7S5A PRO USB 2.0 SiS® 735 SOCKET A MOTHERBOARD - RETAIL Back Plate Included : $47.00
    AMD DURON 1.2GHZ Socket A PGA Processor -OEM : $34.00
    VGA CHAINTECH A-GX20 TI-4200 64MB 8X VGA & TV-OUT. RETAIL BOX : $95.00

    Subtotal : $298.00

    It's pretty nice, but nothing beats getting a nice computer in a pretty box and with a fun controller for $179, subsidized by Bill Gates himself.

  • I'll try... (Score:3, Informative)

    by benjamindees ( 441808 ) on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @12:55AM (#6346674) Homepage
    Socket 370 Motherboard: $25 [compgeeks.com]

    Celeron 733: $32 [compgeeks.com]

    128MB Memory: $32 [compgeeks.com]

    nVidia Geforce 4: $47 [compgeeks.com]

    DVD-ROM: $28 [compgeeks.com]

    Case w/ 300W PS: $23 [compgeeks.com]

    20GB 7200 RPM HD: $57 [compgeeks.com]

    4 Channel Sound Card: $8 [compgeeks.com]

    Total: $252

    Of course, the XBox has a 5.1 channel sound card, but, other than that, this box would be superior. Not as cheap, though.
    • XBOX Controller + USB adapter cable: $30
      USB plate (to match XBOXes 4 ports): $10
      Ability to start a game right away without hassle: Priceless...
    • THat is a Geforce 4 MX; which is a crap video card. Due to marketing by NVidia the MX is about as fast as a Geforce 2. Buy a Ti
      • Due to marketing by NVidia the MX is about as fast as a Geforce 2.

        I'm confused. How does marketing cause the card to run slower?

        • When NVidia brought out the Geforce 4 they had 2 series of cards: the 440 MX and Ti cards (the 4200, 4400 and 4600). The Ti cards were (and still are) pretty fast. The differenc elies mostly in the clockspeed. The MX cards, however, are pretty much the same as the previous Geforce 2/3 things with a higher clockspeed. But NVidia called them all Geforce 4 for some reason.

    • Okay, for anyone who actually wants this system to work, it needs DDR Memory [compgeeks.com] for $23 instead of that stuff above.

      It also needs a $6 heat sink [compgeeks.com].

      And, if you want it to really be comparable to the XBox, you need a $5 network card [compgeeks.com].

  • My attempt. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MoOsEb0y ( 2177 ) on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @01:32AM (#6346842)
    Coming from newegg.com,

    METIS CS-I3ALB.701 (Light-Blue) ATX MID-TOWER CASE w/ 300W POWER SUPPLY -2 x USB RETAIL
    $22.00

    Seagate 30GB 7200rpm EIDE Hard Drive Barracuda V ST330013A - OEM
    $50.00

    SimpleTech (Simple Technologies) 128MB DDR PC2100 - OEM
    $22.00

    Shuttle Motherboard for AMD processors Micro ATX, Model MN31N - Retail (nForce2 Chipset with a geforce 4 onboard)
    $90.00

    AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.1GHz 200MHz Bus Socket A PGA Processor
    $35.00

    Coolermaster DP5-6I11A HSF
    $4

    Total:
    $223.00

  • Easy - buy a Mac (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by skinfitz ( 564041 )
    Oh no - wait...

  • Umm, the Xbox plays games (Score:3, Insightful)

    by zaad ( 255863 ) on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @03:00AM (#6347185)
    It seems odd that people are leaving out this very important fact. Sure, you can build faster PC's for just a tad over the price of the Xbox. But what you can't do on your spiffy new PC is to play the console games that you can on your modded Xbox.

    So with a modded Xbox, you get a pretty decent gaming console (with a game controller - no one seemed to factor this into their price either), a multimedia system (especially if you buy the remote), or a Linux box (probably for playing MAME games - 64MB of RAM isn't spiff-o-riffic if you plan to run X).

    This is not even mentioning the "sticking it to Microsoft" coolness factor too.

    Either way, there are reason why you might consider modding a Xbox instead of building a PC.
    • 64MB is plenty to run X. As long as you don't run KDE or Gnome, that is.
    • Maybe slightly offtopic, but I thougt people might be interested anyway. I was when i first heard of this

      64MB of RAM isn't spiff-o-riffic if you plan to run X

      Right. But if you use the XBox as a server (ie no display physically connected), you do not need an X server running on the XBox. It only runs on the client side, such as your workstation/PC/whatever.

      As long as the X libraries as installed on the XBox, it can send the windows over the network wherever you want
  • Ok, it's a geforce MX, but heck...... it's close enough and has more cpu / ram / hd than a xbox for the same price.

    $59 - Nforce Board - Has onboard 5.1 Sound/ Network / Geforce Graphics - Pricewatch.com

    $30 - Athlon 1.1ghz - Pricewatch.com

    $13 - PC2100 DDR 128MB - Pricewatch.com

    $48 - 40GB Drive - Pricewatch.com

    $151 and all we need is a Power supply. I know of a lot of cheap power supplies for less than the remainder.

  • some random thoughts on this: "..comparable to the XBox..." depends on what you mean by comparable. On specs only, it seems most posts seem to go somewhere like 30-80 over $200. If you give and take a bit, better hd, lesser gfx, you can get right around $200, plus $30 for a controller if you'd like one. xbox is now $179.99, plus $4.99 for 007:AUF rental (for software mod... assume you have a comp with a cd-bootable drive and an ide setup), is $184.98, round up to $200 after tax(8%).
    • the 5.1 sound setup -
  • These are Canadain prices, and for ease of installation I went with a non-solder mod chip.

    Here they are (PC)

    $ 99.00 ASUS A7N266-vm

    $ 45.50 AMD Duron 1.1 GHz , 200FSB, Integ 192K, Socket A, OEM

    $ 18.00 DDR 266MHZ PC2100 128MB

    $ 64.00 Maxtor 20gb 5400rpm ata100

    $ 29.95 Atx SuperCase 132 with Front USB 300w

    $ 44.99 Artec dhi-g40 16x dvd ide cd rom

    $ 29.00 Logitech WingMan Action USB Gamepad

    $330.44 TOTAL

    And the Xbox and mod chip

    $250.00 Xbox Console

    $ 90.00 No-solder Mod Chip

    $340.00 T

  • all those nifty PC with gaming power comparable to the xbox will need an OS in order to run.

    even if you go with gnu/linux, it'll nedd wineX (which costs money) or the machine will have limited gaming capabilities.
  • Walmart [walmart.com] has those under $200 lindows boxes avaialble here [walmart.com]
    • 1.2Ghz
    • 128MB Ram
    • 20Gig HD
    • CD-ROM

      • I'ts missing a couple things yes but its still a decent system for the price.

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